1:30p.m. – 2:30p.m.

Attended: Kim Obbink, Jonathan Dove, Stephanie Gray, Julian Collins, Cody Stone, ChristaMerzdorf,Jamie Cornish,Coryn Johnson, Jennifer Raymond 

Call to order

Kim Obbink

Approval of minutes from September meeting

Kim Obbink 

Welcomed new representative from the All Staff Council

(ASC), Jonathan Dove. Short intros followed. 

  • Membership – Recommendations for Research and for VP for Admin & Finance still needed for Representatives. Recommendations were encouraged. A couple members offered to ask around for interested persons that meet the criteria (from the set lists). – (Obbink) 
  • Cody shared about what he saw at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium that he attended. He spoke of several topics including land grants and the future of them. About 600 participants. Another topic of great importance at the consortium was concepts of working w/doctoral students regarding engagement work and working with graduate students in engagement towards scholarship. MSU is a member of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and has sent many members to their fall conference. It will be held again this time next year in Philadelphia. 

Seed Grant Proposals – process and review rubric  

  1. It was decided by all in attendance that proposals would be divided into two folders and the O & E members would be divided into two groups to review them. Assigned Folders emailed to members followed the meeting and another meeting to be set up by Jennifer for everyone to discuss the proposals & select the recipients by the Nov 1st deadline (which is before the next regular O & E meeting).  
  2. Attached to the seed grant proposals in the folder was a scoring rubric that follows RFP guidelines and that is used for scoring proposals. After each member has finished scoring their folder, they are to send them to Jennifer to put in a Box folder where the averages will be determined based on everyone’s scored rubrics.  
  3. Again, it was discussed putting the proposal out in Spring. All agreed on an announcement date of seed grant recipients of July 1st. That way the projects awarded seed grant funding can start right after the new fiscal year starts, giving recipients more time & flexibility. The search/announcements would need to be put out sooner. March was suggested. 
  4. The entire group agreed if proposals need to meet the minimum criteria to be considered, even if there are very few proposals submitted. It should not be funded just because it was submitted even if there are not enough proposals to meet the amount we have to fund. There is no minimum score to be approved. 
  5. Last year there were 20-25 applicants. As of the time the meeting started there were only 6 who had applied. As in years past, it was stated that most will be submitted last second.  
  6. If less than 7 proposals are submitted the group agreed that extending the deadline may be in order. Collins asked the members if it would be allowed to revise and resubmit if council feels it is a good proposal. Unanimous yes. 

Past Seed Grants – What would you like to hear about?

A flyer for past seed grant recipients was passed around and it was asked what ones we would like to hear about. It was noted that there were some seed grant recipients not on the flyer that would be good to hear from such as … 

Some of the ones that members suggested we hear from were Small Shelters for the Homeless, Mobile MAIA Science Lab & Study for the Effectiveness of Support Services for Families of Children with Disabilities. It was also suggested to hear from some of the O & E Council members who have been past recipients as well.  

The new Dean of Graduates is interested in seeing O & E develop a course (noncredit course??) that could be open to the public but would gear towards the graduate students. Subject would be something like what is outreach and engagement and how do you do that? What does good outreach and engagement look like? 

Informational items

  1. Excellence in Outreach Award for Spring Convocation is posted on https://www.montana.edu/provost/  There is a nomination portal that takes you to the nomination application. It was agreed by all that action will be taken to review these awards shortly after the Seed Grant Proposals are finished as the deadline to be received by the Provost office is October 31st and the turnaround is only 3weeks to recommend one from faulty and one from staff and return those recommendations to Provost. – (Obbink) 
  2. Obbink suggested a possible future non-credit course and added that we show how to present good outreach & engagement in the class. Stone suggested if we go down that road, why not go all the way and make it a credit course? Or Professional & Faculty Courses that certify you (not badge you) for this or that? 
  3. Reviewed seed grant requirements for applications. (ALL)  

Meeting adjourned

2:30p.m.