Location: Upper Sayles
Time: 8:30 am
Present Chris Clark, Mihaela Czobor-Lupp, Danette DeMann, Forrest McKnight, Fred Rogers, Kristen Vellinger
Absent Max Bearak, Joe Concannon, Daniel Groll, Fadi Hakim, Sara Hooker, Iris Wang
Secretary: Claire Milsted
Changes in the committee:
Max Bearak will be leaving the committee, and Kristen will be graduating soon. Kristen suggested that we could phase in a new student chair, Fadi Hakim. We took a vote and Fadi was unanimously voted in, so he will be the new student chair starting in the winter.
Ellen, Fadi, and Joe will all be returning next term.
EthVest Research Review
We discussed how to use EthVest. All of the committee-members feel confident using EthVest. Over the break, we will use EthVest to track and research the resolutions filed in companies in our respective sections of the alphabet. By our first meeting next term, we should each have compiled a definitive list; the sum of these lists will be refined in early January into the list we present to the trustees.
Plans for the spring
Fred arrived and we briefly discussed our plans for the spring, as well as our proposed “case law” system for dealing with resolutions similar to those that the trustees approved for a proxy vote in the past.
The idea of an “SRI contest” in which students competed to choose socially responsible portfolios was discussed again. Fred expressed concern that the trustees’ opinion would probably not be affected by any positive returns that the groups involved in the contest were able to produce. However, we could use the SRI contest as a way to garner more student support and interest.
One major problem is time availability. In the spring, we have to pick new student members. This may put a strain on our ability to do all the things we had discussed (talk to the trustees about co-filing or investing in a socially responsible fund or creating an official “SRI policy,” as well as running the SRI contest for students).