Chapter Mandate

2006-02-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

I. PURPOSE

A.

B.

II. STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION

A. Chapter Membership

Anyone who is a student or a young professional and who is interested in water resources can be a member of a student and young professional chapter. This includes:
i) Undergraduates;
ii) Graduates;
iii) Postgraduates;
iv) Young Professionals.*

Ideally, a chapter will achieve a balance of the above membership categories. Undergraduate involvement is important in terms of providing continuity to the chapter. Undergraduates tend to engage in a longer period of study than graduate or postgraduate students. It is also important that chapters try to reach out to, and encourage the participation of, young professionals. We expect that young professional involvement in a chapter will increase as that chapter matures because existing chapter members will make the transition from student to young professional and continue their involvement.

We encourage chapters to consult the marketing plan section of the Chapter Manual (Tab ??) for a list of suggested university/college faculties or organizations that may have students or young professionals that are interested in being involved in a chapter. Ideally, a chapter will comprise of students from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. This will encourage diversity within the CWRA, enhance the exchange of ideas and information between members, and improve the overall learning and social experience of those involved.

* The current definition of a young professional is a person who has had fewer than four years employment experience following a period of university or college study.

B. Three-Tier Involvement

There are three levels of involvement in a student and young professionals chapter:

i) Core Group

Core members assist with brainstorming and the central planning of events. They attend chapter meetings whenever possible and help drive the activities of the chapters. Core members have the opportunity to hold positions on the SYP Task Force and may be able to act as liaisons with the CWRA professional branch. Core members have the highest level of involvement with the chapter and they will likely obtain the greatest benefits and have the most opportunities to develop skills and be involved in a broad range of projects. However, as a volunteer organization, we make a conscious effort not to pressure people into doing more than they want or are able to do. Ordinarily, it takes at least four core members to get a chapter off the ground.

ii) Project Assistance

Project members help with specific projects in which they are interested. They may bring that project to the attention of the chapter or they may hear about a certain project/s already in existence. They attend meetings relating to that specific project and assist in its planning and realization.

iii) “In-the-Loop”

“In-the-loop” members volunteer to be on the chapter email list and receive emails concerning upcoming events. They attend any events they are interested in. Although this is the least level of involvement in the chapter, the participation of “in-the-loop” members is a critical factor in the success of chapter events.

III. POSITION DESCRIPTIONS

A. Team Leader

The team leader is responsible for leading the team. Team leaders are generally involved with keeping the bigger picture in mind, long-term planning, "fire fighting," ensuring continuity and helping the group be as effective as possible.

B. Facilitator

The facilitator has two key responsibilities. The first is to do the leg-work of organizing meetings. Performing this task allows the team leader to focus on his or her job of leading rather than simply organizing meetings. The other key role for the facilitator is to ensure that meetings run smoothly. Running an effective meeting is a skill that takes time to develop. There are lots of resources on the internet, but one that you might find useful can be found at:

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/LEADS/FACT%20Sheets/fact2.pdf

C. Secretary

The secretary's role is to write down the discussion and produce a coherent set of minutes from the meetings. This is super-important as most of us tend to forget what was said and agreed upon at the meeting. (Well... maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I've been to plenty of meetings where nobody kept any notes and the meeting ended up being useless as a result.)

D. Project Manager

The project manager is responsible for leading projects within the chapter or sub-committee. The projects can be run by individuals or groups, depending on the size of the project. The project manager should be able to focus on completing a successful project without having to worry about keeping a chapter running.

E. Team Member

The team members have the responsibility of helping complete projects. The purpose of this role is to help people get involved without getting "sucked-into" the organization. Sometimes it's nice to get involved in a minimal way knowing that there's no other commitment.

IV. MEETINGS

A. Meeting Structure

i) Formal meetings can be intimidating places so chapters are best to keep meetings relatively informal. Chapters are more likely to attract core members if those meetings also provide a social environment and an opportunity to make friends. Meetings can be held anywhere that is conducive to communication. This would include pubs but would be rule out nightclubs and hockey games.
ii) Meetings should not be too long, only exceeding two hours in exceptional circumstances.

B. Meeting Tools

i) Agenda

It is a good idea to have an agenda prior to meetings. This should be drawn up by the team leader and sent out to the core members and any interested project members a week before the meeting. This will give members an opportunity to make suggestions for additions or amendments to the agenda and will also give members an opportunity to think about agenda items in advance of the meeting. Among the items in an agenda should be a follow-up on any duties/responsibilities allocated in the previous meeting. It may be useful to provide brief explanations of items in the agenda in order to clarify the meaning of the item and stimulate thoughts prior to the meeting.

ii) Roundtable

Sometimes (particularly when people are getting to know one another) meetings may be dominated by one or two voices and others may be reluctant to voice their opinions. This undermines the value that can be obtained from chapter members and restricts the number of ideas that can be shared. For certain issues, where a few good ideas are required, using a round table ie. asking each member for their opinion/ideas, may be very useful.

iii) Brainstorming

Brainstorming is often a good first step in the creative process. The idea is to get as many good ideas on the table as possible before converging them into workable ideas or solutions to problems. In brainstorming, there are no bad ideas and a facilitator should encourage a free flow of suggestions, and discourage too much evaluation of these suggestions, as this will reduce the number of suggestions that get made.

iv) Conference Calls

Depending on the chapter, it may be impractical for all members to meet in person. In this situation a conference call may be used. This may involve all members communicating by telephone or some members meeting in person and other members participating by speaker-phone.

v) Minutes

It is critical that a secretary take notes throughout the meetings and that these notes are distributed to members relatively soon after the meeting. At the end of the minutes, the secretary should outline the duties that were allocated during the meeting so that it is clear what responsibilities each member has been allocated.

V. KEY RELATIONSHIPS

A. Provincial Board

B. SYP Task Force

VI. SUCCESSION PLANNING

A.

Introduction

2006-01-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Purpose

The support and outreach sub-committee has the following purposes:

1) Support existing chapters
2) Encourage the development of new chapters
3) Develop and maintain a database of chapter events
4) Promote and facilitate communication between the chapters
5) Maintenance of the SYP section of the website
6) Provide a communication hub between chapters and the national SYP Task Force

Structure and Key Contacts

Team Leader - Alice Cohen (Vancouver Student)
Facilitator - Tim Morris (Vancouver Student)
Secretary - Ronke Odumosu (Vancouver Student)

Regional Representatives:
- Andrea Clarke (Vancouver Student)
- Bruce Davison (Saskatoon Young Professional)
- Caroline Hebraud (Montreal Student)
- David Gallen (Saskatoon Young Professional)
- Dwayne Keir (Student Young Professional)
- Farah El Ayoubi (Toronto Young Professional)
- Greg Powell (Calgary Young Professional)
- Julie Corriveau (Quebec Student)
- Kirsten Fazakas (Edmonton Student)
- Neil McLaughlin (New Brunswick Young Professional)
- Sarah Ross (Toronto)
- Shawn Clark (Winnipeg)

Projects

- Chapter Development:

Existing chapters - Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Waterloo, Motreal and Quebec City
New chapters - Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto

- SYP Website - responsible for maintenance
- Chapter Manual

CWRA SYP Support and Outreach

Chapter Mandate

Introduction