Trips

Little Rock/Memphis:

When: February 15th-19th, Wednesday night to Sunday

Brynn:

• Come up with possible hotels in Little Rock and Memphis
• Come up with possible outdoor activities in Little Rock
• Come up with possible attractions in Memphis
• Make a list of electoral races in Memphis

Mike:

• Try to arrange a Little Rock Governor’s Mansion tour with Ms. Huckabee.
• Work with the Beebe campaign to do additional work
• Once Brynn gets list of electoral races in Memphis, I will begin calling to set something up

Samantha

• Will look for activities and attractions in areas surrounding Little Rock and Memphis.
• Will also be responsible for preparing a budget for the trip, which should include a large vehicle, hotels, and gas. For the time being, assume that four girls will be going on the AR/TN trip.
• Additional issues that arise

St. Louis:

When: March 11th-16th, Saturday to Thursday. 

            Emily & Daniella:

• Finding 4 attractions and sites that are “must-dos” for the group.
• Finding a secondary list of attractions that are optional
• Giving me contact information to all tours and such that might give us special treatment.  Presidential Libraries, for example, will sometimes waive fees for Educational Tours. 
• Think outside the box.  If, for example, we think we might get a special private tour to something, try to find out and give me that information.

James:

• Creating an exhaustive list of political campaigns that will be underway—ranging from state representative on up.
• Finding out if the state legislature is in session.

Fundraising:  We’ve got a lot to think about here.

Here are the ideas we’ve come up with: (1) Bake Sale, (2) Candy Sale, (3) Car Wash, (4) Garage Sale, (5) T-Shirts, and (6) Donations

Daniella: You are in charge of the paperwork for this field.  This is a priority.  You’ll need to know—and verify, and verify, and verify—the procedures for fundraising. 

• What kind of fundraising is open to us?
• Can these methods be supplemented if we are sponsored by a group?
• What are the ramifications of being sponsored by a group? 
• What paperwork needs to be filled out to fundraise?
• Do we need a special account created for fundraising?
• You’ll need to examine this from every angle and give me a comprehensive written list presented in an organized, clear format.

Brynn:

• You’ll be the accountant for whatever fundraising we do.
• You’ll also be in charge of soliciting donations. 
• You can delegate the solicitations as you see fit.

Samantha: 

• You’ll be in charge of organizing specific events such as the Car Wash and garage sale, should we choose those.

Emily: 

• You’ll likely do the bulk of the baking.

Events:

We’ve had a possible change in the first event.  Rather than jump into a town-hall meeting, I was thinking about an intern/intern supervisor meet and greet. 

What: A casual dinner
Who: Junior Fellows, Interns, Intern Supervisors, Pol Sci Chair. 
Where: My house, my dad’s house, a hall on campus or in the city?
Why: To strengthen the relationship between interns and their supervisors, and to highlight the Pol Sci department’s internship and Junior Fellows program.

Guests: Since we have interns for Congressman Brady and Representative Kolkhorst, we could possibly get them to show up, at least for a bit.  This would be the perfect time to suggest a subsequent event, such as a town-hall meeting, that would involve them.

Tasks:

• Getting donated food, perhaps from Goerdel’s Meat Market
• Decorating
• Sending invitations
• An informational program of some sort

Such an event would be a good way to ease the newer Junior Fellows into the program, while simultaneously setting up a more ambitious semester-ending event.

Meetings

We need to set a time for a meeting.  The only real time it appears a majority of the class will be able to meet is from 12-1 on Wednesday or Friday.  I think Friday is a bad idea.  There are still about three people who can’t meet at that time, so I am just not sure what to do about it.  I think the only real option, short of meeting on a Saturday, is to do the best we can at that time and catch others up via email.

Research:

Research Question: How do House members and Senators present themselves nonverbally on their website?
Research Design: Content analysis of photographs posted on House members and Senators websites.

This design would give students the opportunity to do hands-on research, resulting in a publishable article (I hope), while also learning about sampling, archival data, content analysis, and statistics.  Furthermore, because it is based on web research, it could be done at home, at the best time for the student.