MLIS Student Governance Organization
November 9, 2009 – 5:30-6:30pm – CdC 005
Meeting Minutes1. Committee Updates
a. Recruitment
i. We first discussed how we can effectively recruit new people to join SGO. We think that a personal invitation (by students but more likely from faculty) would give people the extra nudge to get involved. We would like to talk to the faculty to get each to invite at least one person. We also can use SGO social events to give personal appeals for membership (like the Winter Social Hours before class). Laura Clark will also update the blog regularly (adding minutes and agendas) to tell people about what we are doing and to show that we are an active group.
b. Open Positions
i. Still need someone for the Finance Committee. Also, faculty putting together chapters for the Accreditation still need students for Chapter 1 (Mission/Goals) and Chapter 5 (Administrative/Financial Support).
c. GradBoard Update
i. The GradBoard met last month and we discussed a lot about what we could all do as a grad student community at St Kate. There seemed to be some interest about bringing in a speaker that all students would be interested in hearing. Other ideas were research days or workshops for all grad students.
ii. Brigette Marty (bmmarty@stkate.edu) is the GradBoard coordinator.
2. Accreditation Efforts (Presentation by David Peterson; MLIS student)
a. David came to speak to SGO about his efforts (working one day each week with Marilyn Cathcart, the department, and Dean Colleen Hegrenes) to work toward a successful accreditation bid next year.
b. He sees his role as promoting a “student-centered” accreditation process with lots of clear communication to students about what is going on in the process. One of his goals is to do everything possible to assure that everyone who has gone through the St Kate MLIS program has an accredited degree.
c. He did some research about the “look-back” period for the accreditation and found that ALA actually has a generous policy compared with other professional accrediting bodies.
d. Deb Torres told us that one of the biggest changes in the presentation this time is showing systematic collection of data, then analyzing that data, making decisions based on the outcomes and then documenting why decisions were made.
3. Budget Report
a. Brief report to say that we are still doing very well and had a successful SGO Speaker Event (with Andras Reidlmayer), which did not cost too much.
b. Tanya will follow up with Andras about his speaker fee and reimbursements.
4. Transition of old/new SGO and Information Storage
a. Tanya has added all her SGO-related documents to the Google Docs site. She will also transfer everything off the Moodle site, so that it can be retired.
b. Brigette Marty (GradBoard Coordinator) has passed along some questions to foster institutional memory and event planning and follow-up. They have been added to the “SGO General Docs” folder in Google Docs.
5. Winter Cookies Nights
a. This event should be coordinated with Marilyn Cathcart for the first week of classes in the Winter semester (NOW IN FEBRUARY).
b. We had 3 sessions each from 5-6pm on class nights. The idea is to get people when they are there for class anyway and get people to talk with classmates outside of class time.
6. Form committee for next SGO Speaker
a. This should happen early Winter semester – so that we can work with a longer timeline than we had for this year’s event.
b. We should contact St Kate’s Media and Communication office at least 6 months in advance to help promote our event.
c. Brigette Marty (bmmmarty@stkate.edu) is a good resource for planning; also check out the “Events” Folder on Google Docs.
7. Upcoming Events:
a. Next SGO Meeting (Last of Fall Semeter) will be Dec. 7th from 5:30-6:30pm.
This October SGO hosted a social hour at the Minnesota Library Association meeting in St Cloud, MN. We had over 20 students, St Kate's alums, and friends attend the gathering in the Raddison Hotel! 
