October 2006

News	Spotlight	Minutes
Welcome Back! New Officers	Faculty Spotlight Grad Student Spotlight	September 5 September 12 September 26 September 29

News

WELCOME BACK!

On behalf of all the members of the Psychology Graduate Student Council, welcome back to school! Here's hoping that you have a successful semester!

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New PGSO Officers

One of the main tasks of this semester's first meetings was the election and appointing of new officers. Here's a handy list of the who's who in the PGSO:

Elected Officers
President - Roberto Montalvo
Vice-President - Malisa Hipshur
Treasurer - Juan Ramírez
Secretary - Roberto Montalvo

Appointed Officers
GSC Representative - Josh Jones
Community Service Chair - Deb Russell
Recruitment Chair - Sieun An
Webmaster - Mike Berry
Social Chair - Jenn Davis

As you can see, Roberto is pulling double duty as President and Secretary. If anyone is interested in the position, please contact Roberto and let him know!

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Spotlights

Spotlight

Look for this monthly article featuring one of our faculty members, beginning next month!

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Spotlight

Look for this monthly article featuring one of your fellow grad students, beginning next month!

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Minutes

September 5, 2006

12 members in attendance

- Introduction Carlo, the outgoing president, welcomed everyone and stated the purposes of the PGSO (Psychology Graduate Student Organization). Carlo announced that he will be stepping down from office this year. He opened the floor for nominations for all elected offices.

- Election of Officers President - Roberto Montalvo Vice-President - Malisa Hipshur Treasurer - Juan Ramírez Secretary - not elected at meeting, nominations were declined

- Next Meeting Nominate/Appoint non-elected officers

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September 12, 2006

9 members in attendance

- Elect Secretary Robyn Rehbein volunteered to take the position, since there were no nominations.

- Appointment of non-elected officers GSC Representative - Josh Jones Community Service Chair - Deb Russell Recruitment Chair - Sieun An Webmaster - Mike Berry Social Chair - not appointed at the meeting

- Dues Members need to pay $10/semester in order to be considered an active voting member. Please pay your dues to Juan (Johnny) by Sept. 20. Robyn asked if we could use dues money to buy snacks for our meetings. MOTION to use dues money for snacks; passed.

- PGSO Advisor Laura Madson is our advisor and wants to attend meetings. Last year, we didn't have a problem with faculty coming to our meetings, but we wanted to be informed beforehand if we were going to have a visitor come to our meetings. MOTION to have advisor/faculty inform us before attending and designate such visits to address matters, such as the beginning of the school year, funding, program timeline changes, grad school changes (e.g., thesis editor, insurance); passed.

- Insurance Issues with insurance brought up at GSC meeting on Sept. 6. Last day to enroll will be Sept. 15.

- Grad School Editor Brought up at the GSC meeting on Sept. 6. Laura Madson has also notified the second year students. The thesis editor retired and the grad school does not plan to hire someone else.

- PGSO Office Where is the PGSO office now? Where's the equipment and materials that were there? Robert will find out.

- Community Service The Southwest Environmental Center will be holding their annual gala, On the River, for the River, on Sept. 29. This would count as an off-campus project. The X Prize Cup will be held Oct. 20-21. This is also off-campus. Aggie Experience will be held Nov. 4 and it's an on-campus project. Are there any other on-campus community service projects?

- Announcement From the Graduate Student Council: Students who request funds must use at least 90% of the funding. Those who get funding and don't use the money will be cut-off from funding the next year.

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September 26, 2006

14 members in attendance

- PGSO positions filled Secretary - Robyn Rehbein GSC Representative - Josh Jones Community Service Chair - Deb Russell Recruitment Chair - Sieun An Webmaster - Mike Berry Social Chair - Jenn Davis

- Dues Members need to pay $10/semester in order to be considered an active voting member. Please pay your dues to Juan (Johnny) by Sept. 20

- PGSO Office The office is located in SH315. All equipment/materials seem to be there.

- ASNMSU Funding Krisstal Clayton's funding presentation is online at http://web.nmsu.edu/~kclayton/. Other funding sources include the following: College of Arts & Sciences, Graduate School (Per Diem), PGSO, other academic departments that are interested in your research.

