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JETAA Canada Conference Chat 10-Aug-2007

Archival transcript. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Joe - Canada CR: hi everyone
Joe - Canada CR: sorry for the delay; i forgot how to set up the conference thing :)
Joe - Canada CR: hello?
Samantha - Montreal: hello
Samantha - Montreal: I'm here
Ruth - SAJETAA: hi :D
Brandi - SAJETAA: Hi
Marcus - Toronto: Hello
Joe - Canada CR: cool
Joe - Canada CR: ok before we get started, could you please change your nickname to this format? -- Your Name - Chapter
Joe - Canada CR: second thing, i'm going to post this transcript for the benefit of everyone who isn't here today, so if there is anything you want NOT included in the transcript, just say "off the record" and I will delete it before posting
Samantha - Montreal: Understood
Joe - Canada CR: so it looks like we've got brandi, ruth, marcus, and samantha online
Samantha - Montreal: Kara said that she might not be able to make it
Joe - Canada CR: okee
Joe - Canada CR: i'm expecting ann yamashita from bc to join us as well
Samantha - Montreal: But that ManSask approves the changes to the bylaws
Joe - Canada CR: thanks samantha
Joe - Canada CR: oh, just got an email from ann saying she wont' be able to make it
Joe - Canada CR: ok let's get started then, sorry again for the delay
Joe - Canada CR: any other agenda items other than the following? 1. Canada Conference Minutes

2. Canada Rep Guidelines [vote & approve]
3. Country Report request from JETAA-I
4. JETAA-I "aadelegates" mailing list cleanup
5. JETAA Canada "jetaa_cdn_reps" mailing list confirmation & add request from AJET Canada rep
6. Next chat
7.

Samantha - Montreal: Well I'm just here for the Rep guidelines so that I can answer questions and such....
Joe - Canada CR: okeedokey
Joe - Canada CR: brandi and ruth and marcus, any other things you'd like to discuss?
Ruth - SAJETAA: not at the moment
Marcus - Toronto: Sorry guys I was trying to change my profile settings but having issues
Joe - Canada CR: no prob
Joe - Canada CR: ok let's run down the agenda quickly then
Samantha - Montreal: Sounds like a plan
Joe - Canada CR: Canada Conference minutes ... any update, Brandi and Ruth?
Marcus - Toronto: O.K. Canada Conference Minutes?
Brandi - SAJETAA: um....I'm a computer idiot and can't seem to attach it to the wiki
Joe - Canada CR: what kind of problems are you having?
Ruth - SAJETAA: bad user design lol
Marcus - Toronto: :D
Marcus - Toronto: Whoops!
Joe - Canada CR: ahuh ahuh ... i'll tell my programming team they're not getting paid for nothing
Samantha - Montreal: lol
Brandi - SAJETAA: uhhh....not sure....let me try one more time....give me a second...
Samantha - Montreal: well isn't Ruth your resident computer geek?
Joe - Canada CR: anybody else having problems with wiki editing?
Samantha - Montreal: Can't say that I've tried
Brandi - SAJETAA: I can edit, just can seem to attach...
Ruth - SAJETAA: is it having problems uploading?
Ruth - SAJETAA: or is there no attach link
Brandi - SAJETAA: does't seem to like my file name. I've got the minutes saved in MSWord on my computer
Ruth - SAJETAA: take out any spaces
Joe - Canada CR: To get an attach link you just type Attach:filename.doc Δ and it will come up (as I explained in an email and the quick-reference sheet)
Ruth - SAJETAA: and try to shorten the name
Brandi - SAJETAA: k
Ruth - SAJETAA: sometimes spaces screw it up though
Ruth - SAJETAA: or non alphanumeric characters
Joe - Canada CR: anyway, i don't want to spend too much time debugging this right now, but just wanted to see if there are common issues that should be addressed
Marcus - Toronto: Looks good here in Toronto.
