MONASH UNIVERSITY CLAYTON RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTS’ COMMITTEE

MONASH UNIVERSITY
CLAYTON RESIDENTIAL
RESIDENTS’ COMMITTEE

Minutes of meeting 2/2009 of the Residents’ Committee held on Monday 20 April 2009 at 6.00pm in the
FUNCTION Room.

25 April 2009 Alana Michell
Present: Secretary/Treasurer ext 57150

2009 President .. Jessica Fitzgerald

Deakin Hall .. Ramie Wan
Farrer Hall .. Sarah Benkhauser
.. Charles Morley
Howitt Hall .. Alexandra Skimbirauskas
.. Basil Curtis
Normanby House .. Matthew Jones
.. Adam Direen
Richardson Hall .. Alana Michell
.. Matthew Dullard
Roberts Hall .. Samuel Gibb
.. Matthew Shearing

Sports Coordinators .. David Coulter
Environmental Coordinators .. Johanna Kelly
.. Huon McGifford
.. Andrew Johnson

College Heads’ Representative .. Nova Caddy
Residential Programs Coordinator .. Charmaine Loke
Administration Manager .. Cassianne Martin

Apologies:

Deakin Hall ... Leah Uhe
South East Flats … 2 x TBA

1 APOLOGIES
As above.

2 ADOPTION OF AGENDA
The agenda was adopted. Six items were added to Other Business.

2.1 NAAUC
2.2 Halls gardens
2.3 Online payments and the Student Service Centre (Clayton)
2.4 Computer labs in Halls
2.5 Movie Blockbuster #2 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
2.6 Employment and Career Development Nights

3 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF MEETING NO 1/2009
Minutes of meeting no 1/2009 held on 16 March 2009 was confirmed and signed as an accurate record.
Amendment made to item 12.1.2 – South East Flats representative for the Ball Subcommittee is Jessica
Fitzgerald.

4 MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES OF MEETING NO 1/2009

4.1 Residents’ Committee Procedures – RES 1/2009, 20.4.2009
Amendments and additions according to Minutes 1/2009 have been made. Approval of the
procedures will take place as the first item of business in Meeting 3/2009.
Action: Jessica Fitzgerald

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4.2 Replacement of South East Flats Residents’ Committee Member
Ms Fitzgerald reported that there are now two new South East Flats representatives. They will
attend from the next meeting.

4.3 Residents’ Committee Photo Board
Ms Benkhauser reported that she is still waiting on information from some of the committee and
that it will be completed soon.
Action: Sarah Benkhauser

4.4 MRS Badges for extra Services Personnel
Ms Loke reported that Mr Whitaker organised MRS Badges for the Security personnel who are
now wearing them when on patrol. This will now be mentioned in a global email.
Action: Charmaine Loke

4.5 Cigarette butt bins in courtyards
Ms Loke reported that some halls were missing cigarette butt bins. She had asked the
Environment Coordinators to look into it and report back to her.
Action: Environmental Coordinators

4.6 Halls café Menu for MRS website
The Halls café Menu for MRS website has been uploaded. Ms Skimbirauskas mentioned that
she printed a copy and had displayed it in the Howitt Hall Common Room noticeboard. Mrs
Martin will check if sales figures have increased.
Action: Cassianne Martin

4.7 Residents’ Ball
Ms Skimbirauskas reported that tickets were ready to sell for the Ball. Prices are $70.00 for
residents and $85.00 for non-residents. The venue is Leona by the Yarra in Hawthorn. The
theme is Midnight Masquerade. The ticket price includes a 3-course meal, alcoholic and non-
alcoholic drinks, a DJ, security and transport to and from the Ball venue and possibly to the after
party only. A band is still being organised.

Ms Fitzgerald reported that the after party is probably going to be at Caseys in Hawthorn and
would confirm that at the next meeting.

Action: Jessica Fitzgerald

Confirmation of distribution of tickets to the Residents’ Committee and discussion of timeline for
sale of tickets occur. Ms Loke explained that each hall was allocated with an initial 20 tickets to
sell at each hall. No holding of tickets was allowed to occur and any unsold tickets were to be
returned by the Monday 4 May. Committee Members who are selling tickets for their Halls:

Deakin Raimie Wan
Farrer Sarah Benkhauser
Howitt Alexandra Skimbirauskas
Normanby Matthew Jones
Richardson Matthew Dullard
Roberts Matthew Shearing
South East Flats Jessica Fitzgerald

Ms Skimbirauskas made a formal thank you to Mr Prpich, the Director of Monash Residential
Services for subsidising the buses to and from the Ball which reduced the ticket prices by $5
each. She also thanked the Clayton College Heads who will be contributing $5 per ticket based
on the number of residents who are going from their individual Hall. Mrs Martin explained that all
committee members should promote the Ball as the committee will be at a loss if 450 tickets are
not sold. Ms Loke reminded the committee that should the account balance be in the red at the
end of the year, Mr Prpich’s instructions were that the committee would not be continued on in
the following year. Hence, it was important that everyone contributed to the success of not only
the Ball but in general in order to avoid not having a committee next year.

