A film by Joe Tropea ’06 History B.A. and ’08 Historical Studies premiers locally at the Maryland Film Festival next week.  The Baltimore Brew covered the film in a May 1 story entitled “A fiery act of civil disobedience in Catonsville still resonates, 45 years later.”

“Hit & Stay’ tells the story of nine Catholic activists who protested the Vietnam War by burning draft files in Catonsville on May 17, 1968.  Tropea and fellow filmmaker Skizz Cyzyk tell the story using old footage, recent interviews with surviving members of the group and their supporters, images of war horrors, and the reflections of eminences of the Left such as Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Bill Ayers and Amy Goodman.

Tropea undertook the six-year process of making the documentary after writing on the subject for his masters thesis.  “I had had no idea about the amount of strategy and coordination and about how all these things were connected,” he said.

“Hit & Stay” will have two screenings at The Maryland Film Festival. (Tickets available here.)

• Thursday, May 9, 7:30 p.m. at Charles Theatre, 1711 N Charles St.
• Saturday, May 11, 1:30 p.m. at MICA’s Brown Center, 1300 Mount Royal Ave.

The anniversary of the action will also be commemorated with a May 10 event at UMBC, “Looking Forward from the 45th Anniversary of the Catonsville Nine Actions.”

Dr. Soobum Lee joined UMBC in November 2012. He is one of the leading young scientists on energy harvesting technology and obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2007. He worked at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), at the University of Maryland as a post doctorate researcher, and as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame.

His main research interests include energy harvester design, topology optimization, robust design, and reliability based design optimization. He is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. He was awarded the 2009 highlight of collections by Smart Materials and Structures (IOP publishing) and the best paper award by the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineering (KSME) in 2007. His development on energy harvesting was acknowledged by several science news websites:

• http://phys.org/news/2011-04-energy-harvesting-skin-power-air.html
• http://powerelectronics.com/energy-harvesting/dont-let-those-ac-vibrations-go-waste

His recent research activities include robust design of (non)linear vibration energy harvester, multifunctional energy harvesting skin with structural health monitoring capability, and multiple practical applications (e.g., battery-less tire pressure monitoring sensor (TPMS), energy harvesting human implant).

Personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/sbomy100/, http://me.umbc.edu/dr-soobum-lee/

CV: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~sblee/CV_SLee_Update_Jan2013.pdf

Graduate Research Assistant opportunity: 

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~sblee/ad_student_Slee.pdf

Constitution

Our previous Constitution has become outdated due the growth and maturing of our organization. The Constitution contains the fundamental principles that govern the operation of our organization including our name and purpose, officers, elections, removal of officers, and procedure for making amendments to the constitution.  Amendments to the Constitution should be very infrequent; so it must be well thought out and approved.

Below is a link to a draft of the Constitution on which we will vote tonight. Please read it so that you know what you're voting for tonight! A 2/3 vote by all members attending tonight's GBM will approve the Constitution which we will then submit to the SGA Committee for review and final approval. Please let me know about any typos that you find or disagreements you may have ahead of time so that we can breeze through the voting tonight.

https://docs.google.com/a/umbc.edu/file/d/0B0BqAhZnUlUaTTJfUkFvSWJUeWM/edit?usp=sharing

Bylaws

Like our old Constitution, the current Bylaws are inadequate and outdated. The bylaws further detail the procedures that the organization must follow.  The bylaws can be changed more easily than the Constitution as the needs of the org change.

Below is a link to a draft of the Bylaws on which we will vote tonight. Please read them also! A majority vote by all members attending tonight will approve the Bylaws.

https://docs.google.com/a/umbc.edu/file/d/0B0BqAhZnUlUaR2lndEtaN1kzOWc/edit?usp=sharing

Officer Elections

To be consistent with our Constitution, all officer positions will be voted on tonight including the Captain. If you have read the Constitution, you'll notice that there is only one Captain position; however, the Bylaws provide for the appointment by the Captain of a Co-Captain and Secretary to the Captain as his staff officers.  For the sake of simplicity of our elections tonight, the Captain and his staff officers (Co-Captain and Secretary to the Captain) will be permitted to run on one ticket tonight (as one item on the ballot).

Our current captains have selected their choice for and will announce tonight who they think will help guide the team well as captains next year.  Their endorsement of these candidates has been well thought out and should be considered when you vote, but, of course, it is still up to you.

Nominations for all offices will be accepted from the floor tonight before voting. So, even the guys who have already indicated their interest in running will need to be nominated tonight before voting begins.

All nominees and candidates should be prepared to give a very brief speech explaining why they should be elected to office.

Thanks for reading this far! We'll see you tonight in the Commons room 331 at 7:30PM. Bring a writing utensil for voting!

P.J.