Joe - Canada CR: thanks marcus. brandi, please continue trying in the background and if it still doesn't work by the end of the chat just email it to me?
Samantha - Montreal: No issues here... we are still talking about the minutes right?
Joe - Canada CR: yup
Marcus - Toronto: Yea
Ruth - SAJETAA: is the French ALT issue on the agenda? or did we finalise that?
Joe - Canada CR: ok, item 7 is now french alts
Joe - Canada CR: ok so we'll see how things are going with the minutes at the end of the chat
Joe - Canada CR: next topic, canada rep guidelines
Joe - Canada CR: samantha, could you please briefly run down the changes that were made?
Samantha - Montreal: yes. Firstly, I added a Canadian residency componant
Samantha - Montreal: for eligibility to submit a platform
Brandi - SAJETAA: Yeah! I think I may have finally attached the minutes to the wiki hdance
Joe - Canada CR: ok
Samantha - Montreal: That's section 2.1
Joe - Canada CR: looks great here, http://jetaabc.ca/JETAACanadaForum/JETAACanadaForum#canadaconference
Joe - Canada CR: otsukaresama brandi :)
Samantha - Montreal: (Y)
Marcus - Toronto: So far so good, section 2.1 looks good
Samantha - Montreal: Sections 6 through 10 basically run down procedure should there be issues with a current Rep
Emma - Ottawa: hey guys - emma here from ottawa, sorry for the lateness
Marcus - Toronto: domo Emma.
Samantha - Montreal: for example, resignation, removal and replacement
Samantha - Montreal: Hi Emma
Samantha - Montreal: :)
Joe - Canada CR: emma, wer'e on agenda item 2 right now, discussing the changes to the canada rep election guidelines
Emma - Ottawa: ok
Samantha - Montreal: In the end, I added the discussion points as to the role of the Canada Rep
Samantha - Montreal: we went over that at the conference
Samantha - Montreal: and I just copied what Sabine wrote on the board
Samantha - Montreal: that's in section 10
Samantha - Montreal: 10.1 actually
Joe - Canada CR: yup
Joe - Canada CR: does everyone have a copy of the guidelines in front of them?
Marcus - Toronto: yes
Emma - Ottawa: yup
Joe - Canada CR: thanks for your hard work on editing the guidelines, samantha
Samantha - Montreal: and 10.2 is what should happen if the Canada Rep is unablt to attend a conference, for whatever reason
Emma - Ottawa: otsukaresamadeshita samantha!
Samantha - Montreal: and I made room for the possibility of having proxies, like Joe did with Sabine
Joe - Canada CR: quick question, the current doc says the guidelines were approved by a majority of chapters on 25-jun-06
Samantha - Montreal: Yeah, I don't know anything about that
Samantha - Montreal: that was before I came back from Japan
Marcus - Toronto: :D
Emma - Ottawa: did anyone else attend the conference last year?
Joe - Canada CR: given that the guidelines were only sent to chapters recently, i guess we should change that to whenever we have that formal approval vote :)
Samantha - Montreal: but Sylvie drafted the original so I'm assuming there was some kind of concensus?
Joe - Canada CR: oh wait, 2006 *DUH* ... okay, yeah, we did have a formal vote last year at the conference
Joe - Canada CR: thanks for pointing that out, emma
Samantha - Montreal: lol
Joe - Canada CR: okay, so that section refers to the PREVIOUS version of the guidelines
Samantha - Montreal: yes
Joe - Canada CR: we'll just have to revise that when we have our vote this year
Samantha - Montreal: yes
Joe - Canada CR: does anyone have any discussion points re: cnr guidelines?
Samantha - Montreal: but before that, I just want to put forward the suggestions that were given to me by Matthew Gillam
Joe - Canada CR: samantha, do you mean those suggestions are written into the guidelines that you sent out, or are there others that you are going to share now?
