June 8th Meeting Minute [VIDEOS HERE!]

[Liz]

Here is the meeting minute:

A: Decided executive listing
B: Editor-in-chief candidates speeches
i) Video recording will be uploaded soon
ii) VOTING DEADLINE POSTPONED TO SUNDAY 20:00
C: Other issues
D: Summer to-do list

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A. First, a list of our new executives!

External Officer: *pending*
Layout Editor: Jessica
Junior Editor: Suzanna
Junior Layout Editor: Wanda
Writing Editor: Genevieve
Social Director: April
Webmaster: Liz
Distribution Officer: Sarry
Copy Editor: Seph
Note: There will be layout parties/sessions/tutorials given out during
this summer for anyone that would like to help out with the magazine
layout work. Also, we're still missing an external officer!

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B. A very brief summary of the Editor-In-Chief Speeches in point-form:
Pocket
- Is willing to listen to suggestions
- Will make sure that the jobs are more evenly distributed among all the staff members
- Will work on improving internal communications

Barry
- Is experienced in layout work and recruitment
- Is in touch with many of the CP memebers frequently
- Will actively promote the magazine and sponsor-hunt to increase readership

Note:These points are more or less just what were posted on the original meeting thread.
I will urge the two candidates to type up something that better represents their speeches and
their response to some questions addressed during the meeting.

The speeches were recorded as well, the video files will soon be posted here.

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Therefore, I would like to EXTEND THE VOTING DEADLINE TO 20:00 ON SUNDAY,
JUNE 11TH, so that people will have time to read over that, watch the video clip,
and then make their choice. Sorry for the delay, everyone.
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C. Other issues that were addressed during the meeting:

How to improve the current communication structure within the magazine?
- Set up a "important dates reminder" page at the main page of the website and allow all
executives to edit that page whenever deadlines/social events/layout sessions are set up.
- Open mailing list rights to all executive members so that they will be able to directly
notify all the staff members.
- Instead of every exec trying to reach everyone else at the same time, just assign one staff
member who is responsible of all the "people-contacting" tasks.

Skule.Ca Server Down?
- It was a recent server move + upgrade. The domain should be working stably and properly
from now on.
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D. Things that need to be done this summer:

1. Recognition with Student Associations such as SAC and EngSoc
2. Funding application: Alumni Association, SAC, EngSoc
3. Car Washes
4. Preparing for the new issue

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Thanks for your patience. Again, for those who did not show up or have not yet voted,
please don't forget to cast your votes to [e-mail] by 20:00 this Sunday, June 11th.

[Pocket]

Aside from the 3 points that Liz listed...

Regarding a suggestion by Justin, I'm going to try to appoint someone whose job is to contact everyone about events and deadlines (more or less Liz's current side-job). Also, I'll try to get the calender idea by Genevieve up and running as soon as possible that will contain all the important dates for better organization and so people can quickly check what's important and coming up soon without having to wade through the forum.
Ultimately the final outcome of each magazine depends less on who is elected president, but rather the combined effort of the staff as a whole. I think the magazine needs a good president to lead but the position means nothing if the staff doesn't also give their best. That's why I hope that everyone can put as much trust in me as I have in all of you.

[Genevieve]

Couple of other points/requests:

- Not sure what contact details we have for everyone -- we've got everyone's email, presumably -- but I also think it would be a good idea to get exec phone numbers stored somewhere, too, in case we need to get in touch during an event or unforseen circumstances.

- The new exec members should probably now be given access to the Staff segment of these forums. (At last! I'll no longer languish in insatiable curiosity about what goes on in there! )

- Just a suggestion now, but I'd like to point out that with the new system where execs get in touch directly with whoever they need to contact -- as opposed to making Liz do all that, as we have in the past -- a designated "contacter" person may be superfluous. It may make more sense to simply say that it's the responsibility of whoever is organising an event to contact the appropriate people about it.

