Exec meeting prep

[Kate Hitchner]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for responding to the email last week!! I am glad you guys are all on board to make TES the great group it should be. Ive cut and pasted 2 of the responses that everyone should read before the exec meeting tomorrow so that we dont have to spend time repeating them. Ali and Sonia offer up some great ways to improve the group and I want the focus of tomorrow's meeting to be acting on those ideas. 

Jared--since our exec board meeting will be too late to print flyers after convening, perhaps you can draft a flyer today and send it to the group for approval, then we can start flyering tomorrow. Flyer should include something about elections, something about the "new TES" that sonia mentions in her email, and something to attract people there. If anyone has any suggestions for Jared, please say so!

Thats all for now!

Kate

ps- thank you everyone for having the patience for these long emails!

___________

Ali:

I mentioned at Monday's mtg that we need our programming to be both long-term and to induce active responses from members. Right now our meetings are one-off events which leads to poor member retention and not active (comes off like a lecture, the only active parts are the three ideas activity which is becoming stale and repetitive). I suggested that beyond our normal mtgs, we need some semester long projects that are targeted to specific groups. To that effect, I am meeting with the Tufts Venture Group to organize a TES program that I suggested in October (groups get $10 each and give weekly status updates with progress) specifically for newer members. I also asked Sonia at the last meeting to plan a project, with the same goals in mind, specifically for members who already have a venture they are working on.

With regards to speakers, I suggested a series about Entrepreneurs on the Hill (in line with the cookie guy last year)  to present Tufts Entrepreneurs (think TSR, the Bubs, TUDS etc). While this is better suited for next year, I think instead of a speaker this year we should have two speakers, opposing viewpoints, to have a mini debate. It will be both more interesting for members and will spark some active discussion (especially if followed with breakout groups for guided discussion).

I think our final mtg should be done with the intention of showcasing our plans. Whatever event we settle on, it needs to be accompanied by some very transparently laid out plans for the entire semester. This is the ideal time to introduce our new long-term projects (both Sonia and I are working on different programs here as I mentioned earlier).

Sonia:

Here are where I think some of the gaps are right now:

1. The mission of TES is still unclear. The exec board and the members that come to meetings can't really say what we're all about. This seems like a fluffy piece, but I think it's extremely important for us to have a foundation for TES to stand on. I remember we came up with one earlier, but I'm not sure where that document went. I thought about it a while, and here's a rough suggestion: TES is a home for people who want to make exciting ideas real (everything from a club, to a blog, to a business). With a new mission/trajectory, we can strongly market ourselves to the student body. We might even consider marketing it as a revamp or a step up. 
2. Our meetings are not always relevant to our audience. I think a part of this relates to the fact that TES' mission is unclear. We are trying to do too many things, and lots of times, we lose people. So, here's a suggestion for a new weekly meeting structure. If we're bringing together people with exciting ideas, we can turn our weekly meetings into a space and time for people to work on their ideas. Basically, we all come together once a week for an hour to work on our respective projects - this could literally be anything they choose to work on. TES' role is to support people with networks, resources, information, (and food) to fuel their projects. If people don't have their own idea but are interested in working on somebody else's idea, they are welcome to join, give feedback, and chip in to help. We would just want to bring together really motivated students with initiative to make things real. On top of our weekly meetings, we can schedule monthly speakers open to a larger audience. We can bring in kickass entrepreneurs/doers that talk about broader topics that are relevant to a wider audience - ie, leadership, goal-setting, balancing college and extracurriculars, job searching, etc. 
3. Our meetings are inconsistent. We have canceled meetings so often that people don't even know if and when we are meeting anymore. I'm still on the Imaginet e-list (even though I don't go to their meetings), and they are very consistent. They hold their meeting every week, and send out meeting minutes right afterwards. Even if we all can't be at the meetings, we should still keep the meetings consistent. 
4. Exec board is a bit overwhelmed and can't take on new projects. We are all super busy and working on our own other things, especially around midterm time. I think that if we change our meeting structure to working on our respective projects, while others are working on their projects during our weekly meetings, we can use that time as the exec board to discuss events, other ideas, and basically just work on keeping TES running smoothly. That way, we have that structured time during weekly meetings to work on TES stuff, and don't have to squeeze it in between our papers and exams.
5. We don't have a community around TES. I think this can be solved by the new restructuring of TES meetings. With people working together and hanging out in the same space every week, we can start building a community.

If these things sound like some good ideas, here are some next action steps we can take

1. Have an exec board meeting next week, preferably Monday. I know we have that day off, but if everybody's around, we should still have a meeting to discuss the Wednesday meeting.
2. Next week's Wednesday night meeting can be about "the new TES," which easily integrates with elections. We can blast the e-list and put flyers all over campus to get people to come out to discuss the new direction of TES and ask people what they think would be the best way to get involved. We'll have to think of some clever way to get people to come, but I think we can make it happen. We can work on it starting this weekend, and come with ideas at the exec board meeting on Monday.
3. Launch the new TES with a kickass speaker on Nov. 28. This was already part of your plan, Kate, but if we get somebody really awesome, we can draw in a lot of folks and announce how we're going to step it up next semester. Hopefully, that'll start up the hype and get people involved starting next semester. 
4. The December 5th meeting could be a huge shindig/party/gathering of some of the coolest kids on campus. Get people psyched about TES next semester. Definitely bring back the people from Blue Key (I can coordinate that).