Samantha - Montreal: sharing now
Joe - Canada CR: aic
Marcus - Toronto: I was curious a little about section 6d, does this mean that the position becomes vacant unless the majority of JETAA Canada chapters decide otherwise?
Samantha - Montreal: I would like, however, to mention a couple of minor points that occurred to me while reading through the draft, with the understanding that all decisions are up to the Canadian alumni and we here are not involved in the amendment process.
Samantha - Montreal: This is Matt's stuff not mine
Joe - Canada CR: oh we're on a nickname basis now eh? :)
Samantha - Montreal: One thing is, I was wondering whether people wouldn’t be more comfortable with a gender neutral style, using, as you did in “8. Resignation”, the term “his or her”, or “he or she”. Personally, I find this a bit clunky, and in less formal writing tend to go with “they”,
Samantha - Montreal: it's just shorter :P
Emma - Ottawa: no preference here, either or
Samantha - Montreal: although I recognize that is not an accepted grammatical usage for the word – at least at this point in time. Documents in the States, though, tend to use that sort of phrasing anymore, I think, but I don’t know about Canada .
Samantha - Montreal: The other point is structural. For ease of understanding and the overall flow of information, might it be better to move the sections on “Roles” and “Presence” to the “6” and “7” positions, immediately following the election guidelines, then shift “Vacancy” to “8”, etc.
Samantha - Montreal: This would then present the information on / requirements for CNR duties and meetings, attendance, etc. before the possible consequences of failing to fulfill the roles & responsibilities, and would lay out the requirements and processes for meetings before stipulating how they pertain to any actions for removing a CNR.
Samantha - Montreal: This would, in effect, lay things out as ‘entering’, ‘performing’, and ‘leaving’ the role. Personally, I was a little confused while reading the “Removal” section, since I did not remember the provisions concerning holding quarterly meetings and how attendance is counted for them
Samantha - Montreal: Those were Matthew's suggestions to me
Joe - Canada CR: hmm, personally i think it could go either way (re: structural point)
Joe - Canada CR: i suppose i don't have a vote, though, so maybe i should simply leave the discussion to the rest of y'all
Samantha - Montreal: and to address Marcus' question
Samantha - Montreal: yes
Marcus - Toronto: thanks
Marcus - Toronto: do we have a process for this?
Joe - Canada CR: pretty much motion-second-vote i think
Samantha - Montreal: if a majority of chapters feel that the current Rep should still be Rep even though they fail to meet the criteria, we can let them stay on as Re
Joe - Canada CR: again, oddly enough it doesn't seem as though i have the right to vote here, but for the record, i'll just bring up a few points...
Emma - Ottawa: do we have quorum?
Joe - Canada CR: emma, not in the chat, so we'll have to do it by email
Joe - Canada CR: this is just for discussion for now
Samantha - Montreal: and to address the gender neutral thing, I figured that I could just add in a clause that says that the masculin is used without prejudice
Emma - Ottawa: (thanks joe_
Samantha - Montreal: so we can't vote to approve tonight?
Joe - Canada CR: section 8, "The aforementioned notice does not have to be motivated. " -- English seems a bit odd (no offence meant whatsoever; most of us here can't hold a candle to the bilingualism of you folks in montreal) ... perhaps make a bit clearer?
Emma - Ottawa: i would prefer he/she or they to just 'he'
Brandi - SAJETAA: why are we being so anal about this? does it really matter? she/he vs. they? flip a coin and pick one, yes
Ruth - SAJETAA: heh, agreed
Emma - Ottawa: :)
Marcus - Toronto: No worries here. Either way.
Emma - Ottawa: sam - looks like it's your preference. go nuts!
