Meeting of the Branch

Proceedings

1. Present

   See above.

2. Apologies

   See above.

3. Outstanding action points and acceptance of previous minutes

   See above.

   Action Point Review

   AP9.1 Closed. Email was sent and 2 replies were received by JP. These were from members Malka Halgamuge and Ananda Kusuma. The Chair thanked Malka Halgamuge (present) for her response and informed the meeting that he had already replied to her email directly.

   Since there were not enough responses, it was decided after discussion to approach each member individually to achieve quorum. AP14.1: RP and AL to approach members personally/individually to get their vote for the constitution/bylaws.

   AP9.3 Ongoing (JW not present to give status).

   AP10.3 Closed.

   AP10.4 Closed.

   AP10.5 Ongoing. AL to have full report for next meeting. AL thinks there is one rebate available (which depends on how many members) but will find out for sure for next meeting.

   AP11.1 Closed. Responsability transferred to Syed.

   AP11.2 Done. JP: Greg Boyle (building services) says (via email) the branch can use the right hand side of the notice board on Level 2, which is shared with the Endeavour team (4th year project coordinators). The key to access it can be obtained from the general office staff.

   AP11.3 Closed. See below.

   AP11.6 Not done - ongoing.

   AP11.7 Ongoing.

   AP12.1 Closed.

   AP12.2 Ongoing.

   AP12.3 Closed.

   AP12.4 Not done. Closed since BPW is no longer in the country. See below.

   AP12.5 Open. See below.

   AP12.6 Open.

   AP12.7 Closed.

   AP12.8 Closed.

   AP12.9 Open.

   The Chair allowed some time for some attendees who had not had a chance to see the minutes of the previous meeting to review a copy. Some discussion ensued in which student paper contests were discussed. AP14.2: JP to investigate current status of the student paper contest. AP14.3: NiN to work with JP to develop email/website advertising.

   Acceptance of previous minutes

   Motion: That the minutes of meeting number 12, 2003-08-28, be accepted without modification.

   Mover: JP
   Seconder: AL
   Motion was carried unanimously.

4. Chair's Report

   JP thanked the committee for their efforts in organising the recent successful LaTeX workshop, in particular since it exceeded expectations in number of attendees, financial outcome and raising awareness of the branch with members and the Department community generally.

   IEEE Vic Section Election

   JP informed the committee of the upcoming elections for the IEEE Victorian Section committee, for which all members are eligible to stand and vote. The voting takes place at the AGM which is customarily held as a dinner. JP encouraged all members to attend. Details can be found on the IEEE Victorian Section website.

   2004 Annual Plan

   JP: Student Concourse is a bit out of date but specifies that the Annual Plan and Annual Report have to be submitted. The Annual Plan has to be submitted by November 1 each year, or two months before the start of the academic year (which is January 1 for Australia). Submitting the plan on time is also probably linked to a small payment from IEEE Headquarters.

   RMIT Student Branch and "Presentation Competition/Dinner Event"

   RMIT SB activities: JP described the upcoming RMIT student branch activities (mini-conference/dinner with a competition for best research presentation) to let the committee be aware of what's going on in other branches.

   Branch Election Cycle

   The Branch's election cycle is due to start in December, so it is necessary to start planning. Should be discussed at next meeting.

5. Financial Report

   AL described the current financial situation. The August BBQ made a profit of $45.45 including the $20.00 donation from the surplus at Charlotte Marra's farewell lunch. Currently the branch has on deposit with IEEE Vic Section: a USD $45 cheque, a USD $100 cheque which is expected to arrive soon, and possibly a further USD cheque. The last is not known why it is being given to the branch, but AL will follow this up with PW, along with the full picture on branch rebates for number of members. JP withdrew AUD $150 for the last BBQ, leaving AUD $140 with the Vic Section account. This becomes around $500 with the addition of the new USD cheque, depending on exchange rates. In total this leaves the branch's current account balance estimated at AUD $947.45.

   Source	Amount (AUD$)		Notes
   With IEEE Vic	140.00		Estimation
   Total Cash	444.45		AUD$150 with JP
   Sub total:	584.45		Estimation
   New income from HQ	363.00
   Total:	947.45

   Bank Accounts: AL has investigated the two options on campus: Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has a monthly account keeping fee of $5. This is far too much to consider. The NAB has an account with 15 free transactions per quarter with no account keeping fee. Netbank transactions count in these 15. After discussion it was not clear whether logging into Netbank itself counts as a transaction. AL to find this out. Consensus decision was made to find out if there are other (possibly off-campus) options. AP14.4: AL to investigate and evaluate:

   1. Westpac bank (Lygon Street),
   2. The campus credit union;

   and open an account with the best alternative and email his decision to the committee.

6. Standing Committees

   1. Programmes Committee

      End of Semester BBQ

      Nishaan (NiN) outlined planning/progress for upcoming end of semester BBQ, to be held Thursday, 2003-10-23, 12:30pm. This has mainly been organised - all food has been bought. The weather forecast is currently for 18 degrees and showers, so it was uncertain whether to proceed with the BBQ. It is not possible to postpone for various reasons, so the decision after discussion was to proceed anyway and hope for the best. In the event of rain the covered area near south car park would be used. During the discussion a number of those present had to leave the meeting. There was some discussion about fair prices for the BBQ. This depends on a number of factors and a number of different pricing and attendance scenarios were analysed. Some discussion of revenue sources ensued and it was decided to investigate other sources of revenue (apart from IEEE Vic Section/Headquarters and BBQs). AP14.5: Masud to investigate other sources of income such as UMPA. After discussion the following the following motion was put:

      Motion: That the price for the BBQ be set at $2 for student members of the IEEE, $3 for non-members who are students of the University of Melbourne, and $4 for others.

      Mover: JP
      Seconder: AL
      Motion was carried unanimously.
      N.B.: Those still present to vote on this motion were: BN, TT, NiN, AL, MB, SB and JP.

      Tennis championship

      Nam Nguyen, the organiser, was not present to give a report.

      Industry Interaction Project (IIP)

      Project is on hold: Bartek Wydrowski has left for the US and nothing was done before he left. After discussion it was decided to leave this project as a goal for 2004.

   2. Membership Committee

      The branch has obtained the updated membership list in a text format which needs to be deciphered and entered into a database that can be used. This should be done by RP.

   3. Publicity Committee

      The noticeboard has been obtained as outlined above.

7. Make Things Happen

   Discussion deferred to next meeting due to lack of time.

8. Other Business

   JP proposed as a branch activity showing the movie "Startup Dot Com", and briefly described the blurb of the movie. This met with general approval and will be followed up.

9. Next Meeting

   The next meeting of the Branch will take place on Tuesday 11 November 2003 at 16:00.