KJF Meeting Minutes
KJF Board Meeting Minutes: May 1, 2007
In attendance: Mark Griffin, Katie Rock, Jacob Shorr, Jill Roberts, Mara Tencer, Katie Lustig, Ted Koshiol, Stacey Scanlon, Pam Morales, Carolyn Stvan, Mary Neal, Christine Zeivel, Danielle Bacon, and Michelle Yu
Start time: approx. 1:00pm
A. Transition
1. Officer feedback exchange
a. Feedback forms given to corresponding officers
b. Discussed meetings between incoming and outgoing officers to get acquainted with responsibilities
i. Michelle and Jill will be meeting up
ii. Sheila and Carolyn already discussed treasury materials
iii. Lindsay and Pam will be meeting up
iv. Mark, Daniel, Stacey, and Jacob have been emailing
v. Tim, Jill, and Katie will meet up at some point
vi. Mary, Christine, Ted, and Katie will meet up
vii. Michelle and Danielle will be meeting up
viii. Sarv and Sal -- not sure if they’re meeting up
2. Technology
a. Network Drive turnover (grant access rights to new officers)
i. Scheduled for Sun, May 20th (or next business day Mon, May 21st)
ii. All officers except Class Reps will get access rights
b. Website Server Access
i. Pam and Lindsay will work it out
c. TWEN
i. Mary said could probably do it this semester; just need to meet with Stacey Acquavella
d. Printer Card
i. Need to turn it in at the end of the semester
3. Keys
a. Depending on which keys – need to be turned over to the Administration Office or given to the incoming officer
4. Office clean-up
a. Office is pretty clean and organized
b. Daniel Attaway just bought bins so we need to put KJF stuff in the bins
c. Christine will work on it with the new Volunteer Coordinators
5. Office supplies
a. Discussed options for $10 budget
b. Resolved: will purchase stapler & staples, paperclips for Treasurer to clip money, pens for silent auction tables, and packaging tape
B. New Fundraising Initiatives
1. Donate-A-Day Pledge Drive
a. Christine says it’s a good idea
b. Michelle envisions it to be a year-round pledge drive
c. As for administering it, shouldn’t be too bad – just follow up with people who pledge; may need to work with Administration for corporate matching contributions
2. Private firms
a. Asking private firms to donate money
b. Michelle has list and letter but needs to put it together; asking for larger sums of money requires more follow-up (phone calls, etc.)
c. Michelle hopes Jill can work on it over the summer. Ted, Katie Lustig, and Jacob were enthusiastic about helping out with it then too.
C. Draft of Revised Constitution
1. General consensus: looks fine
2. Many more pages than original Constitution; adds procedures and framework.
3. Michelle says don’t need to rush into ratifying it. Give it some more thought.
D. Improving KJF for next year
1. General consensus: things went well this year.
2. Asked for goals of next year’s board members
a. Mara asked what our quantitative goals were for this past year
b. Michelle says we really didn’t have any quantitative goals, except to raise more money than last year and to have more community service activities. Michelle thinks that KJF will raise more money next year.
c. This year, raised about $30k. Bake sales / study sales: $200-400; Wine event: about $1000; Auction: over $27k. Distributed about $30k in fellowship awards. 13 Fellowships this year. The 2 ELS fellowship recipients were not eligible for the KJF match.
d. Last year, Wine event: about $800; Auction: over $24k.
e. Jill is excited that we have a Community Outreach position for next year so we can expand our community service activities
f. Danielle says community service is great for KJF and for individual members to branch out and continue those activities
E. New Officers: Recurring Issues to Watch For
1. Cash Box Security
a. Recurring theft; make sure have witness when counting cash
b. We’re the org with largest amount of cash intake, so be careful
2. Tax-related Stuff
a. Be careful what language gets into thank you letters; might be misunderstood as receipts for tax purposes (may or may not be)
b. Generally, look at what a donor gives and what the donor gets in return
i. If donor gets something in return, s/he can deduct in excess of fair market value (fmv). We don’t appraise fmv – fmv is not necessarily the same as the value of the winning bid!
ii. If donor gives non-cash gift, like donating a home-cooked meal, s/he can’t deduct for personal services, but could deduct expenses incurred in providing that service
iii. If donor gives partial interest in real estate, not deductible.
c. Many rules, confusing. We’re not tax attorneys. Encourage donors to seek help from their tax advisors.
