SDC Team Lead Meeting March 8, 2023

Introductions

1. hi im keyon from uw robotics woohoo

Staffing updates

1. Faculty Financial Assistant - Sarah

   1. Sarah has started as the faculty’s financial assistant. Going forward, anything to with finances, purchases, reimbursements, weef funding--reach out to Sarah. Her email is a generic email, studentdesigncentre-something@uwaterloo. Introduced to her by email

2. Administrative Manager -Sarah Feeney

   1. She is taking over for all accounts in work order-type stuff, insurance (doesnt matter much for us) → processes work orders, etc., she’s starting her role and easing into it over the next 2 months

3. Student Shop Instructors – Bryan + … left, replaced with a new instructor named Jeff(?) ? Les?. TLDR we’re now back to 3 instructors at the machine shop. They will announce some training later, but they’re trying to get them up to speed with all the machines.

4. Restarting design reviews through the summer, into the fall

5. Back to full staffing at the SDC!

Finance updates

1. Concur: New, cleaner, faster (electronic) finance system is still in trial; trial is taking a bit longer than anticipated. Person on the front of the project is leaving this friday. If you are one of the teams using Concur, use Concur as much as possible.

   1. Especially for WEEF-funded purchases. They weren’t able to give WEEF access to Concur, so they have a separate database solution coming through Concur to the WEEF-purchase database, so they need to test that out more.

   2. Additional members added today(?)

2. Purchasing recommendations

   1. If you ar elooking at procuring items, buying them on your own credit card is a last resort, going through Sarah is the best way b/c the uni gets tax breaks for the team, and for things coming from the US, the individual gets charged for customs. the uni/procurement is exempt from the customs stuff

   2. They now have access to a P credit card. This also applies for registration fees, event banners, everything you need--it’s just more flexibility. Procurement does take about a week, but it is good

   3. does not apply for hotel fees, meals, flights, those are incurred normally. You can file for a travel advance for this kind of thing, about a month in advance of the competition; you can do it through concur if you are in concur.

   4. The university now has access to amazon prime!

   5. Items are now meant to go directly to the work bay. Central stores will ship directly to your work bay, they are going to stop using 2001. For large crates and items, talk to graeme/sarah/teertsra. There was one typ of item that was meant to go to sarah’s office but I missed it.

Vehicles

1. Purchase of new team vehicle

   1. The other car didnt work out, wasnt coming in in the next year, so they are going with a minivan instead → should be a 2020 white dodge caravan, 7 seats, good for cargo space. It will be ready for April or earlier(?), coming in at just over 20000, can be booked online

   2. They were told to hold off on the second vehicle until they can prove that we’ll actually use it

   3. Trying to not have to use personal vehicles for competitions

   4. New driver registration, truck trianing:

      1. It’s a personal interview; point them to Teertstra or Graeme

         1. They’ll go through the rquirements for vehicles, policy, check for driving history, then sign them up.

      2. For truck training, email was sent out;

         1. First in-class session for truck training is next wednesday.

            1. To haul a large trailer

            2. This is the first step for anyone who needs to drive a truck. Available online as well. May be important for comp

         2. Parking lot training will happen as it warms up

         3. graeme: if we need truck training, let me know

         4. Will be available first week of May as well

   5. Vehicle scheduling:

      1. Same system as the room booking, but we run into problems as some teams that are using the vehicle arent the ones they want to take the vehicles at some time

      2. It’s just about timing/scheduling conflicts, just let Graeme know. Just entering it on the booking system may not be enough

      3. Student asked about opening up the booking to see May, will happen soon

E5-2001 renovations discussion

1. The vision was to turn it into a working space for teams that do not have a bay (for the back end of the room, front will stay the same), but people have been using the back end as a study space: discussion about what works

2. Teertstra’s idea after discussion: turn it into a large meeting space

   1. → discussion evolved; turn it into a large working space or maybe a large storage space, or classroom

   2. moving toward meeting space, teertstra will talk to people and get ideas, circle back/shoot emails for next team lead meeting

Miscellaneous

1. Equipment for loan in RPC

   1. The SDC has a lot of equipment you may not be aware of; brian the co-op student can help a lot with loaning out equipment from the RPC. Thermal cameras, gopros, power supplies, scopes… it’s all available; go to the RPC!

   2. Walkie talkies are borrowed from EngSoc, but available(?). They seem popular, so teerstra is looking at buying new ones

   3. Teertstra/someone will put together a list of equipment and shoot it out

2. Co-op:

   1. If you’re looking at hiring students for spring, the start date for advertising has not been negotiated, will happen soon.

   2. Co-op is moving to an individual-team-based login. Instead of logging in as UW Robotics, you’ll just login as you and have access to your team’s posting, and all communications go to your team email. They’re testing it right now, teerstra just sent an email asking for an update, should hooopefully be ready for next cycle

3. ESA/CSA inspector going to come in in the next 1-2 weeks

   1. Any electrical equipment that needs approval, let Graeme know ASAP

   2. Graeme is going to have an ESA inspector come in