Samantha - Montreal: well they isn't proper grammar
Joe - Canada CR: section 7, replacement... it says "can be replaced" ... i think it would be bad for jetaa canada NOT to have a standing rep ... this means no representation at the jetaa-i level for canada
Samantha - Montreal: if it's necessary, I would put he/she, although a clause in the beginning would be simpler
Joe - Canada CR: *votes for "they"* (we make our own grammar :) )
Brandi - SAJETAA: so lets go with she/he....I think that's how most legal documents are written anyway...? And it's not that hard to figure out
Emma - Ottawa: i second :)
Joe - Canada CR: my suggestion for section 7 is to require that the chapters designate a replacement
Marcus - Toronto: she/he good lets move on
Ruth - SAJETAA: s/he heh
Marcus - Toronto: gomen
Samantha - Montreal: actually, most legal documents are written as "he"
Ruth - SAJETAA: most lawyers are men :P
Emma - Ottawa: bastards
Emma - Ottawa: :$
Marcus - Toronto: heh|-)
Samantha - Montreal: with a clause in the beginning saying that "he" is used to designate both sexes for the sake of simplicity
Joe - Canada CR: Point #3: Section 9, Removal. Currently says "The JETAA CNR who is to be removed must be informed of the place, date and time of the meeting at least 14 days before the aforementioned meeting is to take place. " -- i was just thinking, since most conference travel is booked well in advance, woe is the canada rep who gets impeached and who is left holding a now non-reimbursable ticket to the conference!
Joe - Canada CR: i guess that can be simply dealt with at the time, but if the impeached rep is not well liked they could be left on the line for a couple thousand bucks of travel expenses
Brandi - SAJETAA: sucks to be them, then....good thing we like you Joe
Emma - Ottawa: :)
Samantha - Montreal: lol
Marcus - Toronto: :D
Joe - Canada CR: And finally, point #4, i brought this up at the conference, but i'll say it again -- definition of residency? suppose someone has an international business (not unlikely for a JET alum) and spends half his/her time abroaod. the discussion about residency could degenerate into a popularity contest between the chapters
Samantha - Montreal: section 8, "The aforementioned notice does not have to be motivated. " What isn't clear?
Samantha - Montreal: The notice that was mentioned in the previous sentence does not have to be motivated
Samantha - Montreal: I.e. the notice of resignation
Joe - Canada CR: re section 8 "motivated" -- umm,:i understanding correctly that it means the person doing the resigning doesn't have to disclose their motivation for resigning?
Samantha - Montreal: yes
Samantha - Montreal: exactly
Samantha - Montreal: sorry, the bold was irritating
Joe - Canada CR: ok then a simple rephrasing suggestion "The notice does not have to include explicit details of the resigning CNR's motivation."
Joe - Canada CR: or something like that?
Joe - Canada CR: what do y'all think?
Samantha - Montreal: that's fine
Marcus - Toronto: thats fine with me too.
Emma - Ottawa: ok from here.
Joe - Canada CR: thanks, ok,
Joe - Canada CR: any thoughts on requiring a replacement or the issue of leaving the impeached rep high and dry with expenses?
Samantha - Montreal: "The notice does not have to include the reasons for said resignation."
Joe - Canada CR: cool :)
Emma - Ottawa: it would be hard to give more than 2 weeks notice...... (in reference to joe's question)
Joe - Canada CR: yeah, my suggestion would be simply to include a point that the outgoing Canada rep's expenses will be attended to or something to that effect
Samantha - Montreal: But it will have to come out of the Canada Rep's budget
Emma - Ottawa: purchasing a transferable ticket would cost too much right? - given the likelyhood of such a situation
Emma - Ottawa: ??
Samantha - Montreal: and not from any Chapter budget
Marcus - Toronto: for sure
Joe - Canada CR: "Upon replacement of a Canada representative, responsibility for the JETAA Canada budget falls to the new representative, who will ensure that previous budget commitments are met."
Samantha - Montreal: That's acceptable
Samantha - Montreal: but where would you want to insert it?
