UCCPS met on July 19, 2008 at UC Davis from 9:30AM-2PM

Attendees: Jason Triplett, Chair (UCSC), Markus Kaufmann (UCLA), Fabian Filipp (UCSD), Jeff Gibeling (UCD), Hnin Hnin Aung (UCD), Joy Sirikanchana (UCD), William Grissom (Stanford), Hady Felfly (UCSD), Matt O’Connor (UCB), Amanda Stiles (UCB), Yvonne Klaue (UCI), Susan Mashiyama (UCSF), Lynn Talton (UCLA), Abhinav Bhusan (UCD), Rita Mehda (UCD), Joanna Friesner (UCD)

Minutes:

1. Communication with COGD: UCD Dean of Graduate Studies Jeff Gibeling joined CPS for a portion of the morning session and relayed his thoughts about the connection between CPS and the Council of Graduate Deans, of which he was a recent Chair. He relayed the news that UCCPS is an academic advisory group, and that work will need to be done to define, develop, and maintain that relationship. A discussion about the benefits of mentorship awards occurred, and Dr. Gibeling encouraged CPS and PSAs to pursue this idea.

2. COGD Meeting Recap: Markus Kaufmann gave a review of his experience in delivering the annual report at the most recent COGD meeting at Irvine in May. He reported that the meeting was large (>50 people) and that approximately 50% of the people were tuned out while he was talking. Despite this, feedback was very positive and CPS agreed that continuing this practice and culturing a relationship with COGD was a top priority.

3. Newsletter Update: Amanda Stiles gave an update on the progress of the news letter, reporting poor responses to solicitation for articles. Through conversations with Sam Castaneda (UCB) and Garnett-Powers & Associates (GPA), Amanda presented a new model for the newsletter. This would involve GPA assembling and producing the newsletter for CPS in exchange for advertising space. In addition GPA would provide some funds which could be used to contract students from schools of journalism to write story suggestions from CPS members. A unanimous vote approved this model for the newsletter provided that CPS retain complete control of content, distribution, and length of the arrangement.

4. Funding Options: Jason Triplett gave a recap of the avenues taken in the past to generate a revenue stream for UCCPS. After discussion, a task force headed by William Grissom, was set forth to determine the logistics and begin drafting a grant application to the Sloan Foundation. The grant will be used to fund travel to meetings and perhaps put on a West coast postdoc meeting.

5. New Chair: Fabian Filipp will be the next chair of CPS.

6. Next meeting: The next CPS meeting is tentatively slated for the first week of December and will be held at UCLA.

7. Specific Campus Issues: Yvonne Klaue gave a report concerning the difficulty encountered in establishing an e-mail list-serv at UCI. Several member suggested options for rallying administrative support, ways to establish off-site lists, and encouraged getting recognized as a campus organization first. Everyone agreed a comprehensive list of postdoc e-mail addresses was a key component for communication and maintenance of an active PSA.

So Attests,
Jason Triplett, Chair