3. Lobbying Issues
a. KJF derives its tax-exempt status from IIT, a 501(c)(3)
i. Checks to KJF should be made payable to Chicago-Kent College of Law
ii. As for language, the description at the bottom of the Pledge Drive form is accurate
b. Absolute prohibition against political activity, e.g. partisan campaigning
c. KJF sometimes gets requests to have members sign petitions, work on advocacy efforts, etc.
d. Some lobbying permitted, as long as not substantial
i. Lobbying is influencing legislation
ii. Definition of “substantial” varies
iii. Lobbying exception where just giving info to members on proposed legislation of direct interest to members
i. Can’t urge members to contact Congress about an issue, etc. – this would be lobbying
iv. Be careful of lobbying if acting in representative capacity. Lobbying is okay if you’re acting individually.
F. Other Announcements
1. SBA Check Requests due by tomorrow, Wed. May 2nd, by 7:30pm
2. Jessie Augustyn will be Dean for the Day on Thu, May 3rd – will help us try to raise money!
3. Public Interest Law Journal – first issue will likely come out in Spring 2008. If interested in writing an article, contact Ashley Decker.
4. Thanks for coming!
End time: approx. 1:30pm
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Addendum: Office supplies have been purchased! They’re in the KJF office.
KJF Board Meeting Minutes : March 20, 2007
In attendance: Jill Roberts, Sarv Rivani, Christine Zeivel, Jackie Shiff, Mark Griffin, Danielle Bacon, Tim Wright, and Michelle Yu
Call to Order: 1:01pm
I. Auction Update
1. Chicago businesses have been supportive – good turnout
2. Professors still getting in their packages
a. Michelle to ask some more professors for donations, and to speak to Prof. Conviser re: expected alumni attendance
b. Asking additional professors to contribute doesn’t hurt, but sympathized with their willingness to participate based on whether students will bid on their packages or not
3. Jill and Tim will send list (and later, updates) to Lindsay for posting on the website – students can check website for updated prizes
4. SBA will donate 2 Barrister’s Ball tickets to Shedd
1. Danielle said class reps are taking initiative to chalk for ticket sales
2. Michelle to send email to ask all class reps to join in the effort
3. Jill, Tim, and Michelle will visit 1L sections to explain how the KJF auction works to 1Ls
4. Must be deposited and witnessed daily; follow up with Theda re: receipt, if she wasn’t in to count; email Sheila with results
5. Schedule for next week, 10-4 Mon and Tue, 10-1 on Wed; or start as early as we have volunteers
6. Board members sell too; must be turned in before Auction begins (details to be worked out)
1. Jill will work on email to the student body
2. Jill distributed purple posters to be put up around school
3. Chalking to be done in all classrooms the day before the event
1. Volunteers
a. Make sure have enough for lobby during live auction; and at least one volunteer monitoring lobby and alcohol-restricted area at all times; and for beer distribution
b. Christine or Mary will take email volunteers for day-of sign ups soon, maybe tomorrow afternoon
2. Food
a. Need more food; Jill and Tim met with restaurant to ask about catering
b. Sangria recipe and ingredients discussed; Frank to get wine from friend
c. Pick up; nearby, have several volunteers with cars to help with it
3. Ticket Sales
a. Sheila and Michelle: in charge of money security and end-of-night cash box procedures; Michelle to email Janet
b. Have cashbox watched at all times
c. Collect stubs to keep accurate track of attendance for future reference
d. Make sure no one leaves the area with alcohol!
