SGSS List of Positions/Officers

Approved 4/6/2015; Revised 4/6/2016

Position: President (1)

Preference: Doctoral Graduate Student who was Vice President of SGSS in the previous year.

The President is the liaison between the Graduate Coordinator and the rest of the SGSS.
The President keeps all the information about SGSS positions and the elections of officers up-to-date and keeps the Graduate Coordinator up-to-date on these.
The President helps any of the other SGSS officers with questions about their position or unforeseen issues associated with it.
The President plans and conducts the annual meeting for election of new officers within the first month of the fall semester.
The President will act as a liaison between SGSS and faculty. The President may attend the first ten minutes of faculty meetings. This individual does not have voting rights but does get an opportunity to discuss graduate student opinion when faculty are voting on departmental matters that concern graduate student policy. This person will present graduate student opinion fairly and accurately in all of its diversity. Finally, the Graduate Coordinator will distribute faculty meeting minutes to the President, who will share these with the rest of the graduate students. If the President cannot attend faculty meetings due to a scheduling conflict, the Graduate Program Committee Member will attend on her or his behalf.
The President, along with the Sponsored Speaker Chair, solicits names of potential speakers to bring in for the SGSS sponsored colloquium, conducts votes as needed of the SGSS members, contact speakers, and coordinate a date with the Colloquium Committee. This should be completed by November of the fall semester.

Vice President (1)

This is a two-year commitment. Vice Presidents will assume the role of President for the following academic year.

The Vice President must ensure that the SGSS is registered with the Center for Student Organizations (CSO) in the fall semester; this process is conducted over the summer. The President should ensure that all information, including the constitution, is kept up-to-date with CSO (http://www.uga.edu/stuorgs/).
The VP goes to any meetings needed to keep SGSS active with CSO and to apply for funds from the Franklin Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee.
The VP should apply on behalf of SGSS to the Franklin Student Activity Fee Allocation in the fall semester. This is used to bring a speaker in for SGSS sponsored colloquium held in the spring semester.
The VP also acts as the co-chair of the Graduate Student Forum. The Graduate Student Forum will meet once a month in September, October, November, January, February, March, and April. This is a forum for graduate students to discuss current papers or projects and receive feedback from fellow students. It is the Vice President's job to schedule these meetings, recruit two students to share their research per meeting, recruit volunteers to respond to this research (two per researcher), and act as group facilitator. (See Graduate Student Forum Description) for more information on proceedings of the group.

Graduate Program Committee Member (1)

This position will represent graduate students to the Graduate Program Committee (GPC), which consists of the graduate coordinator and two other faculty members. The GPCM is expected to contribute to discussions of policy changes regarding the graduate program and act as a liaison between the GPC and SGSS.
If the President cannot attend faculty meetings due to a scheduling conflict, the GPCM will attend the first ten minutes of faculty meetings on the President's behalf (see above).

Graduate Student Forum Chair (1)

The Graduate Student Forum Chair assists the VP in the planning, scheduling, and organization of monthly Graduate Student Forum meetings. This includes but is not limited to reserving rooms and working with the rest of the graduate students to schedule dates and select who will be presenting and responding to research. (See Graduate Student Forum Description) for more information on proceedings of the group.

Webmaster (1)

This position is in charge of maintaining the SGSS Facebook Group, Instagram, and wixsite.
The Webmaster will update media profiles with dates of meetings, accomplishments of graduate students, minutes of meetings, and any other relevant information that may arise over the academic year.
The Webmaster will also create and maintain a page for the department's UGA webpage describing SGSS and its activities (primarily, the Graduate Student Forum).

Diversity Chair (1)

The diversity chair is responsible for organizing a monthly diversity workshop for graduate students.
In the monthly meeting, we discuss topics related to a wide-range of topics including racial, gender, and class inequality. We will also discuss first-generations students, students with disabilities, and other related issues.
The purpose of this workshop is to sensitize graduate students to deal with these topics in our classrooms but also to provide a space to discuss diversity and promoting diversity.
The graduate students will select the final topics and the diversity chair will work on organizing the readings, special speakers, and activities for the monthly workshop (with the input of the graduate students).

Assistant Diversity Chair (1)

The Asst. Diversity Chair will shadow and assist the Diversity Chair. The Assistant Diversity Chair will become the Diversity Chair the following year. In addition the Assistant Diversity Chair will be the Student Association (GSA) Representative.

This position is in charge of going to the meetings of the GSA and representing SGSS (http://www.ugagsa.org). This also involves disseminating information that comes from the GSA about events, causes, and issues related to graduate students at UGA. Because the meetings are open, others can attend.
The GSA Representative should encourage other students to attend meetings if there are extremely relevant and important issues being discussed.

Graduate Recruitment Representatives

Members of the first year cohort.

While all members of the first year cohort are expected to join this committee, the Graduate Coordinator may assign a chair at the first charge meeting, held in January, if necessary.
The duties of this committee begin once the Graduate Program Committee selects the candidates to invite for the recruitment weekend. These graduate students work with the Graduate Coordinator to organize the recruitment event and serve as a connection between the department and our prospective students.
The Committee helps plan the weekend including social events, food, tours, etc. in coordination with the Graduate Coordinator.

Team: Team