- PGSO Advisor Robert emailed Laura what had been discussed at the last meeting. Laura was disturbed by the email because the by-laws clearly state that the advisor can attend meetings without anyone's approval. She wants to meet with the group ASAP to discuss this issue. The decision at the last meeting (regarding the advisor attending meetings) was made under the impression that the by-laws said something about the advisor/faculty not being allowed at PGSO meetings…this was not the case. A special meeting was called to discuss this issue with Laura on Sept. 29.

- Grad School Editor It is your advisor's responsibility to make sure that you are following the thesis formatting guidelines. The grad school will not hire another editor for now.

- Departmental Service Project Tim Ketelaar pointed out that we could help revise the grad student handbook.

-Community Service KRWG-FM will be having their fall pledge week from Oct. 14-20. Robert signed PGSO for a two-hour shift (11-1) on Oct. 19. We need 25% of our group to be at this event. Volunteers: Josh, Jeremy, Jake, Johnny, Emily, Jason, Kyle, and Robert.

On the River, For the River - Sept. 29, 2PM-12AM (Some members showed interest in helping at this event, but the group has not committed yet).

Upcoming opportunities: X Prize Cup - Oct. 20-21 Keep State Great - Oct. 14, 9-1 (forms are due on Oct.2) Halloween Howl - Oct. 31, 6-8:30 (forms are due on Oct.5) KSA Homecoming Festival - Oct. 20

Jamie suggested that we do a can food or clothes drive.

- Reports Robert, Malisa, and Juan (Johnny) attended the ASNMSU Finance Workshop on Sept. 13 so that PGSO can qualify for funding.

PGSO re-charter forms are complete and have been turned in to the Campus Activities office. So far our group is 26 members strong.

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September 29, 2006

11 members in attendance

- Special Meeting: Discussed advisor issue Robert clarified some points: 1) Our advisor is welcome anytime to our meetings (stated in the by-laws), there was a misunderstanding about what the by-laws said, 2) PGSO does not think that a visit from a faculty member isn't inherently important, 3) PGSO is not engaging in activities or conversations that are kept from the faculty-nothing in the minutes is to be kept secret from anybody, we've never had that intention. Minutes are online and open to the public. Meetings are not and have never been private (the door would only be closed when conversation got loud to avoid disturbing faculty/students on the 3rd floor).

Laura stated that since PGSO is a chartered student organization, we must make our meetings open to the public so that anyone can attend. Krisstal said that University policy does require us to hold meetings open to the public.

Since Laura teaches during our current meet time (Tuesdays at noon), she will ask a graduate committee faculty member (either Dom or Melissa) if they could attend for her. They would be able to answer any questions we might have. It was suggested that we still meet bi-weekly but meet one Tuesday and one Friday so that she could at least make one of our meetings.

There was some concern that certain faculty (who has a negative view of PGSO) would not be good representatives (for Laura).

Laura wants to attend our meetings so that she can be up-to-date on what we're doing (e.g., community service, social events, etc.), and not to "police" us. As our advisor, Laura will act as the official University liaison, and will act as a consultant to the PGSO in all matters. She will relay any concerns we might have to Jim McDonald, Dean Lacey, etc.

What is the role of the advisor at PGSO meetings? Currently, the by-laws are unclear as to the role of the advisor at the PGSO meetings. Jake suggested that the by-laws be revised because they seem to be vague in some instances. Emily said that it would not be fair to change the by-laws because the founding members probably put a lot of time and effort into writing them.

What is the faculty's view of PGSO? To some, it seems that some faculty members have a negative view of our group for some reason. According to Laura, this might be due to a lack of communication between the faculty and the grad students, and an "us vs. them" mentality. Faculty and grad students should work together in order to achieve our goals, we're on the same team. Laura suggested starting off on a clean slate.

What's the purpose of PGSO? Are we some kind of union or activist group? Is PGSO a "support system"? There seems to be different ideas as to what the purpose of PGSO is. One thing is for sure, PGSO is not a union or an activist group. Robert stated that everyone needs to be on the same page regarding the purpose of PGSO, and agreed that we should start off on a clean slate so that we have a productive year.

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