[Channel Open]
[Incoming Transmission from Psi Phi, Office of Communications]

Minutes

(10/01/2003)

Call To Order: [unknown] pm

Attendance:

• Ryan Woodrow (Captain)
• Kevin Zepp (First Officer)
• David Henderson (Chief of Operations)
• Elizabeth Koprucki (Grand Nagus)
• Laura Zadrozny (Constable)
• Kristen Zidon (Communications Officer)
• Jeff Hibbard (Faculty Advisor)
• Andrew Conrad, aka Señor Bob
• Curtis Erickson
• Joel Fried
• Joan Johnson
• Andrew Kalafut
• Heidi Koch
• Jon Lascelles
• Scott Liekis
• Andromeda McGregor
• Aaron Nevitt
• Meaghan Porter
• Monica Prorok
• Don Steiner
• Will Vesely
• Monkey (ferret)

There were 21 attendees and one stuffed animal.

Minutes:

Summarized and approved.

Committee Reports:

• No report.

• David's contacted one more alum. The Communications Officer was bad and didn't catch the name or ask for it, so it will not be appearing in the minutes.

• Tabled, as Monica was momentarily missing.

• No report.
• People who are on the CRC, talk to Joel about it.

• Jon printed off lists of times, dates, and summaries for s.f. movies on AMC and the Sci Fi channel. The Communications Officer currently has these, so talk to her if you'd like to see them.

• Monica returns and defers her report to Elizabeth.
• Elizabeth explains that she and Monica bought the couch for $54, and the Mission Mart held it since they had no way of transporting it at the time. As Greg (aka Random Other Guy) has a roommate who has a truck, Elizabeth gave Greg the receipt to go get the couch. However, he hasn't gotten it yet.
• We determine that Greg's roommate is also Joel's roommate (well, they all live in the same house, at least), and tell Joel to fix the problem.

• We may vote next week on T-shirts. Email Laura if you have any additional T-shirt ideas (or bring them to the meeting).
• David is ordering some more of the old shirts for alumni. If you want some, talk to Elizabeth (who is in charge of the leftover shirts from previous years) or David, if there aren't any leftover shirts in your size.
• We may want to get reunion T-shirts for next year, and if so, we'd probably want to start thinking about it now, because with our propensity to procrastinate, the T-shirts would probably not be ready in time if we started next year.
• Jon suggests the phrase "BU Be Geek" for our shirts, inspired by the "BU Be Greek" shirts.

• Joel comments that in Psi Phi, we're pretty big on traditions. One such tradition is that the Constable generally doesn't keep very close watch on the weapons.
• At this point, Joel grabs the gun. The Constable threatens him with the bapper, but allows him to use the gun for his No Report.
• Joel demonstrates another tradition by holding the gun up to Joan's head, pulling the trigger for the awesome lights and sound effect, and yelling, "SAY IT! SAY IT!"
• Joan responds by saying, "Put that down or I will kick you in the [item deleted for security reasons]." While this is not quite the response Joel was aiming for, he accepts it.
• No report.

Officers' Reports:

• The minutes are out.
• The Communications Officer was directed to a horribly addicting website by her older sister, a livejournal that collects horrible summaries from Harry Potter fanfiction. All of these are genuine summaries given for the fanfics.
  • "Rachel wasn't even raised on the same planet, but grew up as a Jedi under her grandmother's guidance, and Harry's world is turned upside-down."
  • "Featuring Blind!Draco, Deaf!Harry, and Orange!Snape."
  • "It's just another plot to turn Harry into a girl."
  • "This fic is based on Othello, by W. Shakespeare, only d/h [Draco/Harry], please check it out!"
  • "Oliver Wood was pregnant with Cedric Diggory's baby."
  • "Voldemort, little bug; now u go squish!"
  One can find these by going to http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=mctabby&keyword=Summary+Executions&filter=all, but be forewarned that they contain MAJOR spoilers for all five Harry Potter books.
• Addendum from David: the minutes from April 30 and May 7 from Dan's reign as Communications Officer and Nov. 20, Dec. 4, and Dec. 11 from Bryce's reign are missing. The Communications Officer should talk to them about that.

