Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2022-02-14 The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by kjchen. In attendance were Student keyholders: bds, cjq, gshay, jmvidal, cela, wmoses, mitimmy, kjchen, huydai, jeffery, emmabat Associate keyholders: amigdal, petey Members: agrebe, ashay, markchil, cbsu Guests: '() Administrivia: kjchen: As you know, there will be an Executive election happening right after the meeting today. Y'all should be there. Project Reports: cela: HWOPS continues. We have ordered the things we talked about last week, and hopefully they will even be arriving soon! Other: cela: Elections are sooner than you think! huydai: Plus next Monday is President's Day, whoop for long weekend! cjq: President Day is sooner than you think Other Other: petey: I've been using/ abusing every platform I have to remind people that CPW is happening. It's happening in person (at least we are doing everything we can to make that happen. If you are an undergrad and are comfortable from a Covid perspective hosting a child, that would be really great. It's one of the big constraints on the number of students who are invited for CP*. Also if you are an upperclassman with experience with CP*, anything you can do to help promote and support the values of CP* and the radical chaos and student-driven atmosphere, it would be amazing. This would take a lot of effort from everyone to make sure we do this right and safe for students. If you are an SIPB member who is in some position to make that happen, that would be wonderful. wmoses *in chat*: @petey are we anticipating another caltech mug hack? 😛 petey: I don't know. I'm also a million years old and remember that happening a long time ago wmoses *in chat*: [i am old, that was my cpw!] petey: The biggest change is that we are not inviting any parents or doing any programming for any parents, which I see as an ambivalent change. In the past it's always been a bit of a pain to host events for parents; it's always been more about the students. However, having parents there also acts as a bit of a sanity check, and parents are also a big part of the decision making process. Also CPW has also allowed parents who may be unsure about MIT or didn't really know much about the school a chance to better see what the campus and student life is really like. petey: Also in the past we've had some incidents during CPW events, and I'm worried that might go up when there's less experienced upperclassmen to help run the events. I'm also not 100% sure about the process for covid testing, though I do know invited students will need to be up to MIT's status (e.g. fully-vaccinated and booster). We've communicated that info to accepted students now. kjchen: I was also wondering about campus access. Are CPW students allowed to roam everywhere? Even for current students things are getting locked for some reason at 2 AM. petey: I'm not sure yet, though things might change from now to April. People are hoping that restrictions will be relaxed from now until then. cela: I'm curious what the reasoning is for things to be locked after 2 AM. I don't know how it helps with Covid safety? petey: Not sure. *shrug emoji* cjq: Covid can't infect you without your permission cela: COVID? Just say no! markchil: Today is the 76th anniversary of the public unveiling of the ANiac computer. The first digital programmable computer. Everyone go run a Monte Carlo simulator or something. cjq: I named my first laptop Eniac. That laptop is now crumbling at the b cela: Do you *not* name your laptops? agrebe: I do not name laptops, but I do have a 2017 iMac named "Big Mac" cjq: If servers get names, laptops get names too. petey *in chat*: do you not name your laptops?? wmoses: Do servers get stickers though? cela: We have a label maker, and we do use it on the servers... cela: Do the labels from the label makers not count as stickers? cjq: No, more stickers like "IHTFP". kjchen: Anyone would like to start a SIPB stickers project, I'm all for it. EC Election: kjchen: I'll be going over the election's logistics. *proceeds to explain election logistics* kjchen: The Executive Committee is composed of 9 keyholders. The first 4 positions are done through nomination or self-nomination, and the Members-at-large has every keyholder nominated by default (unless you explicitly opt-out). The EC is like the executive board of SIPB, and members of the EC vote on major decisions for SIPB. kjchen: The Chair, according to the SIPB Constitution is: "The Chair shall preside at all meetings of the Board and of the Executive Committee, shall serve as an official spokesperson for the Board, shall guide the long-term planning of the Board, shall ensure that the duties of the other officers are completed in their absence, and shall ensure that all elections proceed fairly and according to the proper procedure described in this Constitution." kjchen: Next is the Vice-Chair, who "serves as an advisor to the Chair and shall be in charge of the general operations and daily affairs of the Board, including delegating responsibility for the upkeep of services and resources. The Vice-Chair shall assume all responsibilities of the Chair in the Chair’s absence". There are a few things that are Vice-chair specific, but vice chair also shares a number of major responsibilties