If elected to the CHSC executive council, there are a variety of expectations beyond those pertaining to your specific position.
Executive Council Officers |
Official Appointed Positions |
Aside from these five primary tasks, the President can generally be described as the dedicated troubleshooter for CHSC. The President not only provides logistical support for general CHSC business, but also helps ensure that programs are being planned and executed in an appropriate timeframe. In this way, the President becomes concerned with various CHSC aspects such as freshmen involvement, the number and quality of activities, the diversity of activities, efficiency of meetings, promoting co-programming, larger general participation, inter-officer conflict, proper record keeping, fiscal responsibility, next year’s council, a broader volunteer base, and facilitating the involvement of under-reached communities to name a few. In doing these things, the President must do his/her best to balance the feedback and opinions received from CHSC meetings, CHP leaders, the Honors Advisor, and other officers.
Practically speaking, the President’s job is filled with email, short meetings, and lots of follow-up. He/she meets with the Vice-President and Honors Advisor weekly to discuss upcoming business, and subsequently corresponds with relevant officers. Officer’s meetings are held as needed approximately every 2-4 weeks, and for general meetings, the President plans for a meeting activity and/or snacks if applicable. Midyear meetings are also conducted by the President and Vice-President with each council position during winter quarter in order to gain and provide feedback. Examples of joint programming this year have been the town hall meeting with the peer mentor coordinators and Parents and Alumni Day with the PAAs—however it should be noted that the constitutionality of such programming responsibility is debatable.
While there are few mandated responsibilities of the Vice President, I am involved in much of what occurs in CHSC. I attend weekly meetings with the Honors Advisor and President to discuss upcoming events and council matters. Before CHSC general meetings, I create an agenda, which I then copy and distribute. I make sure meetings start and end on time, and that we follow the agenda. Whenever there is voting at general meetings (to approve funding requests or make constitutional amendments, for instance), I run the election process. When it is time to elect officers for next year, I will be in charge of accepting nominators, checking that nominees are viable candidates, producing a ballot, and then tallying votes with the Honors Advisor.
Other than these tasks, I help the President, Honors Advisor, and the rest of council in any way I can. For example, I volunteered to be in charge of selecting, ordering and distributing CHP T-Shirts. I have assisted the President with tasks such as designing flyers, contacting officers, shopping for upcoming events, and anything else I am asked to do.
The constitutional duties of the Secretary are as listed above. In addition I am also involved in the various activities of CHSC, such as serving on the Battle of the Brains planning committee, Honors Experience Day, Parent Day planning meetings, etc.
For the Academic Talent Search (ATS), recruit volunteers, arrange rides, and send out reminder emails to the volunteers each week. I also make sure that ATS is included on the agenda for the CHSC meetings so those who are interested can sign up.
I also periodically check the inventory sheets in the Locus make sure that items borrowed have been returned. From my experience this year, we don’t seem to accumulate things too quickly, so an annual inventory update should be sufficient. As stated above, I also make sure that the paper goods/disposable utensils are well stocked.
Although there may be a bias to think that the Treasurer is simply involved in transferring money from point A to point B, that assumption would only cover a small fraction of the Treasurer’s jobs. In order for any event to be financed by CHSC, the appropriate paperwork must be submitted to the Treasurer (and subsequently, the President) for approval; when a funding request has been submitted, individual officer budgets must be checked to verify that officers are spending within their means. Following the event it is necessary to ensure that all follow-up paperwork is received before reimbursements are made. Likewise, any money made from events or fundraisers is to be deposited in the club accounts in a timely and organized manner.
Probably the most overlooked job of the Treasurer is to act as the fundraising coordinator of CHSC. This encompasses both the continuation of previous fundraisers as well as the creation of new ones. Finding volunteers to attend these fundraisers is also up to the Treasurer. Finally, formal quarterly reports describing all of the quarter’s expenditures and gains are to be created by the Treasurer, culminating in a final end of the year report that describes all of the monetary activity CHSC participated in during the school year.