e. Cash only
4. Silent Auction – 60+ items
a. When should it end? Options discussed:
1) After live auction
a) Pros: more time to bid, people walking in throughout the night
b) Cons: may be really late; people can’t stay until end; not sure when live auction ends
2) After live auction, but have official “bidding buddies” for those who want to leave early
a) Pros: helpful for those leaving early since bidding buddies will have the highest bids of those people
b) Cons: might not have enough KJF volunteers to do this
3) At 8 or 8:30pm, or from 8:15 to 8:30pm period, before live auction ends
a) Pros: More structure to end silent auction bidding, with auctioneer using microphone; less chaos
b) Cons: breaks flow of auction; bidders might just leave during break; not sure how long it’ll take to process payments in case there are disputes
4) Our needs and interests:
a) To have an orderly, efficient checkout
b) To maximize opportunities for everyone to bid
c) To encourage people to stay through the entire live auction
5) Decided:
a) Tim will ask auctioneers re: their professional opinion, but will likely stagger silent auction end times for a group of items at a time (functioning also as breaks during live auction, so people can get more food and go to bathroom),
b) So, all winning bidders pay at same payment table at different times during the live auction part. Have about 2 extra people at those times to deal with flow. Attendees will mentally adjust to the times that item bidding expires, like eBay.
5. Payments for Live and Silent Auction
a. Cash, check, and credit cards accepted
b. Should use receipt books to have documentation – Jill or Tim to look into getting them at Staples
6. Raffle
a. Have one depending on what miscellaneous items are available
II. Administrative Things
a. Pros: Difficult to get volunteers based on day of week, location, preference for drivers (with cars), and requirement of groups of 4; better to give early notice if students aren’t interested and don’t sign up; close to end of classes and due date for 1L appellate brief revision
b. Cons: Gets different students involved and active in the community
c. Decided: Email students sooner to gauge interest. Michelle will do so soon after auction. Auction is priority #1 now.
a. Will ask Mara to be official vote counter; will make this a special 3L rep responsibility in the future
b. Will have reps election in the fall semester; all other officer position elections in the spring semester
c. What will we do if no one runs for anything?
1) Solicitation okay, just no setting up people for inevitable loss or for the mere sake of having an election
2) Have earlier deadline for candidate statements and position descriptions available
3) Personal encouragement so students continue being involved in KJF’s mission
d. New officers will take office effective Mon, May 21st, the day after graduation
a. Current officers’ feedback will facilitate old board / new board transition
b. Michelle to ask for completed responses from current exec board members, by email, due by Tue, April 24th
1) Will be kept on H: and shared with corresponding new officer(s)
c. Michelle to ask incoming officers to send in reponses shortly after getting outgoing officers’ responses
a. Carries over to next year, so can save files there
b. Printer card – ask Jill for it if you need to print papers out for KJF
1) Not to be left in the office! Not a safe place to store valuables.
2) Michelle to re-introduce office security issue with SBA
a. Nothing elaborate, maybe just 15 minutes to get acquainted, since exams coming up
b. Goal to have all KJF stuff completed before Read Period!! That way, concentrate on studying.
a. At some point, can stand on its own two feet without KJF’s backing
1) In the meantime, it’s a KJF project because it still needs support to keep going. Otherwise, just dies. Policy may vary, depending on board members’ perspectives from year to year.
b. Asked 2Ls in attendance if interested in heading up PILJ during the upcoming fall semester. Response was hard to gauge because future KJF board involvement not yet determined. Plus, not sure what the responsibility entails.
1) Perhaps can get support through Public Interest Certificate Program and Ron Staudt
c. Discussion ensued as to why KJF fundraising hours and PILJ set-up hours don’t count toward PIRC certificate; also unpaid summer internships awarded with KJF fellowship as partial hours contribution towards PIRC certificate; grey area – general exclusion with exceptions
a. General consensus was good idea, qualified by restricting it to this year’s active volunteers, as opposed to a general KJF party open to everyone on the mailing list
b. Can identify active KJF members through participation records
III. Anything else?
1. No committee decided upon yet. Michelle will ask board members to serve based on whether they have interacted a lot with members so they can attest to applicants’ KJF contributions and service. Michelle will ask those board members if they are applying for fellowships first – if they are, cannot serve.
2. If externship situation where going beyond hours required by externship, still can apply. However, not as favored as unpaid, no-academic-credit internships because get a benefit. Depends on applicant pool though, so hard to determine at outset.
Thank you for coming!!
