Meeting, Nov 19, 2001

Since the Corporate Night Event seems to be very similar to many already existing events, Dalerie and Brandon proposed replacing this event with a Case Study Competition to be held in conjunction with the Spring Conference. The event could be publicized as an opportunity to prepare for consulting interviews and a chance to win prize money, the prize perhaps coming from money collected from sponsoring companies. First, we need to find a compelling case study that has not previously been used; Mark Wilkinson or Kelley Porter might have such cases. The competition would be open only to undergraduates but would invite participation from any school participating in the Spring Conference. The panel of judges could be composed of representatives from a number of different companies. A company many also host an invited lunch for participants only.

Brown Bag Research Talks

Melanie Rubino has also volunteered to be a speaker now. Our aim is to have the first talk before the end of the quarter and host a talk twice a month starting in January. Ozlem will post relevant information on the web site.

Faculty Lunches

The first faculty lunch will be the Thursday after Thanksgiving from noon until 1 pm at the Faculty Club. The first featured faculty member will be Kathleen Eisenhardt. Dalerie has sent out an email, and the first 10 undergraduates to reply by the end of Monday, Nov. 26 will be able to participate. Dalerie will contact Ting to make advertising flyers.

Spring Conference

The MS&E faculty have been informed of our plans for the Spring Conference, but so far none have responded. Anne has booked rooms in Terman, but would like an alternative location…preferably one with many rooms and no cost. She is considering Tresidder and Thornton as well. In addition to rooms for presentations and speakers, we will be interested in finding rooms for the Case Study Competition Groups to use for discussion. Shikhar is going to investigate possible funding sources, whether or not we can get money from GSC or ASSU. We also need to start completing what sort of keynote speaker would be appropriate…maybe Hau Lee?

Mentoring Program

Brandon and Ozlem need to discuss the format of the mentoring program. How formal will it be? How many organized events will there be…as opposed to just informal communication between mentors and mentorees? Brandon mentioned that getting people to participate may be difficult because undergraduates don’t declare majors until late in their careers. Dalerie suggested hosting one organized mentor/mentoree event each quarter to make sure the pairings stay connected but otherwise keeping the communication informal. Brandon plans to send out an email this week to gauge interest.

Omega Rho

The question of instituting Omega Rho at Stanford will be referred to Peter Glynn and Diane Bailey for now.

Targeting Undergraduates

How do we get more undergraduates involved? We all seem to feel that drumming up faculty support is key. In January, we hope to visit undergraduate classes to promote the Case Study Competition and possibly a party for undergraduates, to hand out flyers, and to circulate sign-up sheets. Dalerie and Brandon are going to put together a Benefits List for why undergraduates should participate in Stanford INFORMS. Anne and Dalerie plan to go to a faculty council meeting to encourage the faculty to support our group. We also discussed possibly an undergraduate section on the bulletin board or the web site.