School of Medicine

Election Bylaws and Class Officer Descriptions

Section: Student Council

Fall 2008 Class of 2012 Elections Bylaws
- Any candidate in violation of these election bylaws is subject to disqualification from the election at the discretion of the Executive Council.
- All candidates (including incumbents) must nominate themselves via email to gusom.election@gmail.com by Friday, August 22, 2008 at 5pm --no exceptions will be made. A person may only submit a declaration for one position per election.
- Each new candidate must submit a strict maximum 250 word statement and photo that will be posted on the Election Website. This website will be the only method of electronic campaigning, and will be managed by the Executive Council. Candidates running for re-election need not submit a written statement or photo, though it is recommended. Suggestions for the statement include past leadership roles, plans for your term, and/or other information that is relevant to your candidacy.
- Once the nominations deadline is reached, all platforms will be uploaded to the Election Website, and candidates will be given the opportunity to switch their candidacy to any position for which no one submitted and application. Candidates will receive an email from the elections chair and will have 24 hours to reply via email if a switch is desired.
- Online polls will be open from Monday August 25th through Friday August 29. Students will be allowed to vote for their own Class Officers. Winners will be announced prior to the next student council meeting but only after all campaign materials have been removed from public places. All counts will be supervised and checked by more than one person who is not running for office as designated by the Executive Council. Attendance at the May student council meeting for spring elections or September meeting for fall elections is required for all old and new members so transition can be made as seamlessly as possible.
- Lastly, candidates running for Class and Executive Council positions must abide by the following campaign rules during election week:

1. No emails, instant messages, weblinks or webpages from candidates or anyone else to the student body asking them for votes. Only the elections chair as designated by the Executive Council can send daily reminders to the student body.
2. Candidates may not spend more than fifty dollars (50) on their campaign.
3. Candy and/or flyer distribution in person or in mailboxes is permissible, but is limited to one object placed in the mailbox each day.
4. Flyers and posters of any size may be used, distributed or posted, but must be taken down by that candidate immediately following closure of the polls and no later than the next Student Council meeting.

Descriptions of Class Officer Positions
Each Class Council will be comprised of Five elected Class Officers: one President, one Vice-President, one Secretary, one Treasurer, one Class Representative. These Class officers may then appoint persons to fulfill the following non-voting positions: one Historian, one webmaster, two social committee members, one Beautification Committee member, one Professionalism Committee member, and any other positions deemed appropriate by the Class Officers. In addition, each class will elect two Student Faculty Liaisons (SFL), and four Student Medical Education Committee (SMEC) members who will be non-voting members of the student council. Any positions which are not filled during the election will be appointed by the Executive Council.

Time Commitment: All student council members are expected to attend the Student Council Meetings in the student council office at the back of Caduceus at 7pm on the first Tuesday of every month from September through June. Meetings last approximately two hours, executive council meets separately immediately following the student council meeting. Newly-elected officers are expected to attend the September council meeting in the Fall and the May meeting in the spring.

Elections: Each fall near the beginning of the semester the incoming first year class elects their class officers. Each spring near the end of the semester the first, second, and third year classes elect new officers for the upcoming year. The Executive Council shall run the election, though any member running for re-election shall recuse themselves from any elections duties that have a direct conflict of interest. If all members of the Executive Council are running for re-election, the Student Council shall appoint an Election Committee to run elections.

President:
Time commitment: meetings once per month 2-2.5 hrs each. various events planning (depending on the help you have) take several days to organize.
Actual duties: Winter Carnival organization, Powder Puff game clean up and concessions, Holliday Party, Birthday Celebrations (co-ordinated with 2nd years), Auction, End of the Year BBQ
Suggested duties: Birthday Celebrations seperate from other classes, get Social Committee going.

Vice-President:
Same as President, help brainstorm new activities

Treasurer:
Time commitment is variable, depending on if events are coming up. But, generally only requires a few hours a month plus added time for special events.
Duties include managing the class banking account (including opening up an account) and being responsible for reimbursements, collecting class dues, assisting with fundraisers, and setting budgets while working with the other class officers.
Work with the administration more in regards to collecting dues/fees.

Secretary:
Time commmitment varies...it is reasonable but when there are a lot of class activities the time increases.
Duties: Relay information from council at large to the class and anything that the class officers discuss. rganizing various events: Powder Puff, Winter Carnival, after exam events, Auction, 2nd year BBQ and all the class activities that occured during first year. Attend monthly student council meetings (Tuesday evenings). Work with the deans and faculty. eet with professors post exams and finals to give feedback to the departments

Class Representative:
Time commitment: A few hours a week at most, more time commitment needed around class events and during periods of the planning of events
Actual duties: Bring concerns from students to monthly student council meetings for
discussion / resolution. Provide information to students concerning issues involving our class. Provide support to other members of the student class council regarding
organizational issues, class events, and class fundraising.
Suggested duties: Be involved with organizing some sort of electronic (web based) class discussion forum as a way for students to easily express concerns or get information about class issues.