with the Chair kjchen: The Treasurer keeps track of how much money we have. The formal responsibility is the treasurer "keep accurate records of all financial dealings of the Board, and shall serve in an advisory capacity to the Chair and the Board in matters pertaining to financial policy". kjchen: The Secretary "shall keep records of all meetings, shall direct all necessary correspondence and contact information, shall be charged with maintaining general office records and files, and shall keep records pertaining to the current active or inactive status of all members". In general, the secretary is responsible for taking minutes at weekly meetings and sending out those minutes and keeping track of active keyholders. kjchen: In addition to the four members above, there are the five Members-at-large. They are to "serve on the Executive Committee in advisory and voting capacities''. These are people who are on the EC and are able to make decisions in executive meeting wmoses: Within the EC people take on a relative distribution of tasks, and people can delegate responsibilities. The constitution gives these guidelines and these worst-case scenarios, but the EC is still a group of people and is much more fluid in how they want to go about fulfilling their EC responsibilities. (appendded on by emmabat) kjchen: If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Also we'll be electing people in the order that the positions are defined kjchen: Would anyone like to nominate other people or themselves for Chair? wmoses: I nominate Kelly kjchen: So here's the thing. I'm looking to graduate this semester, which means I will not exist as a student anymore. In the worst-case scenario I will do it, but I will prefer not to do it. So I will conditionally accept the nomination cela: To be clear, if we elect Kelly as a Chair, we'll need to elect another Chair when Kelly graduates emmabat: This is an ASA requirement. Also Kelly you should talk about the responsibilities of the Chair kjchen: One of the great perks of being the Chair, and you can refer to past SIPB furniture for advice. It's not like you get to be the chair and it's like "Goodbye, I hope you don't burn things down". The chair or any member of the EC also does not have a technical background. It's more about interfacing with people and ensuring things are on track. I've personally not work on any technical SIPB project as Chair, so I would not let be a factor that prevent you from emmabat: Also SIPB is a ship that runs itself, technically speaking, so it's the Chair's job to help steer the ship and make sure it's not running into any rocky shores. If you are looking to get leadership experience, the projects often run themselves, so it's very enjoyable . You certainly won't set it on fire huydai: I tentatively decline kjchen: I would like to nominate Justice jmvidal: I accept wmoses: I would like to nominate bds. bds: I cannot. I am too busy with SIPB stuff I decline kjchen: I will like to nominate Julia jnwagner: I decline on the premise of graduating jmvidal: I no kjchen: I nominate cjq cjq: No. wmoses: I nominate Emma. emmabat: I have to decline. I'm already on too many leadership roles and cela: I nominate Billy wmoses: I decline kjchen: I nominate amigdal amigdal: I decline because I'm not a student wmoses: Doesn't mean they can't be nominated and decline. kjchen: Any other nomination for chair? wmoses: Anyone we didn't nominate? I nominate petey petey: Billy, I will fight you. kjchen: Petey this is a fantastic opportunity for you. cela: It would be nice if we have some semblance of democracy in the election. wmoses: I nominate Cel. cela: I will have to decline, sorry. jmvidal: I don't know how much time I will be able to put into being a Chair. wmoses: Sounds like you will need to encourage your Vice chair to help out with the things emmabat: Yes, the power delegation allows for it to kjchen: I nominate gshay, though I do not know if you are graduating gshay: Ah, I'm a senior emmabat: If I recall Shayna and Kelly did reach an impromptu agreement of Chair and Vice-Chair kjchen: Because I am one of the people who is in the election I cannot handle the voting logistics. Bds will you be able to do that? bds: So would anyone of our logistics like to go kjchen: Hi everyone, I'm Kelly. I'm the current SIPB chair. I would say I'm the emergency food stockpile chair. Thank you. jmvidal: Hi, my name is Justice and I am a junior. I'm running because I haven't completely hosed myself yet and I think it would be another step to get involved with SIPB. bds: Does anyone have any questions for our two candidates? wmoses: What is something you would like to see SIPB do in the coming year? kjchen: I think I would like to see SIPB restart some of the physical projects that we've put on hold because of Covid. I think just having more of these events would help get more involved with the things that SIPB does. Also I'm hopeful about the Covid situation relaxing on campus so jmvidal: I mostly echo that sentiment. I think we should have more hands-on projects. cela: Do you consider yourself good at talking to people? Because you will be talking to a lot of people as Chair. kjchen: I think generally this is fine. There are a variety of different things you do as chair, such as talking to people and talking