 |
|
|---|
Relax. Help is on its way.
When the CSGSA was founded, it was decided that the best way to prevent the usurpation of power was to designate the leader as a rotating chair. This would prevent anyone from having long-term absolute power, with its potential for corruption. (In reality, we couldn't find anyone who wanted to be chair for more than one meeting at a time.) Over time, the post has assumed a character all its own. From the original rotating chair come these tips on the care and feeding of the post.
You have to volunteer to become the rotating chair. There's no way around it. You will come to regret this ``awful daring of a moment's surrender / Which an age of prudence can never retract'' (Eliot), but there you have it. (Note: One good way of becoming rotating chair is to not attend CSGSA meetings, in which case you almost definitely be volunteered.)
Either way, figure out when the next meeting will be. Be sure to account for things like
There are some topics which are central to the CSGSA's rôle which the rotating chair should ensure are brought up as appropriate. These include the following:
Be absolutely sure to send your mail to cs-grad@cs.rice.edu.
This will make sure it gets to both PhD and MCS students.
A good thing to do is to send out mail, once a month, asking for agenda items. Also keep your eyes out for events, outrages, etc; suggest that such items might make for good CSGSA discussion topics.
An important, but easily overlooked, job is to track duties. At the previous meeting, where you were made chair, several people probably volunteered to look into or do numerous things. Of course, they forgot that they'd volunteered the moment the last cookie was consumed. You should keep track of who these people are, and ping them gently to make sure they get the task done. (Don't rely on the previous rotating chair to do this -- would you do it after your tenure was over?)
Send out messages reminding people of the meeting. A good schedule is once each a week before, three days before, the previous evening, the morning of the meeting, and an hour before. I'm not kidding: people are really bad at reading mail.
You must also send mail and solicit items to put on the agenda. It is wise to send mail out every month asking for agenda items: people tend to forget issues otherwise. Of course, your reminders starting a week before the meeting should also ask for items. You should also ask for agenda items in your reminders.
Arrange with whoever is controlling the treasury (this is still a bit up in the air) for funds for purchasing refreshments. Usually, you will buy first and be reimbursed later. The treasurer will inform you what your budget is. Be sure to buy a variety of snacks and of drinks to accomodate various tastes, though obviously proprtional consumption is not prevalent around here.
First, get someone to take down minutes. Know who it is, because you may have to gently nudge them when the minutes haven't yet shown up a week later. Pick a worthy scribe to chronicle your annal in history (ie, if possible, find someone that can spell).
Historically, the first agenda item is always the election of the next rotating chair. It is rumored that those who break with this tradition will be cursed to writing MS-DOS device drivers for the rest of their lives. You have been warned.
Following this, be sure to work through all the agenda items. It will turn out that some of these are no longer the pressing issues they were two months ago when some hot-head had them put on the list. Don't let the meeting get bogged down in such items. Also, be sure to gently interrupt anyone who is getting long-winded. Remember that your post requires you to often double as a debate moderator.
Be sure to come up with a tentative date for the next meeting. The list given above will come in handy for this purpose.
Settle finances with the treasurer.
Make sure the minutes are sent out. This involves three things:
Shriram Krishnamurthi / shriram@cs.rice.edu
|
|
|---|