psych_minutes_unofficial.August152011

							Psychology Meeting: Unofficial Minutes
August 15, 2011 | 8:45am

Present: Ryan Brunner, Mark Christian, Sherri Lantinga, & Natalie Sandbulte.


Art. 11.xxx     OPENING: We energetically applaud and cheer to welcome Ryan to his first psych department
                meeting. We then give the secret handshake and reveal selected pranks we’ve played on each other
                through the years so that he has fair warning. We exchanged newsy weekend items, including an
                IKEA rat’s maze, a baby tattooed in the church nursery, a small child with a throat full of ice cream,
                and another child who has decided to re-name our TA. Natalie serves us snickerdoodles, which is
                Chinese for “Don’t Tell Your Doctor.”

Art. 11.xxx     MINUTES: Our previous meeting minutes from July were departmentally e-approved and posted, and
                we were grateful to receive accolades from our faithful readers. We also received a correctional
                directive from an infrequent-but-powerful reader, which has resulted in twin sets of Official and
                Unofficial Minutes.

Art. 11.xxx     DENIS DISCUSSION: Mr. Justin Spratt (who eats no fat) joins us from Computer Services (which eats
                no lean, especially around Christmas) to discuss our DENIS psych pages. Our pages receive fewer hits
                than the local whale-watching club and we are thus persuaded to let most of them go. Our TAs shall
                update the Christian Graduate School list and link it to our WWW department page. We learn that
                Justin is on a 30-day trial period and may be returned at any time without question as long as we
                haven’t folded, spindled, or mutilated him.

Art. 11. Xx     PROGRESSIVE EVENT: Given our summer house projects and moves, we elect to tour our homes on
                August 18 (we actually want to analyze each other’s decorating style). Kids, food, and housecleaning
                are entirely optional.

Art. 11.xx      BABY LEAVE: Natalie and the Baby Bump plan to attend classes together Aug 24. The next morning,
                the one shall become two, but Natalie refuses to invite us to the big event and we are sorely hurt.
                She plans to return to Dordt-related labors on October 10, unless she has gall bladder surgery or
                some other excuse. Mark and Sherri are to bravely carry on her courses and not complain, or they
                shall contribute to the Whine Bottle.

Art. 11.xx      SUMMER FIELD EXPERIENCE: Natalie is supervising 8 (eight) summer FE students (three in psych –
                the others from PS and CJ) and will supervise another this fall; the psych students shall give multi-
                media presentations at the Psych Student Research conference in December. Mark recommends
                they use a Pecha Kucha structure, which is Chinese for “Hakuna Matata.”

Art. 11.xx      COURSE ENROLLMENTS: Our class sizes are very much adequate to virtually bursting. Sort of like a
                certain person’s belly.

Art. 11.xx      DEPARTMENT ROLES:
                - Campus visitors: Mark is up to bat; Natalie is on deck; Sherri is the hole; Ryan is on the bench.
                - Photographer: Natalie shall take, develop, frame and hang photos of Ryan and our new TAs prior
                   to completing the baby countdown.
             -   Advisees: Mark and Natalie shall advise all psych students, with assistance from our very capable
                 and attractive TAs.
             -   Chair: Natalie refuses to relinquish this role of great power. We accede.
             -   Work-study/TA supervisor: Natalie shall supervise these department heavyweights.
             -   Webmaster: The TAs shall master the psych web.
             -   Psych Club advisor: Mark shall advise any club that mentions psych, golf, or IKEA.

Art. 11.xx   FALL EVENTS: Our Sept 1 Bonfire shall be planned by IKEA.

Art.11.xx    FACEBOOK PAGE: We shall pilot a new facebook group titled “All my Friends Say I’m a Good
             Listener” as a central resource for current students, an intro to prospective students, and as a
             memoir for alumni who will be paying back their student loans for 31.43 years.

Art. 11.xx   FRESHMAN ORIENTATION: We explain the All Campus Fair history to Ryan, including the jello brain
             option that we will forego given the unfortunate brain-meets-lawnmower incident of two years ago.
             For the department open house, Mark will enact a cheesy skit about the power of hugs and gerbil
             training to change one’s life.

