2010-08-23: Students and Young Professionals Meeting in Seattle

Attendance

• Andrea Emberly (co-chair)
• Alicia Altass (co-chair)
• Rayna Friendly
• Christopher Roberts
• Judy Plantinga
• Hans Utter
• Sylvain Lamesch
• Rita Bento
• Marju Raju
• Lisa Chan
• Yohana Leveque
• Marieve Corbeil
• Sandra Cornaz
• Jean Emmerson
• Uptola Borah
• Dawn Merrett
• Jonathan Lane
• Amy Fancourt
• Jennifer Farrell

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions
2. Discussion of AIRS project and goals
3. Student/YP initiatives

Introductions

• Everyone introduced themselves, talked about their research, what area of AIRS they were related to
• It was decided that Alicia Altass (in PEI) would be a co-representative of the student/yp group with Andrea Emberly

Discussion of AIRS project and goals

• Bi-annual blog and newsletter

• Blog would be student/yp only and newsletter would be distributed to AIRS at large

• All students/yp encouraged to blog on their progress by January of each year, also blog can be used for support, questions, asking advice, etc.

• Blog will be student/yp run and open only to the members of this group

• Everyone is encouraged to submit a profile to the student/yp blog including photo

• Jonathan Lane agreed to set up blog, look into possibility of a facebook page, and to create a student email listserv

• At this time all communication will be via email (also blog will have built in notification so members can be alerted when someone else submits something to the blog rather than having to check the blog constantly)

• Newsletter to be run by the following committee: Christopher Roberts, Rayna Friendly, Sandra Cornaz

• Newsletter will be bilingual (English/French)

• All students/yp in AIRS will report to the newsletter committee with a short update, photo, or news relating to AIRS by June 1 for the newsletter to be created and ready for distribution by mid-August (newsletter may be hardcopy or an electronic postcard)

Questions that were raised

1. What is the criteria of members of AIRS? Is it anyone involved in the project, can new people join, suggest new areas of study to be a part of AIRS? How does someone become a part of the student/yp group? It was generally decided that anyone who would like to be considered a part of AIRS must go through Annabel. Once they are a part of the general AIRS group they can then request to be a part of the student email list, blog (to be added to the list by Jonathan).

2. Funding: A concern was raised that the funding came late last year and students would like to be issued some sort of notice for when they might expect funding for the upcoming year. It would be desirable for the funding to come by September for the first term of school.

3. Funding for equipment: Is this a possibility for AIRS related projects? Is this a student concern or is all funding for equipment strictly a faculty concern?

4. Are there possibilities for flexibility for funding, i.e. if a student has a project that is not currently being funded but is in the realm of the AIRS areas is it possible to propose new research? Are young professionals and students not under the supervision of theme leaders able to apply for funding support for research within the AIRS goals? Are there limitations to such funding applications and where should students/yp not working under the direct supervision of a theme leader submit proposals if that is a possibility?

5. What are the basic tenets of the AIRS project? Is it possible to put together a laid out set of immediate goals? It was suggested everyone refer to the copy of the milestone document as provided during the general AIRS meeting.

6. How will we encourage cross-collaborations across the AIRS themes? Are theme leaders encouraging such research or is it the responsibility of students to raise such ideas?

7. Will there be long-term support (not necessarily financial) of students not under the supervision of an AIRS theme leader to continue being a part of the project and where does AIRS envision seeing these students in the greater schema of the project?

Student/YP initiative suggestions

1. Cross-collaborations, how can we genuinely encourage these? Networking between students, post jobs and possible research projects, create a network on the blog/facebook that reaches beyond the students/yp currently involved?

2. Create an edited volume for AIRS student/yp involved in the project, possibilities for a journal volume or with scarecrow press? A publication is beneficial to both those students being funded and students/yp not receiving any financial support from AIRS but who still want to be directly involved/ associated with the project and its goals.