Council of Graduate Students

General Assembly Meeting

April 24th 2008

AgendaAgenda Announcements:

Leadership Award Recipients Travel Grant Recipients 

Elections:  

Guest Speaker: Gayla Marty (Graduate School Dean’s office) discusses Grad School Communications

Update: GAPSA Meeting

Appreciation: Current Officers Top GA Attendees

Leadership AwardsLeadership Awards

Noelle Noonan - Music

Honorable Mentions Isaac Kamola - Political Science Robyn Skrebes - Public Policy

Travel AwardsTravel Awards Zhen Wang—Political Science

Catherine Kelly—Education

DebarchanaGhosh—Geography

Lynne Baker—Conservation Biology

Fernando Herrera Calderón—History

William Daddario—Theatre

Leah Domine—Ecology, Evolution & Behavior

Julia Rauchfuss—Geography

PresidentPresident The President is the chief

executive of COGS. The President must be accessible to all facets of the University Graduate School population and aware of the needs of and the issues relevant to graduate students.

organizes and runs GA meetings. organizes and runs Deans Meetings. represents COGS before the University administration, University organizations, and outside groups

serves as a liaison between the above mentioned bodies and graduate students

serves as a member of the Graduate School Executive Committee

officially represents COGS to the GAPSA Executive Committee.

identify, study, and attempts to resolve potential and real problems confronting graduate students

is responsible for the efficient operation of the Council

supervises all other COGS officers and office staff

Executive Vice Executive Vice PresidentPresident

Fills in for the President where needed and assists the President in representing COGS before University and non-University organizations.

fills in for the President as needed

represent COGS before University and non-University entities

act as an official liaison between University Senate and COGS

maintains a list of all committees COGS has seats on and communicates with all committee representatives that COGS has.

recruit students for non-internal committees

Vice President of Vice President of FinanceFinance

The Vice-President for Finance is responsible for all aspects of fiscal policy.

coordinates, monitors and plans fiscal policy

makes monetary disbursements for COGS

organizes and presents the annual budget

represents COGS in all matters concerning finance

maintains the COGS Endowment and dispersal of the COGS Travel and Education Grants and the COGS Leadership Awards

files taxes and other paperwork required with local authorities

works with GAPSA on the fees request

Vice President of Vice President of External RelationsExternal Relations

Responsible for printed communications to all graduate students, including the GradLetter and the Extra email list. Maintains contact with departments and DGSs. Requires usual Exec Committee time commitment, about 3 hours per month to create publications, plus other obligations as necessary.

aid in COGS recruitment activities

publish and distributes the GradLetter, the COGS Extra! electronic newsletter, and other publications

maintains communications with graduate programs and DGS

coordinates recruitment of program reps through DGS and/or program student councils

oversees COGS Leadership Award

oversees COGS sponsored functions for all graduate students

Vice President of Vice President of Internal RelationsInternal Relations

The Vice President for Internal Relations is responsible for establishing and maintaining working relations with the graduate programs and the Directors of Graduate Studies. The VP-IR is also in charge of outgoing communication to the general graduate student population from COGS.

communicate with General Assembly members outside of the General Assembly meetings

coordinate P&R Council activities

oversee COGS internal committees (ad hoc or otherwise)

oversees the preparations for General Assembly meetings

Vice President of Vice President of CommunicationsCommunications

Responsible for the COGS website and all COGS advertising (MN Daily, etc).Takes minutes at the GA meetings.

maintains and updates the COGS web pages

summarizes minutes of General Assembly meetings and Executive Committee meetings; make them available on COGS web site

documents all motions and votes at the meetings; post them on the COGS web site

updates and maintains internal documents (constitution and bylaws)

Policy and Review Policy and Review Council ChairsCouncil Chairs

Biological Sciences

Education and Psychology

Health Sciences

Language, Literature and the Arts

Engineering, Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Social Sciences

Responsibilities:Find representatives for your P&R councilHelp run workshops for COGS Attend GA and Exec meetings

SenatorsSenators The COGS Student Senators represent COGS to the University

Senate. Senate meetings are approximately once a month for most of a Thursday (from 11am until 4pm or so, depending on the agendas). Senators also represent COGS to the GAPSA General Assembly (along with the President of COGS). Senators are extremely important positions as they directly promote COGS' interests to the University at large.

Monthly Senate meetings (~5 hours)

Monthly COGS GA meeting (2 hours)

Monthly GAPSA meeting (2 hours)

Guest SpeakerGuest Speaker Gayla Marty

Director of Communication for the Graduate School

GAPSA UpdateGAPSA Update Elections completed last night

Resolution passed regarding best financial practices

AppreciationAppreciation Current Officers

Bryan Gordon Eric Grashorn Matt Kaplan Andy Exley Jenny Corcoran Caroline Hilk Sarah Stoddard Eli Meyerhoff Eden Kaiser Geoff Hart Scott Johnson

Top GA Attendees Alyssa Anderson (Entomology) Angela George (HLLCL) Duane Robinson (Vet

Medicine) Tim Salo (Computer Science) RenataTicha (Education

Psychology) Andy Warta (Chemical

Engineering) Pamela Weisenhorn (Ecology,

Evolution & Behavior) Pam Wesely (Education,

Curriculum & Instruction) Xi Zhu (Sociology)

Adjourned!Adjourned!

Have a great rest of the semester…