Elections take place at the start of the fall semester. Please submit nominations to gumcgso@georgetown.edu by August 31st. Nomination rules and positions are described below. Nominees will be contacted with instructions for the written submission. All information must be submitted by midnight on September 1st, and voting will take place September 3rd – 7th.
Nominations
- Any student enrolled in a Biomedical PhD program may run for office. The positions of Outreach Co-coordinator, Student Services and Advocacy Liaison, and Website and Social Media Chair are open to Biomedical Graduate Education MS students as well (please refer to the position descriptions). A candidate may run for both President and another position in the same election period. The eligible student must state whether they intend to run for President and other positions or President only, or other positions only.
- Candidates may nominate themselves or be nominated by a 3rd party. If a candidate is nominated by someone other than themselves, they will be notified by the election supervisor before the election and may decline the nomination.
- All accepted nominations must submit a written statement (no more than 250 words) regarding why they are seeking their position and highlighting their qualifications.
- If the nominee has not been an active member of MCGSO for at least one year, they are required to meet briefly with either the current president or vice president.
Positions
President: The MCGSO President oversees the MCGSO Executive Board and is responsible for holding General and Executive MCGSO meetings. The President also serves as a co-chair of the Grant Committee, attends regular meetings of the Graduate Advisory Committee (GAC) and Grad Student Life (GSL). The position of president is eligible for biomedical PhD students in their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year.
Vice President: The MCGSO Vice President serves as Community Programming committee chair. It is the responsibility of the Vice President to coordinate community events for the biomedical graduate student body. The position of vice president is eligible for biomedical PhD students in their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year.
Treasurer: The MCGSO Treasurer maintains the annual budget of MCGSO to ensure that all spendings are properly accounted. This responsibility includes overseeing all transactions involved for SRGP and Travel Grants as well as social and outreach events. The MCGSO Treasurer works closely and regularly with administrators at the university’s finance department and reports the status of the MCGSO budget at monthly meetings. PhD students in their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year are eligible for the position of Treasurer.
Communications Officer: The MCGSO communications officer distributes any information regarding MCGSO events to the student body and takes minutes at MCGSO meetings to be distributed among the members. The communications officer also serves as the MCGSO liaison to the Graduate Student Organization (GSO). The position of is eligible for all PhD biomedical students.
Outreach Co-Coordinators: The MCGSO outreach co-coordinators take the lead in organizing community education and enrichment programs that involve both the general public and specifically, K-12 students. This position is open to all Biomedical PhD students and three-semester MS students.
Student Services and Advocacy Liaison. Informs students of the resources available to them (i.e. career services, workshops, health coverage, family services, parking, etc) and works with faculty and administration to promote grad student needs. Actively collects student concerns and suggestions in order to communicate them with the MCGSO president and committee so the issues may be discussed and presented to faculty and administration tactfully and through the proper channels.
Website and social media chair: The MCGSO website and social media chair will be responsible for the maintenance of our website as well as the promotion of events on social media and will work closely with the Communications Officer. The position of Website and Social Media Chair is eligible for all Biomedical Graduate Students.
Travel Grant Officer(s) – NOT an elected position: Travel grant officers are responsible for collecting all MCGSO Travel Grant applications and processing them for approval and working with the MCGSO treasurer and finance office to initiate the reimbursement process.
Course Grant Officers – NOT an elected position: Course grant officers are responsible for collecting all MCGSO Course Grant applications and processing them for approval by completing the relevant evaluation rubric and working with the MCGSO treasurer and finance office to initiate the reimbursement process. One Course Grant Officer will also be the SRGP Co-Chair.
Student Research Grant Program Officer/co-chairperson- NOT an elected position: The SRGP officer/co-chair works with the President to organize and execute the grant process from application to review to award. This officer prepares, distributes, and collects all application materials; assigns appropriate peer reviewers to each application; collects feedback from the study section and communicates to the applicant their award status. SRGP officer must be an BGE PhD student who is familiar with the SRGP process, preferably has applied in the past. SRGP officer will also serve as a Course Grant Officer.
In addition to the Executive Board elected positions described above, biomedical graduate students are eligible to participate as MCGSO Program Representatives.
Program Representatives: It is arguable that the most important members of the MCGSO are the Biomedical Graduate program representatives. Each biomedical graduate program has one representative; a PhD student for PhD programs, and a Masters student for Masters programs. The Program representatives are responsible for attending all MCGSO meetings and participating as committee members for either or both the Community Programming and Grant committees. If the designated Program Representative is unable to attend a meeting, we ask that they send a proxy representative to vote in the favor of that program in the event of any votes at the meeting in question. If you are interested in representing your program, please let us know!
If you have any questions about these positions, please refer to the MCGSO Constitution for a more in depth discussion, or feel free to contact any current member of the MCGSO.
gumcgso.georgetown.edu 