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Officer Responsibilities
As a young organization, the JBGSA still has a lot of work ahead to become well established and accepted. The officers are responsible for making this happen, and it requires a significant amount of time. This should be taken into consideration before accepting a position. Neglect by one of the officers is enough to overburden the other officers and destroy a very useful organization. It is critical that the officers are capable of working together to represent a unified front of graduate students. To achieve this end, officers meetings should be held (possibly with the proposed mentor) at least biweekly. In this forum officers can coordinate their separate roles and see that nothing is overlooked. Disagreements should also be worked out within the officer and general meetings to determine how to best represent the JBGSA. The recruitment of new students is the job of all officers. Specific job requirements of each position are described below. The Secretary is responsible for the recording of the actions of the JBGSA and publicity of JBGSA activities. Meeting minutes, as well as preparation for meetings, including reserving rooms, ordering pizza, and advertising (in advance and the day of the meeting), are integral parts of this position. Details of the meeting, suggestions, new ideas, and commitments should be recorded by the Secretary in significant detail. Whenever possible, attendance should be recorded and these records maintained. Additionally, minutes are sent by the Secretary via email for posting on the web page. Maintenance of a documents file consisting of letters from faculty, notice of tax status, group and program history, summary files from committees, etc. is the responsibility of the Secretary. These files, as formal documents as well as computer copy for amendment, are to be easily accessed for use in organizing new JBGSA activities. Contacts with outside members of industry, faculty, and others should be recorded and maintained through the Secretary for future involvement with the JBGSA. This will help develop a network for association interaction and provide sources of assistance when necessary. To assist the Secretary in publicity of events building representatives are also elected. It is the responsibility of the Secretary to contact these representatives in a timely manner and provide flyers as necessary. The Secretary should follow up on information dissemination. This position monitors JBGSA funds and is involved in accounting for all costs. The Treasurer is in charge of pursuing funds for the JBGSA, from academic and industrial sources, in the form of donations and fund-raisers. The application of operation costs from the Rutgers GSA with an equal donation from UMDNJ to the JBGSA has been established. This provides an easily accessable source of income from both UMDNJ and Rutgers. Also, sources within industry have been identified. It is now the job of the next Treasurer to put these sources to work for the JBGSA. In addition to these jobs it is also the responsibility of the Treasurer to account for debt/costs, provide pre-approved funds and reimbursements to committees, work closely with committees designed to get industrial funds for specific activities, and maintain the established JBGSA bank account. Through discussions and financial reports, the Treasurer, with the other officers, determine the financial feasibility of events and determines new sources of funding for the JBGSA. The Vice President is the key contact for committees, acting to expedite the progress of these groups. The Vice President should facilitate committee organized student activities by closely monitoring their progress and suggesting potential resources for their use. For this to occur it is essential that the Vice President be both easy to contact and have a working knowledge of all resources available to the JBGSA. Weekly contact should be made with each committee head to see that progress occurs. The Vice President also acts as an assistant to the President. Should the President become overburdened, the Vice President acts to relieve the President of some of their demands, as requested by the President. The Vice President also fills the role of President when necessary. The Vice President should inform the President of the committee actions and goals as they are achieved. The Vice President and the President must communicate to great lengths, as this is the most important link that the committees have to the President. The President is responsible for all actions of the JBGSA. Financial responsibilities, social obligations, internal and external representation of the JBGSA all fall on this position. Therefore, it requires an abundance of time and energy. The most significant action of this position is the determination of student body needs and the creation of resolutions to fill these needs. The actions of the President should benefit the majority of graduate students. The decision of what funds to raise and how, are best answered by officer and student suggestion, but should be validated by the President (working closely with the Treasurer). The President should defend the autonomy of the JBGSA. For the JBGSA to honestly represent the students it must have autonomy. This includes the ability to raise funds, ability to appeal to either campus with student grievances, and the ability to act on student's sentiment, not as a body for faculty usage. The position of President is often challenged with this consideration by both faculty and students. It is the responsibility of the President to represent the graduate student population, and only the graduate students. The President must communicate with the officers and the general population about the actions of the JBGSA, and must use all means necessary to provide maximal involvement of students. The President should also be instrumental in relaying plans of the JBGSA to the faculty. Expression of these plans will allow for success of student activities and reduce confusion generated by independent actions of faculty and graduate students, preventing redundancy and conflict. The President must work with the mentor (proposed) to work out plans generated by students at general meetings and officer meetings. The President should also maintain communication with other GSAs such as the Rutgers GSA and if possible specialty groups such as nationality based GSAs. This will provide more exposure and expand the JBGSA, as well and add to the group support of the JBGSA and other graduate organizations.
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