Purpose

The goals of this association are to:

1. facilitate the social and academic interaction of graduate students within the Plant Biology Graduate Group (PBGG).
2. serve as a forum for graduate student input into group affairs.
3. provide a means for communicating the concerns of plant biology graduate students to the Graduate Students Association (GSA)
4. to inform plant biology graduate students of issues which concern graduate students both within plant biology and campus wide.

Specifically, PBGSA has the following functions:

1. Representation:
   1. At the PBGG Executive Committee
   2. At the GSA

2. Participating in the Graduate Group:
   1. Through assisting in hosting and orienting prospective students
   2. Through the annual Fall Barbeque
   3. By offering photocopy cards to all members who need them.

3. Academic:
   1. Organizing the annual Spring Colloquium

4. Social:
   1. Encouraging small group socials by making funds available to members.
   2. Large social events at the Fall Barbeque and Spring Colloquium

Membership:

All graduate students who are in the Plant Biology, Plant Physiology, and Botany Graduate Programs, are automatically members of the Plant Biology Graduate Student Association.

Any non-PBGG graduate student may chose to become a member of PBGSA. He or she must fill out the appropriate form (change of membership) from the GSA and give this to the PBGSA Secretary/Treasurer, and also submit his/her email address to the PBGG Secretary.

Meetings:

General Meetings:

Meetings will be called and chaired by at least one member of the Executive Committee. An announcement including the agenda should be mailed at least one week in advance to all PBGSA members. Electronic mail shall be the primary means of announcing general meetings. At least one general meeting will be held at the beginning and end of the school year, and any additional general meetings called as the need arises. Business may be voted on by the membership present, and passed by a simple majority.

Additional agenda items may be introduced from the floor by any member for deliberation at the next general meeting. When this occurs a general meeting must be scheduled to address the new business within a month.

Committee Meetings:

Committee meetings shall be called and chaired by the chairperson of that committee. All committee members must be notified of the meeting, but it will not be necessary to notify the general membership. Business may be voted on by the committee members present, and passed by a simple majority.

Standing Committees:

PBGSA shall be administered and run by five standing committees: the Executive Committee whose members are elected, and four other committees composed of both volunteers from the PBGSA membership and a chairperson who is one of the elected members of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee must ensure that each of the four committees is adequately staffed in order to spread the workload fairly. There must be at least one volunteer committee member in each committee in addition to the chair. Note: when the Executive Committee has been unable to solicit enough volunteers, the Executive Committee of the Plant Biology Graduate Group has agreed to help encourage students to participate.

Executive Committee:

The executive committee will ensure that the other four committees are formed and operating each year, and will receive updates on their progress throughout the year. The executive committee will authorize all formal requests or statements to external organizations, take responsibility for PBGSA finances, inform all PBGSA members of major events and decisions, and ensure the proper continuation of PBGSA for the following year.

Advocacy Committee:

The members of this committee will represent the interests of PBGSA at meetings of the GSA, the PBGG and departmental meetings as necessary.

Colloquium Committee:

This committee will organize and advertize the annual graduate student colloquium. In order to encourage participation, a travel grant of up to $500 (if sufficient funds can be raised from faculty/corporate donations and PBGSA funds) will be awarded to the student who gives the best talk at the colloquium. Students giving their exit seminar at the colloquium are ineligible for the prize. The award must be used within one year. The Colloquium committee will organize the judging and determine the size of the award.

Events Committee:

The Events Committee will organize (a) the Fall Barbeque, (b) the Recruitment Potluck. In addition, this committee will evaluate requests for funds for social events organized by PBGSA members. Any PBGSA member who wishes to organize a social event e.g. primarily for graduate students in a certain building/department is encouraged to do so, and request PBGSA funds, with the stipulation that the event must be advertized by E-Mail to the entire PBGSA membership. The Events Committee should approve all reasonable requests on a first-come first-served basis until the funds are depleted. PBGSA members should be informed of this opportunity at the beginning of each quarter.

Recruitment Committee:

Recognizing the importance of recruiting high-quality new graduate students to the PBGG, this PBGSA committee will assist the Graduate Group in hosting prospective students. Specifically, this committee will solicit volunteers from among the PBGSA membership to (a) host prospective students overnight, (b) host prospective students for meals, (c) answer questions during the orientation. At least one member of this committee is required to also serve on the PBGG Recruitment Committee. It will be the responsibility of the PBGG Recruitment Committee, not the PBGSA Recruitment Committee, to (a) organize the itineraries of prospective students and communicate this information to all volunteer hosts, and (b) make arrangements for transportation from and to the airport/train station/bus depot etc., (c) organize sight-seeing trips etc., and find hosts/drivers for these trips.

