Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2024-02-12 The meeting was called to order at 19:35 by colclark. In attendance were Student keyholders: aabreu, alwinfy, amigdal, arjunjb, colclark, huydai, innaavo, jmvidal, nmorgan, psvenk, rgabriel, turino14, xy Associate keyholders: almonds, toomas Members: kbrought, lkronman, scj643, shravika Guests: Demi Del Monico, recypher Administrivia: colclark: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the actual last SIPB meeting of my term, but for real this time. [applause] alwinfy: We appreciate the work you've put in. nmorgan: Tears? colclark: No, I'm too tired. alwinfy: I'd like to allocate $380 for more chargers, specifically because these chargers like to appear/disappear at will. Specifically, I'd like to get two bricks, each of which is 165 W and has four USB-C ports, plus 8 USB-C to USB-C cables. So, you will never have to hunt for a charger again. psvenk: Seconded alwinfy: We can't white ballot this since it's above the threshold; by the way, we should amend the Constitution to account for inflation. [passes 10-0] alwinfy: Less as an administrative thing and more as a courtesy thing, I have noticed that some of the snacks have disappeared unusually fast, so I've put up a sign telling people to use discretion. nmorgan: Have you considered keeping the snacks in a drawer? psvenk: Have you considered keeping the snacks in a locked drawer? nmorgan: Locked is crazy. colclark: I think putting the snacks in a drawer defeats the purpose of people coming and just eating snacks. alwinfy: If people start actually poaching snacks, I'll escalate things, but for now I'm just saying that people should use discretion. colclark: Don't make us make you sign out snacks. alwinfy: That's rich coming from you. psvenk: Don't make me touch the sign. colclark: I want to buy a lockpick. A circular lockpick, specifically. I've come to know that there are certain locks, in the SMR and elsewhere, that could greatly benefit by having a circular lock… pick. colclark: Motion to allocate $60 for this. alwinfy: Seconded rgabriel: I think some of the keys would be orderable. colclark: Yes, but this should be a solve-all for now. almonds: How does this FTGOS? alwinfy: It lets us access technology that is now inaccessible to us. [passes 8-2-5] nmorgan: Just promise that if you are on the news, then SIPB is not related to this. colclark: But think of the PR campaign. nmorgan: You mean the recovery of our image? colclark: Last year we only got 10 hits on the Google Search console. alwinfy: You could run for Chair again. scj643: Long shot: propose Nvidia H100. alwinfy: How much would that be? scj643: It's at least a couple grand. Anyway, this is mostly a joke. alwinfy: One thing I'd like to float but not propose: on the order of $100-$150 to pick up some small-ish microSD cards and USB readers. I did a bit of looking around. To get a moderately-sized pile, that comes to $150ish. almonds: LLMs would like another 4090. I am willing to split the cost if we feel it's too high of a cost. colclark: Meaning the 4090 would spend weekends with you? psvenk: We would need to go to a divorce court. almonds: I don't want to divorce SIPB. I want to remain married happily. almonds: I think we've been spending a lot of money on snacks, and I would like to move some of that to electronics, including GPUs. HWOPS will have a discussion about what's sensible to get regarding server supplies, and we'll get back with an allocation one or two weeks from now. scj643: Modern PowerEdge would be nice. colclark: We need to allocate $500 for that SIPB dinner. Y'all that ate at the dinner, you can't vote no. psvenk: We can't? colclark: Well, if you do, it'll just float in the void since I used the PRO Card. [passes 13-0-0] alwinfy: Motion to allocate $90 for snacks. psvenk: Seconded colclark: Motion to white ballot alwinfy: Seconded [passes by white ballot] Project Reports: nmorgan: Hyades continues. colclark: SIPB Discord halts. We will use last year's SIPB Discord. rgabriel: We could do it in Python. colclark: No almonds: DormDigest continues. LLMs continues. colclark: AFS continues. psvenk: Hydrant continues. jmvidal: HWOPS continues. innaavo: OpenGrades continues. rgabriel: Docs continues. almonds: Petrock continues. We moved the server in SMR so now it's powered with UPS. Other: rgabriel: colclark, as an ASA person, do you know how to table in Lobby 10 (for pubbing Matrix group chats)? colclark: You have to go to CAC scheduling. I will send you the link. huydai: I think there's a CAC All Areas website where you have to request ~a week in advance. alwinfy: I've said this before, but just as a reminder, there is a shopping list channel on Mattermost. Let me know if there are any supplies or snacks you want, I'll buy them (availability allowing). nmorgan: Elections are closer than you think. almonds: Is MIT campus closing tomorrow [because of the snow]? colclark: We should bet, and the winner gets an Apple Vision Pro. alwinfy: It hasn't closed yet. rgabriel: I'm not setting an alarm for tomorrow. [Later during the meeting, MIT declared it was closing for the expected winter storm tomorrow, 7am to 11pm.] Other Other: innaavo: Valentine's Day is sooner than you think. colclark: Valentine's Day is not real. almonds: Valentine's Day