OTSC Meeting Agenda & Minutes 9-22-14

Occupational Therapy and Science Council (OTSC)

MEETING AGENDA

September 22, 2014

Greetings and Salutations

Internal Business:

I) Agenda format and updating:

• If you have an update, please write exactly what you want to be included in the minutes. For discussion topics, there will be a set time to go over the topic, usually about 5 minutes.

II) General professionalism and etiquette:

• Emailing: Everyone may use the email, but be professional. Identify yourself and your position on OTSC.
• Be sure to check back into the inbox for responses. Everything can be seen by everyone on the council. Do not send out unnecessary emails.
• Listserve Emails: All emails go to Jordi Oshiri, and she approves everything. This is usually done on Mondays. If you would like to have your email sent at a separate time, you may want to send it to Jordi on Thursdays.
• Dr. Pitts raised the possibility of limiting the number of emails to only those from the Division. The council discussed this. What questions do we have about this plan? Yasi will create a google doc to collect the council’s questions. Dr. Pitts will let the faculty know that OTSC is discussing this.  
• Creating OT Student Organizations: The creation of new organizations by OT students must be under OTSC. It is the umbrella organization for all OT organizations (i.e. PTE). These organizations would have to access funds through OTSC. IF you would like to create an organization, talk to Dr. Pitts and Dr. Rafeedie.
• OPTION 1: The organization will be open to students in other divisions.
• OPTION 2: The organization will exist as a committee under the umbrella of OTSC.  
• OPTION 3: The organization will only be open to OT students, and will seek GSG funds through OTSC.

III) How to email from OTSC

• Gmail account: otsc.usc@gmail.com Keep the password private. This includes duties for each position, contact information, constitution, and minutes for all meetings. Ask a second-year if you need any help.
• Email lists:
• First Years (OTYear1-L)
• Second Years (OTYear2-L)
• OTD (OTOTD-L)
• PhD (OTPHD-L)
• If you would like an email to go out to faculty, please send it to Dr. Pitts or Dr. Rafeedie.

• OTSC Calendar: This is embedded into USC OT website and is public information. Please insert upcoming events here.

IV) Meeting dates and locations for the semester:

• Monday, September 22nd at 5:00 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. in CHP 109         
• Monday, October 6th at 5:00 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. in CHP 109
• Monday, November 3rd at 5:00 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. in CHP 109
• Monday, November 24th at 5:00 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. in CHP 109

V) Please be aware for meetings that the building automatically locks at 6pm, when you leave after 6 you will not be able to get back in; DPS contact numbers:

• (323) 442-1200 (Non-emergencies)
• (323) 442-1000 (Emergencies)

VI) Spring 2013 Meetings, location TBD

VII) Not limited to just your role

• Create committees

• Feel free to recruit others to help out! Everyone is welcome to come to meetings and events.

VIII) Council Duties by Position Google Docs

• List important contacts, steps taken to achieve _______, sample flyers, etc
• Create a subtopic under “Council Duties by Position” googledoc
• Edit as you go! Don’t wait until the end of the year.  

External Business:

• Fund It Forward: Dr. Rafeedie shared with Yasi that this outside organization funds medical equipment for families that cannot afford it. We could put on a fundraiser to support this organization. Visit the website at http://www.funditfwd.org/ to learn more about the organization.
• Should we allocate a percentage of funds raised to this organization and others like it?
• Amy asked whether we should collaborate with other student boards (i.e. PT)
• The Philanthropy Chairs will look into this and report back to the council next month.
• First-Year OT Representative for the Student Health Center: Kristy Seaver talked about her role as the representative for the Student Health Center. There are about two meetings each semester that cover a number of topics related to the Student Health Center. Email Kristy if you are interested: kseaver@usc.edu
• Interdisciplinary Health Fair via Pharmacy:

Council Items:

1) AOTA (Phillip & Ann):

Update:

• Ann had an excellent time representing us at AOTA’s Hill Day on September 15th, during which 550 occupational therapy practitioners and students made nearly 200 visits to legislators on Capitol Hill. Their efforts yielded many new cosponsors for the Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act, which would permanently repeal the Medicare outpatient therapy cap. AOTA member outreach on Capitol Hill helped increase the list of cosponsors to 220, a number that represents more than a majority in the House of Representatives.
• If you would like to be more involved in AOTA, contact Phillip about AOTA Assembly of Student Delegates (ASD). There is a steering committee that students can apply for in October.