Emma - Ottawa: ok -
Emma - Ottawa: but it doesn't solve joe's issue
Joe - Canada CR: by the way, if i haven't said so before, there is pretty much no personal interest to me in this discussion -- i'm just worried about future CNRs
Joe - Canada CR: and the difficulty of recruiting them (what if someone doesn't want to be the wiki granny?)
Joe - Canada CR: anyway, it's getting late, maybe we should move on
Samantha - Montreal: but I don't think we've resolved anything
Joe - Canada CR: samantha -- the blub about budget could be inserted in section 7
Samantha - Montreal: ok
Joe - Canada CR: anything else you would like to ask before making revisions?
Samantha - Montreal: What did we decide for the "he/she" thing?
Samantha - Montreal: I'll just use he/she and that way everyone will be happy
Ruth - SAJETAA: I think we decided we were being anal?
Samantha - Montreal: lol
Ruth - SAJETAA: or use s/he
Joe - Canada CR: sounds like the majority prefers he/she or they ... your choice as to which, i guess?
Samantha - Montreal: ok. done and done
Joe - Canada CR: cool,anything else re: election guidelines?
Samantha - Montreal: not from me
Samantha - Montreal: I'll send out a revised copy next week
Marcus - Toronto: sounds good
Joe - Canada CR: ok, again THANK YOU so much samantha for volunteering for this ... i know that collaborative document writing can be a real headache sometimes
Marcus - Toronto: looks like this will be an ongoing adventure
Joe - Canada CR: we'll be looking forward to the revised guidelines
Joe - Canada CR: hopefully not ongoing for too long eh :)
Marcus - Toronto: good job Samantha nonetheless
Samantha - Montreal: merci
Joe - Canada CR: can we move on to the next topics?
Marcus - Toronto: sounds good
Joe - Canada CR: should be able to fly through the next bit...
Samantha - Montreal: ok
Samantha - Montreal: then let's fly shall we?
Joe - Canada CR: 3. chapter/country reports... everybody ok with the procedure and deadline? It doesn't have to be real involved, since cindy edits out a lot of stuff anyway
Marcus - Toronto: That should be fine.
Samantha - Montreal: I'll check with Sylvie, but it should be ok
Marcus - Toronto: You'll have Toronto's stuff by the 22nd
Joe - Canada CR: minimum (10-30 minutes of work) should include the list of officers and quick rundown of recent activities
Joe - Canada CR: thank you, marcus
Samantha - Montreal: If she can't do it by the deadline, someone will
Joe - Canada CR: ok ... and if anybody has feedback about the reporting procedrue, please feel to bring it up either on the list or with me, i'd like to hear back from you, becasue nobody likes to spend time writing reports and i'd like to find a way to make it more efficient
Joe - Canada CR: brandi/ruth, do you have someone designated to send the report?
Joe - Canada CR: in the meantime, i'll move to the next items: mailing lists. Just quickly: (1) is everyone subscribed to the aadelegates list -- or at least receiving email from that via someone in your chapter? and (2) everyone happy with the current subscriptions to jetaa_cn_reps?
Ruth - SAJETAA: I don't think I'll be able to
Ruth - SAJETAA: My next month is absolutely crazy
Ruth - SAJETAA: (thesis defense)
Brandi - SAJETAA: Remind me, what report?
Samantha - Montreal: Yes and yes.... now that I have access to the jetaa website
Marcus - Toronto: Did we make a final dicision on who would be subscribed to the list?
Samantha - Montreal: montrealjetaa is getting everything I think
Brandi - SAJETAA: sorry, I'm working on 6 hours sleep between my last shifts....not fully functioning mentaly
Joe - Canada CR: thanks ruth... any idea how i can get some info about sajetaa's activities to include in the report yet?
Joe - Canada CR: samantha -- thanks. you submitted a subscription request with your personal address and then later posted the message using the montreal jetaa email account. is it ok to remove the personal address request?
