Society of Penn State Electrical Engineers
129 Electrical Engineering East
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
www.engr.psu.edu/SPSEE
 
 

Thirty-Fourth Planning Committee Meeting

Wednesday, September 19, 2001, 7:00pm, 129 EE East

MINUTES

Members Present: Harry Bell, Larry Burton, Ken Jenkins, Ray Lunnen, Jack Mitchell, David Salvia, Fred Thompson, and Mark Wharton

Mark opened the meeting at 7:00pm.  He had an agenda with 6 topics.

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Topic 1.  Tax Exempt Status
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SPSEE is eligible for tax-exempt status.  It was not clear what immediate benefits this status has, but it was generally agreed upon that we should apply, since it didn't appear to be too much effort to obtain this status.  Harry Bell agreed to fill out the paperwork.  The deadline is October 1.

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Topic 2.  New Member Recruiting
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Mark Wharton had sent a letter to 200 local PSU EE alums who were not presently  affiliated with PSU.  The nature of the letter was asking them to get involved with SPSEE, not asking them for money.  He received 6 positive responses.  We will follow up by inviting these people to our general meeting.

It was suggested that when we try this again we attempt to utilize email (to save money and to make it easier for them to respond).  It wasn't clear whether we had access to the email addresses of these potential members.  One suggestion was to see if the IEEE Central PA Chapter had email addresses that we could use.

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Topic 3.  Fundraising Campaign
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The plan is to solicit monetary support from our EE Pioneer grads (50+ year alums).  There are currently 645 living alums who fall into this catagory.

It was strongly suggested that we coordinate any fundraising efforts with Dick Swails' office.

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Topic 4.  Agenda for the Oct. 5 General Meeting and preliminary planning for the SP'02 Meeting
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We settled on an agenda for the next general meeting, which will be on Friday October 5, 1:30-3:00 pm, Room TBA

Dave Salvia will look into reserving 225 EE West for this meeting.  Currently, we have 132 EE East reserved

Ray Lunnen briefly mentioned a possible speaker for the Spring 2002 meeting -- Accuweather.  We also discussed the possibility of holding the SP02 meeting in the new Alumni Center.  A date was selected for the next meeting:  May 3, 2002.

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Topic 5.  Checking Account Status
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David Salvia will look into the status of the SPSEE checking account.  We may want to convert it to a savings account.

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Topic 6.  "State of the Art"
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It was mentioned that Don Hamer, of "State of the Art" is willing to host tour groups at his company.  Although this probably isn't something that SPSEE could utilize, it is perhaps something that student groups/classes may want to look into.
 
 

Next meeting:
General Meeting -- October 5, 2001
Planning Committee Meeting -- TBA


A. David Salvia
SPSEE Secretary
9-20-01