2) BS Representative/Ambassador Representative (Kayla & Jen):

Update:

• Jen has contacted the BS to MA 1st year students to introduce herself as the BS to MA representative in order to open communication channels with these students to share about their experiences/concerns.

3) Faculty Liaison (Kristy & Doug):

Discussion:

• Medical Spanish Course: Kristy led a brief discussion on about pursuing a Medical Spanish elective in the Fall. There is currently a primary care elective offered in the Fall, and that is the only one. It was offered to the first time this past Spring. There is no course on the size of the course. The council was supportive of the liaisons taking this to the faculty.
• “What to Expect” Brochure: We would like to create something for incoming students regarding Kinesiology and Neuroscience. Feedback from the council was mixed. This discussion will be continued.

4) Fundraising (Lori & Amy):

Discussion:

• Suggestions for how to send out designs for class & staff voting: Talk with classmates about getting feedback about T-shirt designs, bags, etc. We’ll send out survey for feedback featuring designs. Please talk to us if you have any ideas regarding fundraising.
• Coordinate events with Social Chairs to raise funds
• Thoughts on future donations? Establish annual donation amount?
• Started about $1000 ahead of last year (at about $7400 currently). End of year party costs about $5000 (made back by ticket sales).
• Vote on whether to donate to external charities. The council votes yes.

Update:

• OTSC donated $238 to the USC Joint Education Project (JEP) program.
• Estimated Merchandise Timeline
• OT Logo Designs for shirts and other merchandise due Wed, Oct 1st by 7:00pm.
• Voting on Design deadline is on Wed, Oct 8th
• Presale orders for merchandise from Thurs, Oct 9th - Tues, Oct 21st

5) GSG Senator (Cindy & Patience):

Update:

• Travel grants are available for the upcoming school year through GSG.  
• For graduate students presenting original information at conferences
• International travel - up to $1000 per calendar year
• Domestic travel - up to $500 per calendar year
• Up to 3 months to process reimbursement
• HSC Concerns Committee
• Subcommittee for GSG Senate (all HSC students welcome)
• Meet 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month in the Seaver Cafeteria
• http://gsg.usc.edu/campus-tag/hsc  click on this link for events related to HSC
• Cocktail Hour at The Edison - Tuesday, September 25th from 5:30-7pm w/ free appetizers for students

6) Historian (Leila & Heather):

Discussion:

• Heather has become one of the Admin’s for the FB page: OTSC Trojans and Instagram: otsctrojans
• OT Calendar: This could be a fundraiser for students to purchase. We would have to come up with a reasonable price.
• Would like to get some feedback on this idea
• Cohort Picture Day
• Dates TBD for first-years.
• These were put up on the cohort’s facebook page, and it was a nice momento.
• Videography
• Leila brought up that there is interest in capturing video footage from events to incorporate in the slideshow at the End of the Year Party.
• Instagram: Please use our account.

7) International Affairs (Monica & Sarah):

Discussion:

• International pen pals: Sarah asked for any suggestions from MAI students and contacts.
• USC is becoming increasingly global. Students may benefit from email communication with OT students in different countries (English speaking countries to begin with). This may allow increased interest in the international aspects of OT. There was significant interest in the idea. We’ll discuss this idea with Dr Halle and the fieldwork coordinators.