Some examples of fundraisers that have been held this year are the Shocktoberfest booth and Staff Pro events. For Shocktoberfest, the work entailed including creation of a booth theme, finding volunteers to staff the booth, picking up and returning the booth and any necessary “other” items (such as pumpkin pie, for this past year), and handling the money. For Staffpro, responsibilities including setting up orientations to get CHP members "trained" for events, as well as finding volunteers for events and possible carpooling coordination.
The general job of the two social chairs is to plan and hold events that create an awesome atmosphere for CHP students to interact with one another. The two social chairs attend all CHSC meetings and additional meetings with the Honors Advisor, President, and Vice President to ensure that all events are going smoothly. They also work with publicity chairs to make sure that the events organized will have the greatest amount of publicity within the Honors Halls. Lastly, the two social chairs may work with other chairs by co-hosting and planning events so that two of the same program will not be put on, giving CHP students more variety in their events.
CHP Winter Semi-formal
As the biggest dance in the year, the semi-formal demands a lot of planning and organization. The first step is to set a date, so that the location can be set. After securing the time and place, the social chairs decide on a theme either by coming up with it themselves or through the help of fellow CHP students who send suggestions to the social chairs. When the theme is chosen, social chairs must select decorations, food, and the music that will be provided at the dance. Volunteers are greatly appreciated due to the large amount of work that must be put into set-up and clean-up. Through out this process, the social chairs must keep in contact with and send updates to the president, vice-president, and honors advisor so that they are able to keep the social chairs accountable.
Freshmen Fusion
Freshmen fusion is aimed at bringing all the freshmen together so that they will be able to mingle with their own class members. First, the social chairs must decide on the location. In the past years, this event has taken place at a freshmen residence hall. After choosing the location, set the time by contacting the RA of the hall. Make sure that they do not have plans on the night of the event so that the program does not cause any conflict with other events. Next, plan icebreakers and bring board games to the event. This is a time for the freshmen to get to know each other, so this is a very casual night. Invite the upperclassmen as well, there are never many opportunities for the freshmen to meet their upperclassmen.
Muggle Quidditch
Based off of the popular book series, Harry Potter, this recreational event is just for fun and to bring CHP students of all grade levels to work as a team. This event only requires some planning on the social chairs part. As always secure the location and time. Afterwards, social chairs are to make sure that the equipment that they need for the event (balls, hoops, etc.) are available and that there is enough water to keep players hydrated. It is always nice to have the separate teams decided before the event, so that people can dress in the appropriate colors; however, there is no harm in choosing the teams on the day of the event.
The job is very constant in its requirements except for when the date of the events in point 4 approach. Otherwise it’s just asking/voluntelling people to help set up coffee hour each week. One new wrinkle that was added this year is point 3. Most of these themes have been set up already but fresh ideas are welcome. Circumstances change each year and so the themes may also change. The job can be compared to a race: long periods of near constant speed broken up by short bursts at a breakneck pace.
The newly renamed Community Involvement Chair, formerly the Community Service Chair, is responsible for planning events with the aim of cultivating positive community relationships between students and others within the CHP community, the UCI campus community, and the local community. One goal is to provide opportunities and information on how CHP students can give back to the UCI and off-campus community through volunteer work, while also networking with other UCI clubs and organizations and outside organizations in joint social events and volunteer projects.
According to the CHSC Constitution, the Community Involvement Chair:Events for the 2007-2008 academic year have revolved around volunteer and service events, as well as events catered to the CHP students and their class-specific needs.
Programs for the 2007-2008 academic year have included, but are not limited to:My main responsibilities are maintaining the Google calendars. Before school started I set up the new mailing lists for the CHSC listserv and the CHP leaders listserv, and added people to Google so they could edit events. I make sure the calendar is up-to-date, and add events when others forget. Every other week I send out a digest with all the up-coming events with info on what the program is, who’s invited, and when it will take place.
