Monthly Archive for April, 2006

Minutes from HMS 98/198 Open Meeting on 4/30/06

Participants: Courtney, Sunny, Andrew, Amit, Tim, Sachini, and Mira

Agenda:
- PC
- Clinic Morale/Participation
- Community (3 clinics, socials)
- Term Length
- Non-profit
- Advisory Committee
- New small groups in class

PC
- (problem with lack of attendance, as well as dissatisfaction in regards to purpose and productiveness. Also alienating to youth and women’s since it’s at general)
- Possible solution of having a rotating PC at different clinics
- Revolving PC would allow more inclusion within the clinics
- Allow people to check out other clinics
- May be alienating/confusing but overall good – Youth and Women’s UGSI’s love the idea!
- Technically, is there the space to have it at the other clinics? On the playground at Women’s?
- Would the General Clinic Coords have time to set up if it were at youth/women’s? We’d have it Monday nights!!
- May help to increase participation
- Two fold reasoning: would expose people to all the clinics, and also encourage participation within the clinics
- Having PC at general is kind of rude to Women’s and Youth – favors General clinic and making it seem like the center of the organization when everyone is important!
- But if meetings were Monday nights, no one from a frat/sorority would be able to go… also Monday nights, Youth starts earlier, so if PC were at Women’s they wouldn’t be able to go
- Maybe it should just be somewhere totally separate from the clinics themselves?
- An offsite location would be good!
- PC should be independent so that no division gets priority
- What’s the point of PC? Are icebreakers necessary? Super PC’s attempted to get people to be more tied to PC, but didn’t work.
- Maybe PC doesn’t need to be every week? Then more people would come?
- Annoying to come all the way to General Clinic just for a 20 minute meeting
- Maybe get an oncampus room through room scheduling?

- Dr. Steinbach has offered the idea of having a separate class for Suitcase officers – maybe having a one unit class would be useful
- Have the option not to take it, but it would be an incentive and help make sure people go
- Who would decide Pass/fail though? Attendance? Where to draw the line?
- Vote of No confidence? Don’t we have one?
o Might cause alienation
o Can be used only if necessary, however its presence would be helpful
o Standard of most all student groups – vote as an amendment to policy book as it is supposed to be voted on this week anyways
- due to scheduling conflicts, may be best to have it outside of all the clinics so it isn’t affiliated with anything
- client input? VALUABLE!
- With PC unassociated with a specific clinic, would be good in allowing input from other clinics as well
- Class setting – would provide a good vibe! The boards would make it more organized and probably more productive. Also getting a unit for it would allow it to be taken more seriously
- Idea: Wednesdays 7-8pm, one unit, once a week in terms of the schedule of classes, but really meet every other week – and can just make a Wednesday the Sunshine Meeting as needed – preferably in Dwinelle, Wheeler, or VLSB?
- Allow for fewer but more productive meetings
- More plans for pc could be implemented
- The admin can facilitate it – use the process!!

Clinic Morale/Participation/Community
- will be helped through a new PC format!
- Youth needs to be more involved
- Social at beginning of semester was nice – needs to be continued

- Capture the flag!
- Last year there were more socials – partly since Cory and Ryan had a place, lent itself well
- Maybe have a position that is in charge of putting together socials?
- What about volunteer coordinator? Needs to be defined better, and not to be so much of a general clinic thing – for all clinics!
- Maybe they should have a quota of socials they need to organize per semester
- Why aren’t there VC’s for youth/women’s? the UGSI’s kind of do it
- Take advantage of the major domo list that Andrew created
- VC description – edited! Vote on at PC this week so we have it in time for elections
- Retreat! Going somewhere was nice in the fall cause we got to bond, but much better turnout doing it in Berkeley
- Maybe go away every other semester?
- Accountability is HARD
- Ideal to have offcampus, but not appropriate now considering the lack of morale
- Good idea to have the social night the night before and then on campus as it was done this semester
- Change the class requirements? By a certain point they need to have completed a certain number of caseworking nights instead of just by the end of the semester – would prevent the overflow of volunteers at the end of the semester which detracts from the caseworking experience
- PR? Need more awareness on campus – SPEAC hopes to address this
- SPEAC/SHARE/publicity group in class? Maybe need more than just one group to be as productive as possible. Would really depend on the person who facilitates the group – maybe it should be someone who’s been involved in Suitcase for awhile? Class Coords can always have a group too!