• The Constable tells us a story, entitled "My WWE Adventure."
• There was a house show in Peoria, and she and Scott were on their way back from visiting the Constable's parents.
• "We still have time...or so we *thought*."
• Scott thought the show began at 7:00.
• When they arrived, the ticket booths were closed, and they were allowed to get into the show for free.
• They got really good seats, and then discovered that the show had started at 5:00. However, the last three matches are usually the best, and they got to see those for free.
• Everything here is under control.

• No report.

• The treasury has $392.32 after paying for the couch.
• Before Oct. 10, the Nagus needs to pay for the pumpkin we will be decorating.
• Someone suggests creating a Borg-o-lantern.
• Pekin and Iowa should beware, because they're generally the examples used when discussing military tactics in Dr. Jones's class.
• The Nagus had been painting and noticed 12 Pepto-Bismol pink canvases in the studio. She has no idea what foul purposes these will be put to.
• Ryan suggests painting Pepto-Bismol pink stripes on the Mint Maalox green table; Joel suspects that Kenny has somehow possessed Ryan.
• Addendum: David reports that we have a preliminary report of earnings of $707.20 from Amazon last quarter, plus the earnings from the international Amazon sites, which (at the current exchange rates) comes to $135.01, and therefore we have an estimated amount of $842.21. As usual, half of this will go to the treasury and the other half will go to David to use for maintaining the Psi Phi computer and website.

• The First Officer just finished his easiest and most pointless test: a test on COBOL. It took him about eight minutes. Just writing his name on the test was worth about 4% of the grade.

• "Letters" is sung.
  • We received the Student Organization Handbook, which will be put in the office if anyone wants to look at it.
  • David asks if we're listed in the right place, as we've been listed as an honor group and as a fraternity in previous years.
  • [Item is not only deleted for security reasons, it does not even exist and never has. Really.]
  • The handbook lists 100 theme ideas for meetings. Numbers 18, 19, and 20 are Star Trek, Star Wars, and Back to the Future, respectively.
  • Epsilon Sigma Alpha (of which Julie Faas is a member) is holding Rope of Hope again. It is for charity, and it costs $12 per team. This will be on Oct. 17 in the quad; however, this is the same day as the convention, and no one volunteers for it.
  • We also received a memo to organization presidents regarding obtaining money from SABRC, but we decide that we get enough money from Amazon (by people buying things through www.psiphi.org).
  • David notes that we could buy a bulldozer. This is apparently in reference to an in-joke from several years ago, and appears in the minutes for the benefit of alumni on the mailing list who might get it.

Old Business:

• Kristen suggests going on a group shopping trip for Rocky Horror Picture Show props, so that we can all buy things as a group and thus spend less than if we went separately and all got individual bags of rice, for instance.
• The Star Trek convention is on Oct. 17, and Ryan is collecting money for this through this weekend. The early bird price is $10, with no refunds, and the check is being sent on Monday. The price is $15 at the door.
• Several members have classes that afternoon and can't leave with those who are leaving early. Sr. Bob volunteers to go later, and can take four others.
• There is a $5 charge to get early bird tickets. We vote to have Psi Phi cover this, with 18 in favor, zero against, and two abstentions. (Joel notes, "Come on, this isn't important enough to be one of our few unanimous votes!") The Nagus gave the $5 to Ryan.
• The cards we signed for Robert Schmalz were delivered and appreciated.

New Business:

• David suggests that we ask for any additional comments after committee and officer reports, so that those with more information can give it. For instance, David now gives the information included in the addendum to the Nagus's report.
• Ryan notes that we're getting a lot of money, and might want to consider getting a checking account. We might also want to consider expanding the Psi Phi library.
• We will discuss this more at next week's meeting.
• The Nagus is willing to go get Psi Phi a checking account if someone who has experience in these matters would go with her.
• We note that we do *not* want to get a Swords account from Bradley, as those suck.
• Laura, Ryan, and Elizabeth will go check out banks.
• The checking account will be in the organization's name.
• We may vote on this next week.