to cruft. I think one things good to know is of the history of SIPB and what we've historically done as a club, though that is something I can help transfer on jmvidal: I think this is one things I can handle but it's also something that I can work on and improve with more experience wmoses: It's also important as a club that we are able. Is there anything you might do to encourage people to come to SIPB and/or stick around? kjchen: I would restart the button maker project so I would give people a button when they first come to the meeting. I would then tell them to come back to get more elusive buttons. On a more serious note, I think a lot of the time people don't stick around because they are intimidated by the club. It's not easy to see how one can stick around and contribute to projects. With that, I think it would helpful for us to help decrease the initial factor and find ways to jmvidal: I would say you would have found things that interest them. maybe having a poll or something to gauge people's interest in the club and also finding ways to incentivize people to come back to the meeting. kjchen: One of the main questions is "Why do you want to be Chair '', and my main feelings is that I want for SIPB to continue having a chair and to have people in leadership who can help the club going. jmvidal: I would also agree with you there. cela *in chat*: My hot take re: membership is that the problem is that we have to shift the dynamic of our projects from "people who want to join have a responsibility to the project" to "the project has a responsibility to the people who want to join" wmoses: Given the option of getting attacked by a cluster of 100 raspberry-pi sized servers or 100 server size raspberry pi, which would you prefer? kjchen: I would take a 100 of the little guys since there's no stipulation when these attacks occur. I would maybe trap them in a cup and at the end of the 100 days I would have a 10x10 grid of these little guys jmvidal: I would say 100 of the server size raspberry pis, since that would be more useful in real life. cela: Do any of our candidates have questions for us? kjchen: My question is how do you feel attending a SIPB election? emmabat: That's the experience I seek in my life, which is the experience of being a little unhinged. That's it. bds: What is your favorite chair? kjchen: My favorite chair is Emmabat because that's my babe. jmvidal: My favorite chair is the one at the mall with cup holders and massage features. wmoses: Someone just used the SIPB stapler. [closed meeting] Voting results: 8 for Justice, 1 for Kelly, 1 abstain kjchen: Congratulations Justice on the new chair. Nominations for Vice Chair? wmoses: I seconded huydai: I accept wmoses: I also nominate bds. bds: I decline. I nominate wmoses for Vice-Chair. I also see what you did there cela: I nominate mitimmy mitimmy: I decline cela: But being Vice-Chair is so fun! wmoses: I nominate gshay. gshay: I'm still graduating. I decline bds: I nominated Kelly cjq: I decline. I nominate Jeffery wmoses: Do it! cjq: Silence means yes? *implict no* kjchen: Any other nominations for Vice Chair? kjchen: Huy, would you like to also go up and give your reasons on why you want to be the vice-chair? huydai: if somebody can help take minutes that'd be great. oh cj, yes! huydai: what i really love about sipb is a vibrant community of amazing and like-minded people who want to help make mit a better place. i see the history of sipb. we have a unique interaction with cruft and ist and we touch the whole surface of mit. for me, it's really important to help keep that going. i think the issue we face is partly due to covid. i don't want that to stop this amazing club from going. i will do what i can [as vice chair] to help bring more students to the club and help make it a less intimidating place. there's lots of things sipb does that i'm not aware of or understand, but i will reach out to previous chairs and ask questions. i was concerned that i don't know enough about sipb to run it, but i think i can grow [into it]. kjchen: any questions for huy? cela: what is your favorite vice? and what is your favorite chair? huydai: i really like billy. billy has very… enthusiastic personality. i was very enraptured with it when i joined sipb meeting. vice chair… emma was also vice chair? i only know vice [the news company] and i don't like them too much. cela: [explains what a vice is] huydai: as a tetazoan i would say sloppiness, as our hallway is *not* clean. In terms of chair, I kinda like my chair. it sheds a whole lot, though. cela: what's your opinion on servers? huydai: think they're really cool. lots of things you can run on them. we bought our own $500 server for another club. would like to get more into server management. it's not something i've had access to in the past, but the computing power they have, it's cool. cela: as vice chair, you are responsible for sipb projects. what should we do to make them more effective, especially in onboarding and retainment? huydai: when sipb has a lot of projects that need people to maintain it, it can be a very hard job, as people need to regularly attend meetings and take those kinds of things on. i think the main thing is being able to cultivate passion in those meetings. if people are passionate about it, they'll keep going about