Term Length
- the 3rd semester burnout syndrome – has happened before too!
- We all love Suitcase, but the 3 semester commitment shouldn’t keep us from having fun
- Not necessarily moving it to 2, but the 3rd semester as more of an advisor type role than actively in the position
- Having a semester of training is great in theory – also with 3, counsel is inherent
- more appropriate for retreat than just now, but something to definitely think about
- may be more specific to certain positions

Recommended Agenda Items for Retreat:
- really evaluate idea of term lengths
- Advisory Board
- Non-profit
- Review today’s ideas and if they are working

there are some things that need to be decided upon immeadiately, and will be voted on at PC. Becuase of elections we need to speed up the process a bit, so read it now and we can vote Tuesday.

To vote on:
- Including a Vote of No Confidence to the Policy Book – it’s something standard to all student organizations, but something we don’t have.. basically a safety thing to have if someone is not fulfilling their position’s role
- Revised Volunteer Coordinator position description, removing the thigns that overlapped with the clinic runner position (setting up first 3 med cases) and adding that they are VC’s for all three clinics and responsibile for organizing Suitcase social events through the course of a semester
- New PC format – having a 1 unit class for all Suitcase officers, Wednesdays from 7-8pm – acutally meeting every other Wednesday, but helping to make PC as productive and inclusive as possible

HMS 98/198 Open Meeting

At the end of every semester we have an open meeting with regard to the Thursday class. This semester’s meeting will be held tomorrow at 5:00 PM in 578 University Hall. We’d love input from all of you!

We will also be having a meeting about the Suitcase Clinic organization itself has been functioning. It will be on Sunday, April 30th at 8:00 PM in 160 Dwinelle.

Sweatshirts and T-shirts

Sweatshirts (the black hoodies with the logo on the left corner of the front and the Gandhi quote on the center of the back) will cost $25, and the t-shirts (black with the Suitcase Clinic logo in white, also in the left corner) will cost $8. The shirts are men’s sizes, though we can provide a youth large for anyone who thinks the small will be too big. Last year we had mugs made – they are white with the suitcase logo in black – which are also available.

Minutes from PC Meeting on 4/11/06

Admin

  • Cal Day is 4/22, we need two people at every shift
  • Minority and Healthcare conference – 4/23
  • Trying to contact new sweater company
  • Amit is doing receipts this month
  • Elections are May 4 please notify admin if you have openings
  • Remember you must train new person

Health Education

  • Shopping for supplies last week
  • Will last till summer
  • Used most of budget

General

  • six optometry appointment tonight
  • Dinner
  • Chiropractor available tonight
  • Legal here tonight but not last week
  • Need to address SPAD invitation for 4/29
  • If you want to invite providers for SPAD email Melanie

Youth

  • Talk to church will go back to St. Marks
  • Youth good last night
  • YEAH closed but allow to use the room anyways

Women

  • Italian dinner last night
  • Dinner went well
  • Have donations for shoes and socks

Miscellaneous

  • Senate Bill 480 at 200 Wheeler – need help flyering

Minutes from SPEAC meeting on 4/7/06

Sunshine
SPEAC division has been approved, the universal health care (SB840) talk is set for Wednesday April 26 at 7:00 PM

Agenda

Schedule meeting with Berkeley mayor Tom Bates
Tuesday April 18, 10:00 AM or 3:30 AM
Discuss with them: swipes event, lockers
SB840 flyering and talk
write email alert
make flyer
next WednesdayAT 1:00 PM in Sproul
get PC to help
swipes event – organizing with homeless facebook group
Simon Chu – meet with him – Amit will call
week May 5th
table at dining commons, SPEAC banner, factsheets (myths)
picnic with homeless folks on campus
update on library (SHARE)
PK is writing first draft
once we get final draft, give to Kriss Worthington
computers
Terry Matthews – talked to her about setting computers up at clinic, she’s going to advocate for it
meeting next week: Amit and Natalie will schedule




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