isn't real, it can't hurt you. alwinfy: Unrelated, but we bought a bunch of lollipops after the dinner. nmorgan: Allocation or no? alwinfy: That was folded in the previous allocation. [15-minute hiatus] EC election: colclark: Thank you all for coming, whether you're running for something, you're voting, or you like to watch the world burn. Before any voting, I'll let each exec member talk about their position. colclark: I am the SIPB Chair. The Chair leads meetings (or finds someone else to do it for them), and is the public face of SIPB. Your actions, words, etc., will reflect it. Depending on how turmoilous the year is, you may have to talk to admin, contract lawyers, etc. The position comes with some baggage, but I believe with you. I do encourage all keyholders to run for it because I think you are qualified and it is a great experience. I came in as a really tired and gullible freshman, and I'm leaving really tired and less gullible. amigdal: The Vice-Chair takes care of day-to-day operations of the Board, including hackathons, overseeing all projects, and such, and when necessary is first in line to stand in for the Chair. The Vice-Chair handles technical matters while the Chair handles more social/administrative matters. xy: I [as Treasurer] basically just buy stuff for SIPB. Whenever you file an RFP, it first goes to me and then I'll send it to some guy at IS&T. I also have to track down any packages that MIT delivers to the wrong location; e.g., once they delivered a package wrongly to the Religious Activities Center and I found it. I guess that means I have a 100% success rate in finding packages. psvenk: I'm the incumbent Secretary. My job is to take minutes, like I was doing tonight. I'm not going to type and talk at the same time, because I'm old now and can't talk and type at the same time. I manage communications, I do random odds and ends stuff the chair tells me to do. Miscellaneous administrative matters, I memberize people, I take care of keyholder administrivia. It's mostly an administrative position. My words per minute, my highest is 140, but as long as you can do 100+ or even 90 you should be fine. You don't need to type super fast, I don't usually realize 140 when I'm typing. The minutes aren't supposed to be-- I try to make it seem like it's a perfect transcript even if it's not, but it doesn't have to be a perfect transcript, it just has to be a summary of the important points of the meeting. If things are going too fast, you can call a secretary halt to write things down. jmvidal: I'm a Member-at-Large. Mainly we're an extension of the EC. Typically the top 4 [officers] are the default people to go to, but Members-at-Large are mainly there as a backup for the upper four. The responsibility is just attending EC meetings once in a while. huydai: Running SIPB is a lot of work, so you'll see lots of people pitching in. Being on the EC means you get voting rights. colclark: Does anyone have any questions about any positions specifically? [no questions] colclark: Only active student keyholders can vote in this election. For each position, there will be a nomination phase where any student keyholder can nominate any student keyholder (incluidng themself). Afterwards, you will be brought up for questioning (everyone can stay in the room). Afterwards, the nominee plus non-keyholders must leave the room while we do *secret discussion* where we talk shit behind their back. almonds: Actually, we mostly struggle with the voting process bureaucracy instead. colclark: Everyone should write the name or kerb of a person or just "none of the above". If you don't like anyone, you should just run yourself or pick someone. NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR CHAIR psvenk: I nominate colclark. alwinfy: Seconded colclark: I turn it down colclark: I nominate nmorgan. psvenk: Seconded nmorgan: I accept nmorgan: I nominate psvenk. colclark: Seconded psvenk: I accept colclark: I nominate innaavo. jmvidal: Seconded innaavo: I accept colclark: I nominate turino14. rgabriel: Seconded turino14: I do not accept, but if you nominate me for Vice-Chair I will accept it. rgabriel: I nominate myself. alwinfy: Seconded colclark: Do you accept? rgabriel: I accept my self-nomination. alwinfy: I nominate myself. nmorgan: Seconded alwinfy: I decline my nomination. QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR CHAIR colclark: In order of nomination, why do you want to be chair? nmorgan: Me as president. You guys nominated a freshman as president last year; I was surprised. I think I'm a good candidate. One of my biggest strong suits is people skills, and my goal as president is to elevate SIPB's image throughout campus. This is an amazing club, and I think we need more faces in this room. I know that SIPB was a giant thing in the past, and I want it to be a giant thing tomorrow. I have not missed a single Hyades meeting yet, and I'll keep that consistency throughout my term. psvenk: Don't vote for me; I'm old. innaavo: I want to be chair because — this was also said in the keyholder election — we need to improve on outreach. With IAP cluedumps, I got experience with event planning; if this isn't the right role, I'll find another one, but I'd like to do more social events and bring SIPB more to the community. I think