Jan 10, 2025 | J-KOA January 2025 BOD Meeting

Attendees: Koya, Toni, Kayla, Eric, Humberto, Ana

Excused: Shelby F, Maureen, Alexi, Stephanie, Alexandria, Julio

Meeting Notes

• Ice breaker/opener: what's something you did over break that will influence your 2025? This could be: an impactful book you read; a new friend you made; a new habit you started; a memorable place you visited, etc.

  • Koya: Read “Compton in my Soul”

    • Book about the history of Compton

    • How redlining affected the city

    • Can be found here: Compton in My Soul | Stanford University Press

  • Toni: 2 major things!!

    • Start filling out Passion Planner (create reading log/book goals, do Passion Road Map and Core Values exercises)

      • Posted a bunch of free Passion Planner resources in the Discord Server

      • Also, I have a discount code so feel free to use ‘TONICOLE091’ at checkout to save $$ or shop through this link: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/zdp35

    • and watched this video: How To Actually Achieve Your Goals in 2025 (Evidence-Based)

  • Kayla: Helped move baby sister off to college!!

    • Only in Boulder but feels like forever away

    • She spent this semester at CU Denver but it wasn’t the vibe

    • Feels like an adult relationship can start with baby sister

  • Eric: Family went to Virginia (originally from Alabama)

    • childhood best friend was also living there

    • Got both families together and all had a great time!

  • Humberto: Went to Moab to Arches National Park!! 

    • Arches were archingggg

  • Ana: Got to know sister’s daughter who was in an open adoption 13 years ago!! She came to stay with their family in Glenwood Springs

• TEKS updates and planning 

  • Students’ projects are coming along!

  • Roughly 20 kids across both schools

  • Community Science Fair is February 15!

    • For Aurora Community Students

    • Mirrored fair for Anschutz Scientists to participate as well!

    • Panel and discussions

    • SACNAS hosting an all Spanish panel as well!

    • Budget allocated for Food and Awards for students

    • Excellent practice for DMRSEF!!

  • DMRSEF Science Fair is February 28!

    • CU Denver - Student Wellness Center

    • Calendar: 2025 DMRSEF Events and Deadlines | CoorsTek Denver Metro Regional Science and Engineering Fair

    • Activities fair: J-KOA Booth?

    • Volunteers needed!! Booth prioritized; everyone else can be overflowed into other volunteer opportunities at the fair

  • Scientist coming in to talk about their work

    • Potentially after the fair so the kids can still meet but can focus on the projects for now

    • A lot of kids expressed last year wanting science fair club to continue

• Non-profit establishment planning 

  • Koya did research over the break

  • Process for both local and national are roughly the same

  • Challenges:

    • Lawyer fees

    • Logistics

  • Koya getting connected with people in network via a contact that can help with the process

  • General Idea

    • Flagship Branch: Aurora

      • AST, Boston P-8, ACC, CUPS

      • Focus: Mentorship and Outreach

    • California: Andrea’s Branch

      • Already has a potential board

      • Focus: Science communication

    • National: Supports both branches

      • Goal: Empower next generation of future leaders

      • Future work with Aurora Public Schools (potential)

      • Department of Energy: encouraging science outreach and getting other people excited

  • National preferred is because there is a need/want for J-KOA on a national level with people who are excited to bring J-KOA to other places

    • Advantages: Makes it easier to bring on more funds, more creative freedom

      • People can make the branches whatever they want

      • “You don’t waste time, you just learn from it.”

      • National handles all tax forms for all branches

    • Disadvantages: a lot more technicalities to hit the ground running

  • Flagship branch is where a majority of efforts/resources would go

  • If only going local

    • Advantage: More local collaboration, fewer overhead costs

    • Disadvantages: centralized goal, not as many opportunities for growth

  • Questions: 

    • How does the division of funding come about if (for example) the flagship branch receives specific funding? Work into bylaws?

    • Risk?

    • Is there a penalty to applying for National status and focusing on local efforts first? 

    • Process if we applied local first and national second?

• Nomination and election process for May 2025 

  • Flagship (Aurora): 

    • Oscar running for president for next year

    • Board positions all up for nomination, per bylaws

  • California (Bay Area):

    • Andrea + her board

    • President, VP, Treasurer, Historian + other roles

  • National:

    • 4 people tops: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Historian

    • Danielle for National Treasurer

• Proposal from the President to incorporate faculty/staff/professors into J-KOA 

  • Faculty/Staff/Professors incorporated to help with advising/other needs

  • Helps with legitimacy for grant applications

  • Some grant applications require a faculty member, so we may need at least one person in general

  • Opinion: focus on establishing non-profit first and what that will look like before we open up to a council

  • Opinion: anti-faculty, but faculty advisors are needed for certain things; role in org needs to be explicitly stated and enforced to make this work

  • Opinion: it would be a great idea with the right faculty/staff in mind! There are staff that definitely would want to help with something like this/be able to support us how we need! Ex: SACNAS Advisor is advisor on title but not necessarily around all the time or has much say in day-to-day decisions

  • Opinion: student-driven is the way to be! It would be amazing but not entirely necessary