Mr Dullard questioned why the venue for the 2009 MRS Ball was $10,000 more than the venue
for the 2008 Ball. Ms Skimbirauskas reported that the date of the Ball was already formalised,
but Lincoln of Toorak (venue in 2007 and 2008) was booked for that night. It was also explains
that due to the Global Financial Crisis it was expected that costs would increase. It was reported
that Leonda by the Yarra (2009 venue) are giving us some good discounts such as free table

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centrepieces. The committee discussed the fact that booking a venue early in the year was too
late to get a good venue, thus it will be formalised into the procedures that the Ball Chairperson
(Functions Officer) who is newly elected will book a venue before the end of the year preceding
the next Ball.

Action: Ms Fitzgerald and Ms Skimbirauskas

There was a discussion of the advances made on the part of the Residents’ Committee towards
organising of the 2010 Residents’ Ball. When the 2010 Ball Chairperson (Functions Officer) is
elected in the second last meeting of the year, that person will consult with the Residents’
Committee on choosing the venue and date.

Action: 2010 Functions Officer

4.8 Halls Play
It was discussed that a play put on by the Residents’ Committee would be difficult but they were
all willing to promote a play if it was started/organised by a few students in Halls. It was
suggested that Ms McGifford and Mr Wan would discuss with interested parties and a proposal
be put forward to the committee and that the Halls play organiser could be invited to sit in on a
meeting.
Action: Huon McGifford and Raimie Wan

5 SPORTS REPORT
Mr Coulter and Ms Kelly reported that the Halls Tennis competition was a success, as was the Soccer
and Swimming which had both had a large turnout and good support. It was reported that the Volleyball
net had height issues, but this turned out to be a positive thing as it promoted a more casual, relaxed
atmosphere. Ms Loke announced that there will be a sausage sizzle for the final.

Mr Gibb raised the prospect of introducing a cross country running event that would occur on campus
and avoid roads that could be about 3kms in length. He will prepare a proposal to present to the
committee.

Action: Samuel Gibb and Sports Coordinators

Mr Gibb also raised an issue about the South Australian University Games that are being held in the
second semester, that most residents did not know what the university games entailed and thus the
Sports representatives will send out an email to residents explaining and advertising the uni games. Ms
Loke mentioned that 10,000 steps program could occur in the second semester.

Action: Samuel Gibb, Sports Coordinators and Charmaine Loke

6 ENVIRONMENT REPORT
Mr Johnson reported that the turn out for the Environmental Sustainability forum by Mr Barton, Director
of the Office of Environmental Sustainability for Monash University was low. Mr Barton spoke about how
Monash is improving their environmental efforts and how people could get involved. Earth Hour occurred
and glow sticks were given out, South East Flats, Deakin and Richardson had their Earth Hour event a
day later to increase attendance. Attendance sheets still need to be collected from some Halls.

Action: Environment Coordinators and Environment Representatives

Ms McGifford raised the fact that more people are needed to attend events and the Environment events
need to be promoted by the committee and through halls societies too. She stressed on the point that
Environment events are equally as important as Sporting events. She also mentioned that at the end of
the year, there will be an award for the Hall who has the most participation for Environment Events.

Action: Residents’ Committee

The next Vegetable Garden event will be held on the Sunday 17 May. Mr Gibb was concerned about the
information regarding Environment activities were later than normal. Ms Skimbirauskas mentioned that
there has been past confusion about poster layout. Ms McGifford will look into the poster layout for the
next Working Bee.

Action: Huon McGifford

The Vegetable Garden planting day held on Sunday 5 April was attended by 13 people from the
Deakin/Farrer/Howitt group and 15 people from the Richardson/Roberts group. It was reported that last
year there were too many vegetables at the end of the year and thus there are fewer this year, but
residents are still required to maintain the vegetable garden.