Adjourned: 2:03pm
KJF Public Interest Law Journal Brainstorming Meeting – February 21, 2007, Room 545
Start time: 3:06pm
Attendees: Dave Blau (Intellectual Property Journal), Sue Clark (Journal of International and Comparative Law), Ashley Decker, Juliette Gallegos, Maura Matuszak, Ken Suh, and Michelle Yu
I. Who is our audience? A. Legal community: practitioners, professors, law students 1. scholarly publication? B. Depends on scope of public interest - where to draw the line? 1. community service 2. social interests 3. justice issues a. e.g. war in Iraq - personal agendas involved? b. potential problem with journal taking positions – these are issues that people have strong feelings about; views all heard? c. Present two sides? Maybe have an issue dedicated to one particular issue 4. apolitical II. What should we focus today’s discussion on so that it’s productive? A. audience/substance or framework? both. III. What are the processes of the IP Journal and JICL, as examples? A. IP Journal – 3 stages of procedure 1. Pre-publication a. Soliciting articles/authors – marketing and sales tasks b. Once find author, enter into licensing K, e.g. copyright a. How to handle copyright? For IP Journal, author assigns copyright to journal; nonexclusive license to use as long as not for publishing. Moshe W. can probably make available b. If journal doesn’t own copyright, cannot enter into K with Lexis and Westlaw. West gives royalties whenever pulled up, maybe 15% of rate charged. 2. Editing a. Once have article, apportion to editors. Can use student editors – maybe join journal as editor. Maybe different criteria to be editors. b. Mark up article, then send back to author to approve changes. Changes go back and forth until have final article. Sue says JICL has 3 categories: citations (1Ls), grammar and overall content (2Ls and 3Ls). c. Using Bluebook. a. Dave recommends there be training on Bluebook b. Sue agrees 3. Publishing a. When have final article, then publish. IV. How to start from the ground up A. IP Journal was originally was a part of IPLS, which solicited articles. The journal was written into the IPLS Constitution. Got original articles, from people at school. Then just published them somewhere. B. Can set up new journal as student organization 1. Need approval from SBA president. Need constitution. 2. Under KJF? a. Michelle: separate entity is better; too much for KJF board to deal with b. Juliette: mission harmonious but differ (e.g. fundraising) c. Ashley: KJF is a good place to start d. Maura: will be overlap between the two e. Sue: get separate funding from KJF if it’s a separate student org C. What kind of publication do we want? 1. Maura: Paper is expensive. 2. General consensus: online is better V. Structure A. Dave: can make journal better later, deal with problems as they come, just get ball rolling B. Sue: JICL has 2 categories: 1. standard articles on specific topics 2. cases and controversies – can ask Mateo C. Dave: IPLS breaks down articles similarly VI. How do we market or get articles? C. Ashley: make posters and put them around school D. Sue: contact other PILJs E. Maura: contact other Chicago schools F. Juliette: leave subject area broad, and focus when articles come in 1. Dave: To be well-respected, don’t accept everything. E. Ken: what tasks are involved? 1. Sue: setting up, vetting articles, and contracting VII. Setting up A. Need website – say “now accepting articles for publishing” B. Sue: setting up a website that looks good – look legitimate C. Delegate D. Dave: 1. first step, set up an org 2. second step: create website and mailbox – need person who is central point of contact 3. have a big mailing list E. How many people do we need? 1. depends on how established the journal is in terms of people and getting things done 2. have as much help as you need 3. bring people on as you need them 4. Dave: have a core group 5. Sue: clear lines of communication with editors is important!! 6. Ashley: pick a time when PILJ meets and see who keeps coming 7. Juliette: table during admitted students weekend VIII. Next meeting A. Likely during spring break, after the appellate brief is turned in B. Juliette can set up next meeting; possible point person C. Michelle: can work on organizational aspects D. Maura: we should work on drafting a mission statement for the website homepage, maybe list suggested topics, broad range E. No objections to spring break meeting; Sue can’t make it F. Thanks for coming!End time: 4:55pm
Fellowship Information Meeting - February 13, 2007 @ 5:15pm
Board members present: Michelle Yu, Lindsay Ferg, and the first-year representatives
1. Intro & Overview 2. Past KJF Fellows a. Rebecca Rangel &n