I'm not the most technical person here, but with marketing/social skills, I'd like to bring more of the community. rgabriel: I want to work on recruiting more members, and I want to keep and strengthen our relationships with various people, including IS&T and alumni, and give more attention to projects that have traditionally been maintained but recently been unmaintained — make sure that Scripts, AFS, etc. get maintained. I also plan to show up to everything, do everything on time, etc., etc. aabreu: We don't have a social chair, right? colclark: Chair and Vice-Chair can take or delegate that kind of responsibilities. psvenk: nmorgan, are you running for chair or for president? nmorgan: Chair. alwinfy: Do you have any thoughts on how we can better use our budget? nmorgan: Community outreach projects are something that we want to spend our budget more on. I want to bring in some alumni as well. I want to showcase to MIT that we're here and we want you to join. I think we can do that by teaching people directly and hosting fun events — you might not know much about computers, but you can still have a fun environment and learn a lot. I didn't know much about Bash and the command line coming in, and I've learned so much. I want to give others the same opportunity. psvenk: I'm old; don't vote for me. innaavo: I feel like our budget could be used to buy more electronics, as was mentioned during the meeting today. I remember coming during CPW and seeing that everything was so old in the server room. That was part of what drew me to SIPB — that there were things that could be improved upon. rgabriel: #1: more food. #2: new office heads. #3: new servers. huydai: Being SIPB hcair takes a lot of time. What are some of your commitments that you anticipate this upcoming year? nmorgan: 4 classes, 1 UROP, and a SIPB project. That's all I expect to have both semesters. I'd psvenk: 5 classes, 1 UROP... and a SIPB project. If you make me a SIPB chair, I will make time for it. innaavo: I have 5 classes and I'm with the radio station. If you give me an opportunity to do things, I will do them. rgabriel: I'm taking 3 classes and doing a UROP which should be 6 hours a week, and I'm doing SIPB. That's it. colclark: innaavo, what are the chances of you breaking your leg again? innaavo: Well, I'm going on a ski trip, but— alwinfy: —Motion to take this off the record. colclark: nmorgan, what are the chances of you double-booking a PE class again? nmorgan: Zero. colclark: rgabriel, what are the chances of you starting too many SIPB projects to maintain? rgabriel: I don't anticipate starting any more new SIPB projects. aabreu: I know one thing you've talked about is social outreach. Do you have concrete plans for that? nmorgan: One idea I have is to invite people to the office to explore, and give them tours. I see people walking by who peek in and peek back out. We can dormspam and put up flyers around W20 so that people are aware of who we are. psvenk: Make the office a more inviting place. In terms of outreach, having more dormspamming and hackathons. I think [that] was a very effective way of bringing people to SIPB. Even with the express idea of just coming and hanging out, instead of making it feel like you need to put in 10 hours a week for the club. innaavo: I agree too. When I first came here, it was very male-dominated and very scary for me to talk at first. I'd like to make this a very inviting place. Also, do postering around the hallways. We don't have that much out there. Walking through the halls, I see maybe 1 or 2, but we're lacking in those areas compared to other clubs that are advertising more. Also, CPW events. We need to get on top of that for scheduling so that the next year of people can join. rgabriel: One idea I like is having joint events with other organizations: TechSec and OpenCode, but also UI/UX and other clubs. Another club is the UA, which is mentioned in our Constitution. By having interactions with other clubs, we could intermingle more with other clubs. I saw that web.lab had a talk with 3Blue1Brown; having guest speakers that people want to see and having people come for the vibes could also be good. huydai: There are multiple positions and only one Chair, so for the other candidates, don't drop your ideas just because you don't get it. [innaavo is elected as Chair] NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR VICE CHAIR colclark: I nominate psvenk aabreu: Seconded psvenk: I accept colclark: I nominate nmorgan aabreu: Seconded nmorgan: I accept huydai: I nominate rgabriel jmvidal: Seconded rgabriel: I accept colclark: I nominate turino14 aabreu: Seconded turino14: I accept colclark: I nominate alwinfy huydai: Seconded alwinfy: I accept psvenk: I nominate colclark alwinfy: Seconded colclark: I decline QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR VICE-CHAIR psvenk: (abbreviated) I want to help assist the Chair and push SIPB's concerns forwards. I will have time to dedicate to the role of a Vice-Chair. I think I am qualified and seasoned in handling administrative matters, as the current EC can attest. nmorgan: I want to give a lot of the same reasons as why I should be Chair, but I understand that Vice-Chair is a more technical role than Chair. I will say that I will bring a lot to the position. But