International Faculty and Scholars
Network Update
Meeting Minutes May 17, 2007
Linda Edwards
Director,
International
Outreach,
A meeting of the general
membership of the International Faculty and Scholars Network took place on
Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. to discuss the following topics:
Attending were: Steering Committee Members:
Gale Wagoner, Mario Rojo del Busto, President Simon Sheather, Vice President for U.S. Faculty and Scholars Jim Woosley, Vice President for International Faculty and
Scholars Ulrike Gretzel and Secretary Linda Edwards.
General Members: Deva E. Reddy, Julian Kang, Mare
Leonard, Liping Chen, Deaun
Woosley, Jing Yu, and Palmy
Jesudhasan
Overview
President Simon Sheather gave an overview of the activities of the past
year and thanked all those involved in the Chinese New Year’s Celebration held
in February at Chef Cao’s. He felt that the event was very good and in
keeping with our charge to provide networking opportunities and said he hopes
we will be able to host the dinner again in the future.
Hosting a Business Forum
Next on the discussion
agenda was the Foreign Friendly Business Forum planned for fall in conjunction
with new faculty orientation hosted by the Dean of Faculties Office. Sheather introduced
a new banking packet from a local bank that has been working with some of the
members of the steering committee to create better banking options for foreign
nationals. He also shared that local
medical clinic is providing immigration physicals with paperwork that prepares
you for the visit. He indicated that
these are just a few of the international friendly business categoreis
that IFSN will be bringing to the attention of existing international faculty
and scholars and to new arrivals at the Faculty Orientation in August. He announce that he is working with the Dean
of Faculties Office to be able to “tag” along with the new Faculty Orientation
and that there were many details to be worked out.
He asked that the general
membership provide the names of banks, insurance companies, real estate
professionals, tax advisory professionals, retirement and investment planners,
immigration physical specialists and other professionals that they have worked
with that have made it easier to make a better transition into the
community. It was suggested that
businesses that had been especially difficult to work with might be included on
the list. The list will be created and made available on the IFSN Website.
Extending the terms of Current Steering Committee and
Officers
Sheather also reported that in the Steering Committee meeting
in April a decision was made to extend the present slate of officers due to the
nascent state of the organization. He opened the floor for the discussion and
found that membership attending agreed that extending the term was good. It was
suggested that the constitution be changes to have the Steering committee serve
3 years with overlapping terms meaning one third of the committee would rotate off
each year, allowing for stable leadership.
Filling a steering committee vacancy and Vice
President for Former Visitors
The Office of Vice President
for Former Visitors vacated by Temur Yunusov and one Steering Committee positions must be
filled. Sheather asked if any of the membership was
interested in serving and Julian Kan Volunteered. President Sheather
said the position of Vice President for Former Students would be names by the
steering committee in the near future.
Strategies and ideas to increase membership
A discussion about
membership brought several suggestions:
Questions about who can be a
member of the International Faculty and Scholars brought up a definition that
anyone interested in promoting a welcoming environment for foreign nationals
and working toward alleviating of the difficulties experienced by incoming
international faculty and scholars is welcome to join.
Everyone enjoyed the
refreshments provided by Gale Wagner and the