During spring quarter, I am also in charge of coordinating Stay-Over Program activities, the Wayzgoose Cookie Booth, and the Upperclassmen/Lowerclassmen football game.
In addition to taking pictures at all the CHP events I have attended, I keep in contact with the Honors Advisor, President, and Webmaster to ensure that almost all events are being covered and that photos are being saved and uploaded to the CHSC website. Also, I have communicated with other CHP students who take pictures at the events to make sure that all available photos eventually make it to the website and are submitted for the end-of-the-year slideshow.
Events that I have attended or plan on attending include:As co-publicity chairs we publicize events; we create posters and flyers that informs, and hopefully convinces, people to attend said event. Usually, the CHSC member that is spearheading the event would give us the information around one to two weeks prior to the actual event itself and then we would subsequently publicize it. The posters usually takes a few hours to make and than another hour or two to post. The flyers are made with photoshop and printshop and takes around an hour to design.
With help from Ryan and some CHSC members this job is undemanding. However, when there is no help, driving to AV to get the materials and then to the other places can be time-consuming. Other than that, we thought this position allowed us to be creative and more involved.
The Webmaster is responsible for updating the website following each CHSC meeting. The President, Vice-President, and Advisor will send the webmaster the majority of update requests with other officers making their own suggestions/additions. The webmaster also has full creative control over the aesthetic look and organization of website content. He/she should offer suggestions for improvement in both functionality and presentation of the site. Minutes of each CHSC meeting, sent by the Secretary, will be posted by the webmaster as well as pictures of events and activities from the Historian.
The Campus Village Representative must organize 1-2 events per quarter in CV, maintain the CV Listserv, and act as a liaison between the CHP residents and CHSC. The Rep should also assist other CHSC officers with their events in CV and be knowledgeable of the check-out procedures, facilities, and other resources available in CV.
The Commuter Representative is a liaison between commuters and CHSC. The Commuter Representative is responsible for planning 1-2 events a quarter to target the CHP commuter population (including during Welcome Week). The Commuter Representative is also the key communication link between commuters and the CHSC, he/she should often contact commuters letting them know of what activities and events are going on campus, whether it be a CHSC event, or just a UCI event. The Commuter Representative is also responsible for updating the UCI Commuters Facebook group.
I basically represent VDC and Norte at CHSC meetings and plan activities using the allotted budget that CHSC grants to my position. Generally, CHP students living in VDC and Norte are not as involved in CHP as students living in Arroyo Vista, for example. My job is mainly to keep them involved or even introduce them to the CHP. Some students living in VDC and Norte know about and participate very little in the CHP aside from just taking the necessary honors courses. Through bonding activities and events, I hope to foster a sense of community among the widespread CHP population in VDC and Norte. I also manage the Vista del Campo listserv. I communicate mostly through Facebook and the listserv, sending out invitations and emails. I also created a group called “CHP in VDC/N (it rhymes!)” for students to find other CHP students and to ask any questions or voice any concerns they may have and am responsible for the maintenance of this Facebook group.
Fall Quarter, I held a joint event with the social chairs called “Pool Party.” It was held in VDC because most CHP students live in VDC and not Norte. For Winter Quarter, I am holding a Valentine’s Day themed crafts event called “LoveMaking!” Generally, one event a quarter is good depending on how much you spend on each event. You can hold two smaller, cheaper events in a quarter or one large, more costly event. I try to avoid holding events near midterms, finals, and holidays.
The NAR Representative is in charge of keeping NAR and CHSC informed of each other’s actions. Their chief responsibility is to request funding each quarter for the quarterly NAR publication. During the rest of the quarter their job is to announce NAR events to the CHSC attendees and to email Communications Chair and Ryan the info for their newsletters. They should also be aware of CHSC events so that when NAR is planning their events they make sure there aren’t scheduling conflicts. The NAR Representative must be a member of both CHSC and NAR and therefore has other responsibilities within NAR, such as helping with NAR programming and the publication.