Samantha - Montreal: yes. thanks... I kinda panicked which is why I sent in my personal address
Joe - Canada CR: marcus - i think we decided that the canada rep maintains the list with consultation from the chapters. :) i think the point in principle was just to make sure that everyone who needs to get the messages gets them, and that there aren't irrelevant addresses still subscribed
Joe - Canada CR: thanks samantha
Joe - Canada CR: brandi - are you getting the jetaa_cdn_reps emails?
Joe - Canada CR: One other question (to everybody) - the current AJET rep for canada got in touch with me ... can i add her to our mailing list so she knows what's happening on the alumni side?
Samantha - Montreal: I'm fine with that, and I'm pretty sure that would be good for us
Samantha - Montreal: it might help with getting the returnees early
Marcus - Toronto: She should be kept in the loop.
Joe - Canada CR: cool, thanks, i'll do that and let everyone know
Joe - Canada CR: final two topics ... next chat date, and french alts
Joe - Canada CR: re french alts, i have that on my to-do list to discuss with clair/mofa at the international conference
Samantha - Montreal: The French ALTs is not a big deal really
Joe - Canada CR: if it's in more of a rush i could try to follow up directly with the clair folks
Samantha - Montreal: so as long as you can ask about it and let us know the outcome, we're ok
Joe - Canada CR: ok thanks samantha
Marcus - Toronto: Do we have a tentative date?
Joe - Canada CR: fyi the french country rep recently changed hands
Samantha - Montreal: ok
Brandi - SAJETAA: I think so...sajetaa@gmail.com
Joe - Canada CR: marcus - i was planning to follow up on this issue together with the other international conference stuff
Joe - Canada CR: is that ok?
Marcus - Toronto: sure ofcourse
Joe - Canada CR: brandi - so then you got the emails (one from cindy, one from me) about the reports for jetaa-i?
Ruth - SAJETAA: yes that's our email
Joe - Canada CR: ok, then the last item (sorry, rushing a bit) is to schedule the next chat
Brandi - SAJETAA: Confrimed...we are getting them. I just check our emails
Joe - Canada CR: on a quarterly schedule ... let's see, 3 months from now is mid-november?
Joe - Canada CR: thanks for checking, brandi
Joe - Canada CR: please keep me in the loop about whether you'll be able to be in touch by the 22nd
Samantha - Montreal: I can't give you a date really because Sylvie is always traveling
Joe - Canada CR: brandi - any info on sajetaa's recent activities would be most appreciated (for jetaa-i)
Samantha - Montreal: but I'll make sure that someone is here from Montreal
Joe - Canada CR: thanks samantha
Joe - Canada CR: umm tentatively november 16 then????
Marcus - Toronto: How about another Friday in the middle of November same times?
Ruth - SAJETAA: I'll probably be in NZ but you guys figure out a date
Joe - Canada CR: ruth - いいな〜
Brandi - SAJETAA: we've had none since the conference and I believe our next activity is the re-entry conference
Samantha - Montreal: sure. the 16th sounds reasonable
Joe - Canada CR: ok thanks brandi, i'll mention that
Samantha - Montreal: and ruth, watch out for sheep
Joe - Canada CR: if you have any other activities planned please let me know
Marcus - Toronto: k.
Joe - Canada CR: thanks everyone.. okay, any other loose ends?
Brandi - SAJETAA: bring me a sheep as a souviner....stamped "made in NZ"! :P
Ruth - SAJETAA: alrighty :D
Samantha - Montreal: nothing on this end
Marcus - Toronto: I think I'm good
Joe - Canada CR: thank you so much, everyone
Samantha - Montreal: thanks to everyone who showed up
Marcus - Toronto: Otsukaresama!
Samantha - Montreal: I'll send you guys a revised copy later in the week
Marcus - Toronto: sounds good
Joe - Canada CR: ok, so we'll close the formal part of the meeting (and the portion that i'll post up as the chat transcript). Thank you everyone for participating.