Update:

• Working on figuring out a date for International Forum

8) MA-I Representative (Chad & Bindi)

Discussion:

• Chad discussed having spoken to other MA-1 Students in regards to possible activities to join all cohorts together.  Some suggestion were have a couple different activities together (i.e. a movie night, a game night, poker night, or a sports competition (something like soccer or volleyball where both guys and girls will be ok getting involved in) either within the different years or across disciplines (OT’s vs PT’s or Pharmacy etc- and have medal or small trophy for winning team) - Feedback on these ideas? This could be done in collaboration

 

9) OTAC (Carlos & Jodie):

Update:

• 38th Annual Conference in Pasadena, October 16-19, 2014
• Early Bird Registration for students ends October 5th. Price will increase from $149 to $209.  
• Volunteering is a great way to get to know leaders in the In order to volunteer for conference, anyone who is interested should:

1. Locate and complete the volunteer form on the Annual Conference page at otaconline.com.               http://www.otaconline.org/images/stories/pdfs/conference/2014_volunteer_formlink.pdf
2. Volunteers must be current OTAC members
3. Volunteers will need to register for conference for the days they would like to help out.                     

10) OT House Liaison (May)

Update:

• Have contacted OT House students, faculty live in (Professor Neville-Jan) and RA (2nd year OTs) to let them know that I am the OT house Liaison and that my door is open if they have any questions, concerns or suggestions.
• Engage informational session is on Wednesday 9/24/14 5pm-7pm at the OT house.

11) Philanthropy (Jonathan & May):

Update:

• October 11th at 10:00 AM at Grand Park there is a NAMI Walk to fundraise, advocate, educate, spread awareness, and support people with mental illness and their loved ones.  This is currently being planned through the Mental Health cohorts and the NAMI Walk committee members.  Information has been posted through facebook, presentations and fliers to come in the following weeks.  For anyone who is interested in walking or donating, please follow this link!  https://securewalks.nami.org/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx?TeamID=569174#&panel1-1.  The goal for this year is $1,500.
• October 27th is OT Global Day.  More information to come at the next meeting.
• Currently creating a list of organizations to partner up with for ongoing volunteer opportunities.  Please let us know if there are any organizations you have in mind or would like us to try to connect with!

12) Professional Development (Karen & Rachel):

Update:

• Karen & Rachel are sending out e-mail to faculty this week to determine availability for events. They will kepp us posted.

13) PTE Representative (Yasi):

Update:

• First PTE Mentor-Mentee Lunch is on September 22nd from 12-1

14) Secretary (Leah & Kate)

Update:

• As Maggie, Yasi & Kayla mentioned in their email: If you have an update, please write exactly what your update is with important details. That way it can be included in the minutes and posted on the blog. Thank you!
• Be sure to include dates and times for OTSC events so that we can add them to the calendar and make sure they make it onto the Division calendar as well.

15) Social Chair (Kristin & Jen):

Discussion:

• 11/08 Health Fair with Pharmacy @ Sheridan Elementary around 9AM-1PM (direct to professional development)
• Pharmacy wants to know if we would like to contribute. Last year we had a table set up with information about OT.
• Wear your white coats.

Update:

• 09/27 Tailgate with pharmacy for USC vs. Oregon State

16) Treasurer (Molly & Maybelle):

Discussion:

• All funding opportunities will come to a vote before council, please allow at least 2 weeks to gather more information.
• Please submit all receipts to Jordi and a copy (or photo) of receipts to Maybelle and Molly
• Please plan ahead because unanticipated costs are not budget friendly.
• Most funding is done through reimbursement instead of prospective payment

How does GSG funding work?

• If you want to receive funding from GSG for any event, please fill out the funding request form here:
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ag7w3S_qlNGkHOJASFngbc1GakYp5FpCunvKgj IrUJA/viewform

• It takes approximately 4-5 weeks to obtain funding for events, so please submit the requests EARLY
• The Treasurer submits the proper forms to obtain the funding from GSG, other members do NOT do this, so please communicate with the treasurers to get your funding from any source
• If you need help finding a vendor (restaurant, office supply store, party store, etc.) for the items you need for the event, here is a list of commonly used, approved vendors by USC:
• http://sait.usc.edu/stuorgs/forms/CommonlyUsedVendors.pdf
• If your vendor is NOT on the list, please let us know so we can contact purchasing and ask for approval or see if they are already on the vendor master list