General Assembly SCOPE – 28th of February, 12:30pm, ANT5125
Current members:
Andrea Grütter (Vice-President, Webmaster), Arthur Margot (exchange), Céline Magada, Chloé Manz, Christophe Santos, Ekaterina Afonina, Eliza Eeckels, Emilie Badoux, Isabelle Fasnacht, Joëlly Brütsch, Julie Schutz (Treasurer), Katharina Schwarck, Laura Simoes-Costa, Leah Didisheim, Marie Anex, Mark Iten (Secretary), Mathias Le Bailly, Matteo Diano, Maxime Roch, Muriel Salamin, Paola Rodriguez, Rodolfo Miranda Chavez (exchange), Simon Philipona, Sorcha Walsh (President), William Flores, Yannick Benisty,
OUT: Chloé Manz, Laura Simoes-Costa, Mark Iten, Matteo Diano, Eliza Eeckels IN:
Present:
Andrea Grütter, Céline Magada, Emilie Badoux, Julie Schutz, Katharina Schwarck, Laure Cepl, Marie Anex, Mark Iten, Maxime Roch, Muriel Salamin, Paola Rodriguez, Sorcha Walsh
Absent:
Arthur Margot (exchange), Chloé Manz, Christophe Santos, Ekaterina Afonina, Eliza Eeckels, Isabelle Fasnacht, Joëlly Brütsch, Leah Didisheim, Mathias Le Bailly, Matteo Diano, Rodolfo Miranda Chavez (exchange), Simon Philipona, William Flores
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Accepting the previous minutes (PV) and adopting the “ordre du jour”
a. PV:
- All for - 0 Against - 0 Abstain b. ODJ: All for
- All for - 0 Against - 0Abstain 3. Budget and Accounting
- All For - 0 Against - 0 Abstain
4. Elections
a. President (current: Sorcha Walsh): Sorcha Walsh All for
b. Vice-President (current: Andrea Grütter): Andrea Grütter All for
c. Treasurer (current: Julie Schutz): Julie Schütz All for
d. Secretary (current: Mark Iten): Katharina Schwarck All for
e. Webmaster (current: Andrea Grütter): Paola Rodriguez All for
5. Webmaster update a. Website
i. The website has now been updated, it now finally has our actual URL!
b. Instagram takeovers?
i. The idea has been floated of having SCOPE members or English department students take over our instagram during study trips. We will ask around for the next few.
6. AEL groupe de travail interassociatif feedback
a. Last semester the AEL asked us for help about getting members, not only for themselves but specifically for members of the various commissions and conseils in which students may participate, which often require at least one representative of the student body. Andrea went to the groupe de travail which was organised around this issue.
b. The Stu.De communicates in French and brought up issues of elitism in the German department.– same issues in the English department? Do students feel intimidated by English? Maybe mention that the events are not strict?
i. We do not, overall, feel like this is a pertinent issue within SCOPE events, as they tend to be very well-attended by people with varying levels of comfort in English.
ii. Our policy of speaking English is, based on our discussion during the AG, more of an asset to our members as it allows us to gain experience and comfort in English in a less formal setting than is allowed for in classes.
iii. In the English department, native-language English speakers are in fact quite rare.
c. AEL uses langage épicène – should we use it as well in case we send emails in French? Let’s use full-stops and x when for example communicating with other associations.
d. It was also mentioned that it would be good if the AEL sent emails regarding the election of representatives to various commissions. It is useful to know that these results are published on the AEL website, in case anybody is curious.
e. AEL wants to create better cohesion between the students in different departments.
The idea is to present a more cohesive front to the first years by doing more interassociative events for example, be more conscious about advertising events and communicate better with other associations (Andrea will let us know if there is another meeting).
f. The AEL such as the other associations present at the meeting encourage us to become representatives of conseils or commissions.
7. Past semester’s events: feedback a. Improv.ppt
i. Person responsible: Andrea and Paola
ii. Feedback: it went well, there were a lot of people, it was Halloween themed – what do we think about themed ppts? It was cool, not all the powerpoints were themed but there was a different framework and it was easier to create. Themes are maybe nice to freshen things up. Maybe themes so people can think outside of the box so people can come up with their own thing. We could come up with different themes and get a bit more creative. Maybe we shouldn’t always have themes to prevent them from becoming boring. A lot of people presented who normally don’t. At the end, for the last powerpoints, a timer was set and everybody only had two minutes to present and that worked really well. It was a bit stressful but you’re not thinking about what you’re saying and you just go. It brings back the energy and motivation. It was a great way to bring it back up, for sure to be repeated next time!
b. Anita’s talk
i. Person responsible: Mark
1. Last semester’s SCOPE talk went really well. Anita was happy to present on Tolkien’s philology as she had previously given a presentation on that topic. Topic and dates were found quickly, though for specific times it got more complicated to find a fitting time-slot with the new schedule.
2. A lot of people showed up for the talk and it was a good idea to book one of the bigger rooms to accommodate everyone. People were really involved and asked questions that Anita was happy to answer.
3. Anita mentioned the movie Arrival about a linguist trying to communicate with aliens. She said that she even knows the person
who came up with the Conlang they used for it. In case we have no talk one semester, we could organize a viewing for it.
c. Christmas Party
i. People responsible: Chloé, Céline, Rodolfo, Leah 1. People helping: Sorcha, Andrea
2. This went really well. Cleaning up was amazing, I don’t think we’ve ever been that efficient. There were lots of first-years and it was overall very cool.
3. Feedback:
a. Chloé: we had some issues, if you decide that you want to be in charge, please do or tell us if you cannot. It is an event that requires a lot of work.