it. [we need to] find a better way to communicate what working on projects are. some formal system for finding new members… people in charge of projects don't realize they need to [recruit]. [closed meeting] Voting results: 9 yes, 1 abstain kjchen: we're now doing nominations for treasurer! i nominate bds. bds: I accept kjchen: I nominate Billy wmoses: I decline kjchen: Any other nominations for treasurer? wmoses: I nominate jeffery jeffery: Decline huydai: I nominate cj. cjq: No. kjchen: Bds, would you like to say a few words? bds: I've done this twice, and I haven't driven SIPB wmoses: How would you differ from previous year's treasurer? bds: I would not do anything different, which ideally, is a good thing cela: What's your opinion on embezzlement? bds: I think it's something that should not be in as a reputable organization of MIT. bds: Embezzlement bad. huydai: Doesn't this contradict what you said before about embezzlement in the election last year? If I remember correctly you were all for it. kjchen: What do you say to voters concerned about you flipping your stance on this issue? bds: I would say ABSOlutely not. It might be a difference in word but not action cela: What's your opinion on cryptocurrencies and NFTs? bds: It's the same as my opinion on embezzlement, which is bad. wmoses: What if you were to receive free crypto? bds: Bad. wmoses: If elected treasurer, would you fill out the form getting us free GPU from Nvidia? bds: Yes if necessary kjchen: Favorite treasurer? bds: Favorite treasure is probably a pot at the end of a rainbow. Sellout answer is comput-er. bds *sarcasm*: I cannot believe this accusation towards me. I cannot cela: How should SIPB diversify it's income stream? bds: Go begging other MIT organizations for money. bds: More seriously, I guess that would depend on the situation. Also, for people who don't know, we get our money from IS&T rather than the more usual ASA. In the past SIPB has gotten funding from other organizations for specific projects. So if we are looking to get more money for other sources, we'll need a concrete project that warrants additional income. huydai: Favorite reimbursement? bds: That's a good question. Probably not a single reimbursement but during the MIT minecraft hackathon, there were 15 RFPss coming in every day, and there were so many RFPs that I handled that it made me feel really important that day. Voting results: 11 yes, 1 abs, 0 no kjchen: Congrats bds! Definitely better than the last guy kjchen: Any nominations for secretary? I nominate Billy wmoses: I decline. I nominate emmabat emmabat: I decline, on the virtue of having a meeting at 8:30. bds: I nominate cj. cjq: Fine. huydai: Seconded wmoses: If no one else join in, I will join voting pool gshay: I decline the nomination on behalf of Billy kjchen: See? The power split in the EC can be *whatever* you want it to be. CJ, would you like to say a few words cjq: I'm running because it doesn't seem like anyone is. I will probably try to make it to meetings. wmoses: How would your minutes differ from your previous person? cjq: It won't. I will proceed to write in undercase wmoses: Will there be emojis of memes? cjq: Good question. I refuse to elaborate bds: What's your WPM on Typeracer? cjq: I will check right now. cjq: Uhm, 121? emmabat: Do you prefer the loud mechanical keyboard or the quiet ones? cjq: IRUY@I$J JRFPOI# $IORJOI@UOI$UUORIWU emmabat: Okay thank you. wmoses: Will you revitalize the SIPB Twitter? cjq: We had a Twitter? wmoses: There is @sipb. There's like 700 followers. Last posted in 2016 emmabat: Probably right before I became Publicity Chair wmoses: The last post is an event which you were the publicity chair for emmbat: WHo dId tHis? cjq: You know, it sounds like we have a lot of people enthused about the SIPB twitter, so I delegate my roles to Billy wmoses: Wait, but i'm running against you wmoses: Bureaucracy at its finest kjchen: Suppose you need to press Control Alt Delete on a keyboard. How would you do so? cjq: I also keep it on my person a Control Alt Delete presser. I would take it out but it's not on my person right now. cjq: Well I think our previous secretary did a wonderful job with keeping the files in the office organized, so my plan is to make sure no one else touches the files in the office so they stay organized. wmoses: Will the minutes be put on the blockchain? cjq: It will be put on the blockchain and we'll be publishing a new NFT for every bds: Don't you think this will encourage behaviors of people trying to say weird things in the meetings to drive up minutes' value. emmabat *sarcasm*: I can't think of a single bad consequence to NFTs [closed meeting] Voting Results: 10 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain kjchen: Congrats CJ! kjchen: We'll be moving on cela: I would like to opt out. kjchen: This is list of people nominated for member-at-large: wmoses, kjchen, emmabat, gshay, mitimmy, jnwagner, jeffery kjchen: List of definitely non-graduating people: emmabat, wmoses, gshay, asahteck Voting Results: wmoses, gshay, asahteck, kjchen, emmabat elected as Members-at-large kjchen: Congratdolensces to the new members at large: wmoses, gshay, asahteck, kjchen, emmabat kjchen: This concludes our voting minute The meeting was adjourned at 22:02. Minutes taken and submitted by huydai.