Governance

Activities & Responsibilities

  1. Meetings (GERA Chair as overall Chair with multiple subcommittees)
    1. March Meeting of APS: GERA Chair works with Chair Elect and Executive committee to identify a program committee. Chair Elect is chair of the Program committee for the March meeting that occurs in the following year when they will be GERA Chair.
      1. Chair Elect attends the March meeting program organizers committee (at the March meeting).
      2. Program committee meets beginning in May.
      3. Program committee develops GERA invited sessions and negotiates co-sponsorship of invited sessions with other APS units. Chair Elect enters information into APS on-line system.
      4. Program committee solicits focus session topics from GERA membership, invited speakers for focus sessions, and facilitates co-sponsorship with other units. Chair Elect enters information.
      5. Program committee selects attendees to the abstract sorters meeting in December. In general Chair Elect is one of the sorters. Talks submitted are sorted into appropriate sessions. New session categories may be needed sometimes.
    2. March Meeting Energy Workshop for Students: GERA Chair "Chairs" the organizing committee that develops the workshop, and runs the workshop. The workshop actually occurs during the March meeting when the GERA Chair will be Past Chair.
      1. First-year Executive Committee members serve on this committee.
      2. Chair appoints additional members as appropriate.
      3. Duties include identifying topic, identifying and inviting speakers,raising financial support, advertising, selecting participants, and running the workshop.
    3. April Meeting of APS. The Chair may delegate this. GERA involvement is under review. Need advice from Executive committee.
    4. Other (e.g. international or GERA workshops) – none at this time.

  2. GERA Elections:
    1. Elections are held annually beginning October 1. APS elections normally take about 6 weeks to complete.
    2. Nominating Committee: The Chair of GERA serves as Chair. Both 2nd year Executive Committee members serve on this committee. This committee meets annually on September 1 to select and recruit candidates for office.
    3. Each year a Vice Chair and two new Executive Committee members are elected for three-year terms.
    4. Every third year a new Secretary/Treasurer is elected for a three-year term.
    5. One student (undergraduate or graduate student) member is elected each year for a one-year term. (Eventually this should be approved by the membership and thus incorporated into our GERA by-laws.)

  3. APS Fellowship:
    1. Fellowship Committee. Vice Chair of GERA serves as Chair. Both 3rd year Executive Committee members serve on this committee.

  4. GERA Newsletter: There are normally two Newsletters per year. The Sec/Treas provides a rough draft to the Chair a couple of weeks before the Newsletter goes out.

  5. GERA Outreach:This is currently administered by the Sec/Treas. Outreach may include fund raising, work with POPA, publication review of material in the Newsletter (e.g. short articles by students), initiatives with other APS units and international organizations, and other items, as needed.

  6. GERA Website: This is administered by the Sec/Treas with the support of the GERA Chair. The GERA material on the APS website is updated annually on June 1. Members of the Executive Committee or GERA volunteers may be asked to help.

  7. GERA Membership: This is overseen by the Sec/Treas. First year Executive Committee members may be asked to help. (An ExCom could exchange Recruitment materials with other APS units such as FIAP as well as international GERA counterparts). A spreadsheet cross listing the membership of each APS unit is available from APS. The spreadsheet gives the number of GERA members in each of the other APS units (divisions, groups, forums, etc.). This defines, in part, the breadth and depth of expertise available in GERA.

Leadership of GERA

Chair line: The Vice Chair chairs the Fellowship committee, then becomes Chair-Elect working with the Chair on March meeting Program and Workshop, then Chair who organizes Committees and sets goals by Jan. 1 when the Chair-line moves up.

The Sec/Treas organizes the Newsletters, elections, outreach, keeps budgets and records, approves expenditures, tries to see that deadlines are met, et al.

Executive Committee members are expected to serve on committees (Nominating, Workshop, Sorters Meeting, March Program, April Program, Fellowship, et al.) and to participate in conference calls (typically a few per year).


This document was last revised on April 2, 2013.