Chloé thanks all of the people who helped and the people seemed very happy.
b. Overall: Agniezska wanted to pay Digby who didn’t want to be paid but we didn’t tell Agniezska and we didn’t know where that money was coming from SCOPE or the department à better communication.
We’re very grateful for Digby and Agniezska for always helping out. It was very good that we got the subvention from the FAE. We suppose Digby was paid through the department or Agniezska in the end. In 2021, the money from the department won’t come from the staff members anymore but the actual faculty, which will be more money. Starting from then, SCOPE will be able to ask for more. Juliette Vuille and other medievalists say that in previous parties, staff members were more involved and played music. Juliette suggested that involving more staff members will encourage staff members from other departments to come maybe. Maybe we can suggest playing music to staff members (we did in the past but didn’t ever get responses). Staff members have often suggested events and maybe we can get them to do it this year (like singing Christmas carols a couple of years ago) or Harry Potter in Scottish (though the staff members in question came up with it, we didn’t ask them).
Maybe next time we can go to Juliette before the party to talk to her about her suggestions.
d. Book thing
i. Person responsible: several.
ii. Feedback: it was so good. For a last-minute surprise event, there were so many people motivated to help, the wrapping was great, great social-media. Even medicine and EPFL students contacted SCOPE on Instagram and asked if they could come by. The books were gone in a week. The CDL teachers suggested that they can bring their students next time we’re doing an event like that again.
8. Upcoming events a. Talk
i. Person responsible: Céline
ii. Agnieszka might do it but her schedule seems a bit too tight – we could ask PHD students who are at the end of their PHD like Vincent or Hazel (Medieval). We will ask Vincent first and then Hazel – it doesn’t have to be about their PhD, it can just be a topic of interest or something they didn’t get to cover in their PhD – maybe two weeks before Easter or the week after.
b. Arrival viewing
i. The idea of organising a viewing of the movie Arrival (2016) has been floating around since Anita’s talk. If we organise it, we think it would be great to have an interassociative roundtable about it, with people from the linguistics, cinema, and English departments.
This won’t be until the autumn 2020 semester at the earliest.
c. Improv.ppt i. Paola
d. Money maker event (book sale)
i. People responsible: Katharina, Emilie
ii. Maybe write to AEL to tell them we’re not stealing their event, asking for different types of books (not just textbooks) – Katharina and Emilie will collect books over the semester, and we’ll sell them in September (without overlap with the AEL!!)
e. Karaoke 2: Electric Boogaloo
i. Person responsible: Andrea, Julie
ii. Instead GAME NIGHT. Get a big room with a bunch of board games (we can get rooms until 00:00). Maybe mid-March, there will be a doodle. We can ask people to bring games and friends.
f. Summer bevs by the lake
i. Person responsible: Sorcha
ii. Week after the 10th-11th of May. We’ll have to send a doodle, make a poster, send an email to students and staff – in case it rains we should reserve a uni space (outside of Nino territory)
g. Welcome apéro
i. Person responsible: pending
1. Addendum 11.04.2020: we should decide a person responsible by the 1st of August.
ii. There might be an interassociative apéro, in which we would definitely take part.
9. Clubs
a. Food + Poetry
i. Both people responsible (Yannick and Simon) are graduating next year so they will be leaving – we need new people responsible Muriel could potentially replace Yannick (they have their own Instagram now so the account is not SCOPE’s webmaster’s responsibility) – this semester the club will happen on Thursdays.
b. Creative Writing Club
i. Dates and responsibility will be flexible. Sorcha can only go on Wednesday evenings (but Andrea can’t) (request for subsidy in point 9.c)
c. Request FAE/AEL subsidy
i. The organisers of F+P and CWC pay out of pocket for food and drinks at each meeting. If everybody agrees, Sorcha will request a subsidy of around 100CHF per semester (there are around 5 meetings of each club per semester so this comes out to about 10CHF per meeting, which is approximately what Sorcha has been paying). People who make purchases for the clubs will keep their receipts.
ii. Alternate solutions: club members take it in turns to buy snacks.
1. Both clubs often have people coming who aren’t from the English department or even UNIL. This could change who we decide to ask to subsidise us.
10. Best practices:
i. If the person who rented the refuge is not available, association members need to be the ones to give the keys back, for liability reasons.
1. When you give the keys back, you get money, which often is loaned to the association by members.
ii. If you sign up to help for an event, please let us know if your circumstances change and you no longer have the time to help!
iii. In general, use SCOPE’s email for all association-related communications.
1. If you aren’t able to organise an event anymore, this makes it easier for somebody else to pick it up.
2. Also, it enables us to have an archive of decisions and information, which will save time in the future.
iv. Try to limit “outside” people’s involvement in SCOPE’s activities. If you want someone to reread something, for example, we have many people in the group who are willing and able to proofread.
11. Corollary to point 9.c: do we need subsidy for any other event?
a. No.
12. Team building
a. At Andrea’s or, if this doesn’t work out, Paola’s. Doodle to follow!
13. Divers
a. This is Andrea’s last AG, she wanted to thank everybody for the past couple (4!) years, and express what a pleasure it’s been to watch the association grow.
14. Addendum 11.04.2020: following the situation regarding COVID-19, all SCOPE events have been postponed until such a time as the current restrictions are lifted. We will reconvene then to reorganise our dates and maybe designate new people responsible for various activities as several are finishing their studies at the end of the Spring semester of 2020. Awaiting the return of our regularly scheduled activities, SCOPE will remain active by sharing content on our Instagram and Facebook several times a week (periSCOPE);
the Food + Poetry and Creative Writing Clubs will also continue their activities online, via the channels which are usually used for scheduling and sharing content related to these clubs (WhatsApp and Moodle respectively).