Other Organizations' Announcements:

• The Dance Dance Revolution club will be having a meeting Friday at 7:00 pm in the executive suite in the student center basement.
• New Faces will be performed on Oct. 3 and 4.

Scifi News:

• The book Middle Earth for Dummies will be coming out from Wiley Press. If you ever wanted to learn more about the history and geography of Middle Earth, but felt overwhelmed by it, this may be the book for you! You can order it through www.psiphi.org.
• The Return of the King trailer is now downloadable from http://www.apple.com/trailers/ or http://www.theonering.net/. [Note from Comm. Officer: it is INCREDIBLE. Go watch it if you haven't.]
• Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee) joins the cast of Jeremiah, which starts Oct. 10 on Showtime.
• Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi from TNG, Voyager) will be appearing on ABC's Threat Matrix tomorrow.
• Susanna Thompson (Borg Queen #2 from Voyager) will be appearing on NBC's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
• Peter David is writing the novelization of Spider-Man 2 right now.
  • When pressed, David admits that he *may* be eating dinner at this precise moment instead, but still...
• Excerpts from DS9: Unity and Enterprise: The Expanse are up at the site.
• A very funny Harry Potter animation, entitled "Bothering Snape", was linked to from www.mugglenet.com. It can also be found more directly at http://www.eviltrailmix.com/extra/Potter.swf.
• On a science fact note, Europe launched its first moon mission on September 28.
  • "Welcome to the '60s, Europe!"
• The CSI:CSI comic "Bad Rap", issue two of five, is out.
• JMS's Supreme Power comic #3 is also out.
• The TV Guide has an ad for the ST:DS9 fifth season DVD. You can order this DVD by going to www.psiphi.org/dvd.
• On Tuesday, Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment will be out.
• Gaiman's latest Sandman comic, Endless Nights, is out now.
• Landmark will be doing its annual rerun film series on the big screen. It will be showing The Matrix on October 17 and 18 at 9:30 and 11:30 pm each day, and will be showing Army of Darkness after that.
• Joel got a new copy of LotR and received with it a book with essays about the series. Essayists include C.S. Lewis and Isaac Asimov. There's also an essay called "Lord of the Geeks", a crossword puzzle, discussion questions, and recipes from the Middle Earth Gourmet.
• Several people mention a Star Wars cookbook with "puns that would make Kenny cringe", including Wookie Cookies, Hanburgers, Yoda Soda, and Boba Fetticini. Ryan finds this frightening, even more so than the time he had a cheeseborger.
• Kristen remarks that, when watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, she discovered that Riff-Raff looks like Anti-Joel! [This is especially notable when Riff-Raff smiles towards the beginning of the song "Time Warp", after he sings "I remember."]
• The question is raised of why so many women are obsessed with Riff-Raff and think he's hot. Ryan hypothesizes that it's because the actor is the one who created the whole thing, but Joan feels it goes beyond that, with fanlists online. Kristen notes that many, many people have webpages devoted to them, created by rabid fans, and the discussion turns to hot sexy schwank [note: this is like swank, but better] evil guys.
• Ryan interrupts this conversation to mention that the Sci Fi channel is airing Dune remakes. They're having a marathon of six hours of Dune, from 6:00 pm to midnight, tomorrow. Ryan's even passing up Smackdown to watch it.
• The Babylon 5, season 4 DVD will be out January 6, while the SG-1, season 5 DVD will be out on January 20. You can probably guess what site you can go to to order them.
• Barnes and Noble has Star Trek: Aliens and Artifacts in its discount books section for about $5. It's a full-color guide to props, makeup, and other things. It also has detailed information on how to dress like a ST character, which could be very useful with Halloween fast approaching.

Adjournment: [I call this meeting to order][To order?][To disorder!][To a close] 10:54pm

Note: following the meeting, Joan takes the Psi Phi gun and shoots Joel's [item deleted for security reasons], and Sr. Bob tells embarrassing stories about himself.