Art. 11.xx   INTELECTUAL DISCUSSIONS: Given babies and other distractions we’ll have this fall, we decide to
             wait until spring to read a book together; we nominate Love at Goon Park; Opening Skinner’s Box;
             Eliot Aronson’s autobiography; or something about evolutionary psychology.

Art.11.xx    HOPELINE: Natalie notes that the volunteer crisis hot-line already needs a second Dordt coordinator,
             and we recommend a student for consideration.

Art. 11.xx   ACD PLANS: These annual plans are due approximately today to our new-mama Area Leader whom
             we’ve nicknamed “Abby” for purposes of privacy.

Art. 11.xx   HOUSE RULES: We inform Ryan about our shared course policies included on all psych syllabi and the
             reasons for tormenting our students in a similar fashion.

Art. 11.xx   SCHEDULES & OFFICE HOURS: Yes.

Art. 11.xx   SCHOLARSHIP: Natalie convinces us that Ryan is interested in leading the department’s
             faculty/student scholarship initiative. Ryan has lots of ideas, including the design of IKEA stores and
             other sales compliance techniques used against your average consumer.

Art.11.xx    SWOT: Natalie proposes a lunch break, which quickly turns conversation to spouses, gall bladders,
             and the smashed M&M on the bottom of Natalie’s computer. Don’t tell computer services.

             -   LUNCH: We continue our conversation over lunch, then break at 1:00 for various meetings.

             -   CAKE: As we resume at 3:30, Ryan serves a lovely cake from his wife Leslie. Mark grabs the piece
                 with the most frosting and stabs those testing the “survival of the fittest” theory. Ryan notes
                 that the president’s backyard BBQ is on the 18th, which conflicts with our progressive home
                 event, so we invite Carl to come with us. Kidding! We move our event to the 16th.

             -   WEAKNESSES: Back to SWOT. We edit our list of weaknesses to better reflect actual data rather
                 than our graduate-school and Calvinistic guilt.

             -   OPPORTUNITIES: Ryan defends Mark’s strange head-rubbing habit when Sherri points it out. We
                 sort through our department opportunities and, crashing from all the sugar, we bicker about how
                      to word these and whether to include them and who said mean things first. Natalie threatens to
                      cut our M&M and cake budget.

Art. 11.xxx    CVA: We begin discussing our vision/concerns/actions for the year and shortly engage in broad
               theatrical gestures and singing patriotic songs.
               - Vision #1: By enhancing the diversity of our program to better prepare students to serve various
                   places in God’s Kingdom.
                       o Concern: we need more diverse students
                       o Actions:
                                 Continue recruiting males to the major
                                 Actively recruit international students,
                                 Strongly advise students to pursue cross-cultural learning opportunities (e.g.,
                                    PLIA, AMOR, SPICE, Chicago),
                                 Invite students with cross-cultural experiences to present their perspectives on
                                    culture and psychology.

               -      Vision #2: We shall develop a strong sense of self-efficacy among students to enable them to
                      excel in their professions and calling to service.
                          o Concerns: students lack self-confidence because they lack a vision of what they want to
                               do, or they don’t know how to match own interests/gifts with available professions or
                               places of service, or how to translate their passion for helping to particular
                               educational/career tracks, or how to connect course work and psych-related jobs, or
                               they lack of accessibility of information from shadowing most likely professions (e.g.,
                               confidentiality and privacy issues in shadowing counselors) or they lack personal role
                               models in a psych-related field given common suspicions about psych or they fear going
                               to grad school because of cost or first-generation issues.
                          o Actions:
                                    Explore a McNair-type program;
                                    Develop ways to normalize psych as a career – panels, mentors, links to all the
                                        jobs a psych major can do, etc.

Art. 11.xxx    ADJOURN: Natalie falls asleep and we adjourn. Mark still needs to revise the careers brochure; our
               TAs shall work on a director of local human services agencies, perhaps with an Andreas grant.
               Natalie will call another meeting when she wakes up.

Submitted by Sherri