I know that psvenk has a lot of knowledge. turino14: Essentially, since I've joined SIPB, I've learned so much and it's been incredible. It's an amazing organization and I want it to grow more. I know that a lot of people are intimidated by SIPB and there are things that we can improve. I'll try my best to keep things going. A big reason why I declined the nomination for Chair is that I fractured my elbow and there are some things that are a bit uncertain now, but I do want to put that out in the air. I will try my best to get things done in SIPB. alwinfy: According to the Constitution, the Vice-Chair is in charge of day-to-day operations / affairs, and that's what I've already been doing, including stocking up on snacks and running social dinners as well as hackathons over the past two semesters. So, I've already been doing a lot of the stuff that the person the Vice-Chair position would be in charge of. I am very interested in seeing SIPB grow, and I had a role in getting this club off the ground after covid. rgabriel: Same reasons as Chair, except more administrative kind of stuff. I still want SIPB to grow and evolve. psvenk: Will you take us to Fogo de Chão? almonds: Rather, *when* will you take us to Fogo de Chão? alwinfy: Budget and populism willing, yes. psvenk: Yes. nmorgan: I don't see why not. turino14: It's a really good place. Demi Del Monico: What is Fogo de Chão? colclark: Comically expensive steak. almonds: It's actually worth the price if you have the stomach. psvenk: It's worth the price even more if you don't eat steak. (I'm vegetarian) [psvenk is elected as Vice-Chair] QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR TREASURER huydai: I nominate xy colclark: Seconded xy: I accept colclark: I nominate nmorgan nmorgan: I decline. I want xy. colclark: I nominate turino14 huydai: Seconded turino14: I decline aabreu: I nominate alwinfy colclark: Seconded alwinfy: I decline. I can't manage money. colclark: xy, do you want to describe your role and learning on the job? xy: I already did huydai: I don't think it's that bad in terms of work. colclark: Might be a bit less than secretary. jmvidal: Depends on how much purchases people want to make huydai: Also it's just different type of work, Secretary you need to be at every meeting. Secretary you need to manage the budget, handle different purchase systems, shipping tracking, etc. psvenk: I think it's less than Secretary. alwinfy: I'm not scared of the work; I just don't want my head on the line for money things. huydai: I nominate rgabriel jmvidal: seconded rgabriel: I accept jmvidal: I nominate arjunjb colclark: Seconded arjunjb: I decline QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR TREASURER xy: Because I know how to do the job, and yeah. rgabriel: I can do the things. I will do your RFPs within the hour if I am checking my devices. alwinfy: Real. colclark: If the system goes down and your Chair wants to buy a Brass Rat… rgabriel: Barring that the Atlas systems go down, which it usually do a few times a week. amigdal: How do you feel about embezzlement? alwinfy: Good. xy: I think it's great. rgabriel: I will only approve things approved in the minutes. psvenk: So the secretary has a lot of power. [rgabriel is elected as treasurer] NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR SECRETARY colclark: I nominate nmorgan nmorgan: I decline aabreu: I nominate alwinfy colclark: Seconded alwinfy: I accept colclark: I nominate arjunjb arjunjb: I accept colclark: I nominate xy xy: I decline huydai: I nominate turino14 turino14: I decline huydai: I nominate amigdal amigdal: I decline arjunjb: I nominate colclark huydai: Seconded colclark: I decline psvenk: I nominate colclark again. colclark: I decline again. almonds: You can't do that. colclark: nmorgan, please. You can't put alwinfy in a position of power. He'll make me give him his sign back. jmvidal: I nominate myself huydai: Seconded jmvidal: I decline QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR SECRETARY colclark: alwinfy, why do you want to be secretary? alwinfy: Because I'm the only candidate. psvenk: That's what I said at my election! [alwinfy is elected as Secretary] NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR MEMBER-AT-LARGE psvenk: Nominated and eligible candidates are: aabreu, amigdal, arjunjb, colclark, huydai, jmvidal, nmorgan, ryang2, turino14, xy psvenk: Who wants to decline your nomination? huydai: I decline jmvidal: I decline rgabriel: colclark, don't you want to decline? colclark: I'll be straight-up with y'all. I won't show up to SIPB anymore, but if you want me to be involved with EC stuff, feel free to vote for me. aabreu: It's not too much of a time commitment, is it? psvenk: You just need to show up to EC meetings once a month * remaining candidates: aabreu, amigdal, arjunjb, colclark, nmorgan, ryang2, turino14, xy double booked my dinner QUESTIONING OF CANDIDATES FOR MEMBER-AT-LARGE [no questions] [turino14, nmorgan, amigdal, arjunjb, aabreu are elected as Members-at-Large] colclark: For the top 4 EC positions, we allocated $50 for you to go out to dinner with your predecessor. This is separate from the furniture meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 21:58. Minutes taken by psvenk, almonds, alwinfy, amigdal and submitted by psvenk.