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7 FOOD SERVICE
It was raised that the Halls café needs to notify customers of nut, gluten, egg and dairy in their meals as
some people have allergies to some of these ingredients. Mrs Martin stated that this will be taken into
consideration and passed on to Mr Tandijono.
Action: Cassianne Martin

8 ITEMS FOR OHSE ZONE 19 MEETING
Ms Skimbirauskas raised the issue about not having First Aid officers at inter-residential sporting events.
It was decided that Sports Coordinators could get the First Aid kit from the Operations Officer as they
were trained First Aiders, as were most Resident Advisors.
Action: Sports Coordinators

It was reported that the area outside of the Roberts laundry is slippery when wet, it may require some
non-slip strips as per the ones leading to the Farrer Hall bus stop.

Action: Cassianne Martin
9 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

9.1 NAAUC
Ms Loke reported that National Association of Australian University Colleges will be holding their
annual Conference in July and applications are now open. This conference will occur from
Sunday 5 to Saturday 11 July in Sydney. Applications close on the Friday 22 May and all
committee members are encouraged to apply. Mr Gibb attended last year’s conference and said
it was an ‘epic’ experience.
Action: Residents’ Committee

9.2 Halls Gardens
Mrs Martin raised the fact that MRS used to have two gardeners. This is no longer the case and
gardening duties have been contracted out. It was noted that residents may be required to water
the vegetable gardens as it had never been part of the job description. In the past, John the
gardener had watered the vegetable garden to help out the residents. Now, the Environment
Coordinators would need to work out a working bee system/roster.
Action: Environment Coordinators

9.3 Online payments and the Student Service Centre (Clayton)
Mrs Martin asked for the opinion of the Residents’ Committee in ceasing the option for residents
to pay their rent at the Clayton campus Student Service Centre. Certain points were raised in
regard to this, one of which was that it does not give the option to not do electronically and thus
hinders people who are not very technologically savvy. It puts the onus on people to have their
own computer and a personal debit/credit card to make a payment online. Moreover, the
students did not particularly want to do their banking online on a public computer.

9.5 Computer labs in Halls
It was raised by Mr Gibb that there were increasingly less computers in Roberts’ Hall computer
lab. He reported that it was impractical for people who had desktop computers to move their
study area somewhere else. It was also stated that there were four broken computers in the
Howitt computer lab. Mrs Martin reported that the university charges $17 per month per port and
that previous analysis found that there was not enough usage by residents on these computers
to keep paying for them. This will be discussed at the next meeting and the committee will give
their feedback to their College Heads in their individual Halls. It was questioned whether the
wireless could be charged to a resident’s MRS internet account instead of their Faculty limit as
MRS download costs were cheaper.
Action: Cassianne Martin and Residents’ Committee

9.6 Movie Blockbuster #2 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Ms Loke reported that the sale of Wolverine tickets will be closed on Monday 27 April, therefore
the committee have been asked to tell residents to buy their tickets before then. At the time of
the meeting 90 tickets had been sold.

9.7 Employment and Career Development Nights
Ms Loke reported that on the Tuesday 5 May, they may be holding an Employment and Career
Development Industry night. It was discussed if it was better to have course specific speakers or
general speakers. Possibly an industry based talk or a recruiting agency person could present,
the Residents’ Committee to provide suggestions.
Action: Charmaine Loke and Residents’ Committee

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10 DATE OF NEXT INFORMAL MEETING
Monday 4 May 2009 at 6.00pm.
Ms Loke will email committee before this time on booking the Function Room.
Action: Charmaine Loke

11 DATE OF NEXT FORMAL MEETING
TUESDAY 19 May 2009 – 6.00pm in the Function Room.

CONFIRMED AS AN ACCURATE RECORD: Date ....................................................
President ..........................................................................................

2009 President / South East Flats .. Jessica Fitzgerald

Deakin Hall .. Ramie Wan
.. Leah Uhe

Farrer Hall .. Sarah Benkhauser (Publicity Officer)
.. Charles Morley

Howitt Hall .. Alexandra Skimbirauskas (Vice-President/ Functions Officer)
.. Basil Curtis

Normanby House .. Matthew Jones
.. Adam Direen

Richardson Hall .. Alana Michell (Secretary/ Treasurer)
.. Matthew Dullard

Roberts Hall .. Samuel Gibb
.. Matthew Shearing

South East Flats .. 2 x TBA

Sports Coordinators .. David Coulter
.. Johanna Kelly

Environmental Coordinators .. Huon McGifford
.. Andrew Johnson

College Heads’ Representative .. Nova Caddy
Residential Programs Coordinator .. Charmaine Loke
Administration Manager .. Cassianne Martin

For information Operations Manager Jason Whitaker
Food Service Supervisor Ridwan Tandijono
Administration Officer Georgina James