Class Historian:
Collect photos (digital or otherwise) and anecdotes for the class yearbook to be assembled spring of 4th year. Will be responsible for recruiting editors and staff.

Webmaster:
Maintain the Class webpage. No experience necessary, just diligence about posting the info your classmates need in a timely fashion, and recruiting a webmaster for the incoming class. Training will be provided by the webmasters for the upper classes. Of course, if there's someone out there who is a computer geek, that's great, too!

2 Social committee members:
Coordinate class social events with emphasis on variety and inclusion of upperclassmen.

Beautification Committee member:
Work with Executive Council, Student Council and Dean's Office in improving the aesthetics of the School of Medicine, keeping Caduceus and their own classrooms clean, comfortable, etc for students.

Professionalism Committee member:
Time committment: determined entirely by the individual. Depends on the number of projects working on. This year, a few hours every month.
Actual duties: to address issues of professionalism that arise during the school year and to continuously remind the student body of the important code of professionalism that all students work under.
Suggested duties: participation in curriculum reform and organizing speakers to address issues in professionalism

2 Student Faculty Liaisons (SFL):
Serve as the go-between between your classmates and professors for exam gripes, questions and comments. Goal is to improve student life and facilitate communication with faculty.

4 (1st/2nd year) or 6 (3rd/4th yeare) Student Medical Education Committee (SMEC) members:
Time commitment (preclinical advisory committee) - 3 meetings a month (maybe some extra task force meetings) so no more than 5 meetings a month about one hour each. Mandatory meetings: Preclincal advisory meeting (with faculty and deans to discuss curriculum and school issues), SMEC meeting with smec members of all four years, student class meeting (at least one smec member to brief what happened in other meetings).
Actual duties/suggested duties - come prepared to meetings to bring up student issues. Nothing can be changed if the student reps dont bring up the issues for their respective med class. Will be assigned to different task forces for things that are currently changing within the curriculum and the school. Last year they put together a huge survey for the med students, we fit the survey according to our year, and tallied the results and will hopefully have statistical info to make certain changes that were complaints from a majority of students.

Descriptions of Executive Council Positions

One postition on the executive council is held open for incoming first years each year. The position which will be held open for the class of 2012 will be Exec Council Corresponding Secretary.

Executive Council President:
Basically the job of Exec. President is to delegate and make sure everything is running smoothly and everyone is getting along and has the opportunity and resources they need. One should be familar with the duties of all the classes and exec council: events, dances, career nights, and what not. The big thing I think I do mostly is providing people a resource and diplomacy between the administration and students and then again between student groups as well. So it kind of help to have a hand in everything and know about what everyone is doing that way you are kind of a generalist and know how to help everyone with what they are trying to get done. And then following up on everything going on. The toughest part is keeping a pulse on the school and knowing who is doing what and following up on things.

Executive Council Vice President:
Fill in for the President whenever he/she is unavailable. Assist the other Exec Council offices with running Career Nights and help them complete their duties. Basically, general gopher, being groomed for another Exec Council position.

Executive Council Treasurer:
Oversee student council budget.
Allot funds to all clubs and organizations.
Process reimbursements of all funds submitted by various clubs.
Balance accounts and decide the validity of purchases within the Georgetown system.
Additional activities: Help with various school wide events. Often the one responsible for food and supplies. Responsible for organizing at least 2 of the career nights, possibly more.

Executive Council Recording Secretary:
Take minutes at all meetings and posting them on the student website.
Send emails to the student body throughout the year on behalf of the Executive Council members.
Keep the online Event Calendar up to date with meetings, events or other activities. In August, the Recording Secretary must post on Event Calendar the dates and times of the student council meetings for the entire year. Training will be provided on how to use the software.

Executive Council Corresponding Secretary:
Publish the student newsletter, Under the Cupola, each month during the fall and spring semesters one week after each monthly student council meeting.
Send monthly student council meeting reminders to the entire student body one week prior to the scheduled meeting.
Send monthly reminders to the Class Council responsible for providing food for the student council meeting one week prior to the scheduled meeting.

Executive Council Representative:
Duties: Expand and maintain student website with KeySite software, run online elections for Golden Apple Awards and Student Council positions with KeyForm software, and moderate the Discussion Forum with KeyTalk software. Training will be provided on how to use the software. Promote use of online Event Calendar by classes and clubs--let treasurer know to withhold funds if clubs are not posting events in a timely fashion.
Time Commitment: Attend monthly student council meetings, meet with other executive council members as needed. Technology-based duties take from 1 to 10 hours a week, with the average being two or three hours per week. Normally this is extremely flexible, but there are time-sensitive items such as running elections.