To express appreciation, the Executive Committee is authorized to take out to dinner at the end of the academic year all students who served on PBGSA committees throughout the year.

Elected Offices:

Nominations for the Executive Committee (E.C.)shall be made at the last general meeting of the year. There should be at least eight nominees. A ballot with the names of the candidates will be sent to all PBGSA members following this meeting, and each member will be asked to vote for six candidates. The six candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be appointed to the Executive Committee for a term of one year, starting in July. The first E.C. meeting of the year should coincide with the last meeting of the previous E.C., so that the new members can be updated and given the appropriate files.

At the first meeting of the E.C., the new members shall nominate and elect a chairperson from among them, as well as each of the other positions. In the event that no one accepts nomination as chair, the person who received the most votes in the election to the E.C. will be chair.

All officers and committee representatives are encouraged to keep neat, up-to-date files on their respective committees and responsibilities. At the expiration of their term in office, each representative will pass on this file with whatever help and advice necessary to insure a smooth transfer of duties.

Chairperson:

The chairperson will serve as the representative to outside agencies e.g. Graduate Dean, Mrak Hall etc. and as one of the two student representatives to the Plant Biology Group Executive Committee. He/she will be responsible for expressing students' concerns as well as informing students of relevant committee business (e.g. through general meetings, E-mail). It shall be the first duty of the chairperson to register the PBGSA with the Student Activities office as an independent (non-departmentally affiliated) student organization. This should be done in or before the first week of September to make early reservation of facilities for fall activities possible. He/she is also responsible for organizing meetings, including room reservations and agendas. The chairperson will be second signatory on the association's bank account. In addition the chairperson should provide a leadership role in the association and work to motivate other graduate students to become involved in the graduate group.

Secretary/Treasurer

The Secretary is responsible for keeping all financial and non-financial records of the PBGSA and taking minutes of general and officers' meetings. This includes submitting the quarterly PBGSA fund application to the GSA, maintaining a record of funds received and spent by the association, and making sure the signatories on the bank account are updated yearly. He/she shall submit a financial report covering past and expected costs to the Executive Committee, and give the Events Committee an estimate of the funding available for social events. The Treasurer will be the first signatory on the associations' bank account. The Treasurer will be responsible for notifying the general membership of general meetings, and elections. He/she will be in charge of the photocopy card program.

Chair of the Advocacy Committee

The chair will divide up the responsibilities among the committee members, and remind them of meeting schedules. One representative must be at all meetings of the PBGG Executive Committee. Several members must represent PBGSA at the GSA (at least 1 for every 30 graduate students and fraction thereof), and they must each attend at least two GSA meetings per quarter. Committee members should also represent PBGSA at relevant departmental meetings or any other meeting where important issues affecting PBGSA members are being decided. The chair shall report to the Executive Committee, and is responsible for communicating major issues to the PBGSA membership.

Chair of the Colloquium Committee

The chair shall meet with this committee early in the year to solicit nominations for the invited speaker. The speaker should be invited as early as possible, and according to the speaker's schedule, a room should be reserved again, as early as possible.

Chair of the Events Committee

The Fall BBQ is usually held sometime during the first two weeks of the fall quarter, so it is essential for the chair of this committee to call the committee together during the summer so that the necessary reservations, alcohol permits, and advertizing can be made in time. The chair of the Events Committee should be in close communication with the Secretary/Treasurer regarding the amount of money available for these events.

Chair of the Recruitment Committee

The chair of this committee must work closely with other committees involved in recruitment of prospective Plant Biology students to avoid confusion and duplication of effort. In particular, the PBGG Recruitment Committee will be doing the main organization of the recruitment effort. Training grants and other organizations may also have special recruitment activites. The chair of the PBGSA Recruitment Committee should ensure that at least one committee member is actively involved in the PBGG Recruitment Committee.

PBGSA Funds:

A bank account will be set up to hold the association's funds. The treasurer will be the first signatory to the account and the chair of the Executive Committee the second signatory. The secretary/treasurer should be informed of any transactions. The officers are requested to notify the treasurer of anticipated expenses, so that he/she may bring them up for discussion at the officers' meetings.

Amendments to the Charter: