MMI Undergraduate Club Meeting Minutes, Thursday, September 27, 2007

Present: 18 students including officers, 6 first-time attendees, Dr. Rod Welch 

Next meeting will be in about three week s (mid-late October). Speaker will be Jonah Sacha, a graduate student in the AIDS vaccine laboratory

Future meeting suggestions?

• Student panel (as in years past)å
• Professor Schultz-Cherry (jobs in government)
• Field trip (i.e. to State Lab of Hygiene)
• Dr. Welch can also ask people if we’d like.
• Which night of week?
  • T, W, R; depends on speaker’s convenience, will try to rotate to accommodate classes, exams, Kaplan classes, etc.

Internships in MMI area?

• Answer (Dr Welch)
  • Can be difficult to secure b/c of security/red tape.
  • Email lab director, mention Dr. Welch’s name.
    
    
• Answer (Anna)
  • Can ask Janet Schrader to send more local opportunities to MMI email list.
  • Many international opportunities: Thailand, Uganda, Pasteur Institute (France)
  • Email Anna for more info.

Volunteer Opportunities for MMI Club?

• Vilas Zoo: Halloween?
• Ronald McDonald House: this was successful and popular last year.  Likely to do again.
• Children’s Hospital: also successful, will likely do again.
• AIDS Network fundraisers; i.e. Coat Check tables are various bars/clubs (ask Anna for info).
• Biocore Outreach Ambassadors (classroom science demos with elementary kids- ask Maggie for more info).
• Biology Outreach Club: run by graduate students; various opportunities during year.  Contact Cathy Vrentas, a grad student in Bact (cevrentas@wisc.edu).
• Tutoring in MMI: we’d like to set up a system where MMI students can help one another, particularly older students helping people in the intro-level classes (i.e., 341, 301, and 302).  There’ s a brief application (nothing scary!) email Maggie for info.

New Building dedication!

• The new, shiny, state-of-the –art Microbial Sciences Building will be officially dedicated on Friday, October 26. 
• In the morning there will be a symposium and former governor Tommy Thompson will speak
• In the afternoon (4?) Governor Doyle will be speaking and dedicating the building. 
• Dedication is open to the public; please come!

Feedback about the MMI major:

• Dr Welch has invited the club to compile a list of suggestions for improvement, comments, constructive criticisms, etc. about the MMI major (i.e. class formats, class sequence, class availability, logistics, suggestions for future courses, etc).  We will have a session or two about this after one or two club meetings in the future; we may even devote an entire session to it.  Also, if you have suggestions for improving the website please include them.   If we compile our ideas into one large club-sponsored list they’ll carry a lot more weight than a few stray emails from individual students. 

Dues:

• $10/semester or $15/year.  Please pay ASAP, checks written to MMI Club.  This way we can afford pizza!

Thanks so much! Take some pizza and we’ll see you in three weeks!