[LAM LAM LAM]

Been with the magazine for almost 2 years, basically my skills are transferable so i'm not exclusively art based, or writing based. I agree with Pocket's statements but adding to that in order for the magazine to sustain a longer period of publishing aggressive marketing and recruiting is needed not just for submissions but for add a secondary staff to help out the leading one.

[Liz]

Arg, can't believe I'm posting so late again:

Finally, here are the video files! It includes both Pocket's and Barry's speeches, as well as their responses to some of the questions that were brought up after that.

A big round of applause to Shen who took the videos and took time to upload them on the net! Thanks a lot

Here are the original avi files. They're larger and have better quality:
www.pingcity.com/users/shlee/cp/pocket.AVI
www.pingcity.com/users/shlee/cp/barry.AVI

Note: The second file contains the informal Q&A session

Also, I've converted the files to smaller-sized wmv files, available here:
lichee.cojad.com/cp/pocket.wmv
lichee.cojad.com/cp/barry.wmv

Enjoy!

[lam lam lam]

MAN i'm so nervous!!!

[Pocket]

I <3 my speech.

[Liz]

A reminder to those who haven't voted: vote vote vote !

I will reply a confirmation slip as soon as I see the vote in my mailbox. So if you already e-mailed in but did not get one, please give me a shout, thanks

Oh, and one thing that I can comment on:
Nothing really goes on in the staff section at all anymore . On that note, and since we're going to be changing our contact methods, the forums structure might undergo some changes soon. I'll bring this up to discussion in another meeting, I guess.

[Genevieve]

One thing that deeply disturbs me about Barry's speech is his insinuation that he wants to turn CP into a manga magazine. He said that it should be "brought back to its manga roots," but I was under the impression that CP was never meant to be a manga magazine fully. When I see "U of T Engineering Art Magazine" written on the cover of every issue, I expect just that: a magazine with a diverse array of art and artforms, from sketches, to graphic art to poems and prose and yes, SOME manga. But I don't see how it would be a good idea to make just one of those forms the renewed focus of the entire magazine.

For myself, I certainly did NOT get involved with CP for the manga and I'm sure there are a LOT of us for whom this is true. In fact, when the first two issues were released -- before I got involved in CP -- I and LOTS of my friends who picked it up never even LOOKED at the manga. I skipped over those sections entirely. Even now that I've gotten involved, I still don't think I read through all of our manga. It's simply not an artform that captures my interest to that extent. I read and always have read CP to savour the diverse forms of art that as an "Art Magazine" we should endeavour to encompass. That's why I wanted to get involved with this magazine in the first place. And I'm sure that's the case for a lot of our current readers; everyone has certain areas that interest them. Some people will skip over the writing, while others skip over the manga and yet others skip over the galleries. That's what a diversified readership does.

Furthermore, I've spoken with a lot of people at school and in my classes and have tried to get people involved. The response I usually get is, "But isn't that thing mostly that anime stuff? I'm not really interested in anime. If it were an art magazine like it said, then yeah, I'd totally be interested in submitting stuff." Barry goes on at length about how we need to recruit more people, but in my experience narrowing the focus rather than diversifying will just scare more people away.

That is, of course, if we really do want to keep CP an art magazine with all that entails. If the common sentiment here is that people really do want to turn CP into a manga magazine, then I guess you won't really need a writing editor anyway and what I'm saying has little meaning.

[Pocket]

I think the calender idea should be done as soon as possible regardless of who gets voted pres. It should be easily accessible (right on the front page and not like under staff > sections > dates > important dates etc.) so everyone can see, including random people just browsing the site. It should be up to staff to check it at least once a week to see what's going on so that it becomes more personal responsibility. If an important date's not up there, then people can start blaming the pres or webmaster or whoever.

Things the calender should include
-deadlines for submissions
-dates for fundraisers
-release date for new magazines
-dates for general meetings

I'm wondering if we should include an 'internal calender' that only staff can access for more personal dates like
-deadlines for... financial things I guess.
-expected date for finishing layout

P.S. - This is totally Genevieve's idea.