Membership

Please review the membership qualifications below (taken from our Bylaws) to determine how best you may participate.

  1. Leadership Team (LT):  Persons who serve as a member of the Leadership Team for the group.
  2. General members:  General membership to the group shall be open to all enrolled graduate students of the School of Information (iSchool) of San Jose State University (SJSU) that identify as first generation students. They shall been known to the organization as “Members”, and have all the participatory and voting rights and privileges pertaining. They may hold any position on the Leadership Team.
  3. Partners: Persons and entities that have an interest in participation with or within the group, but do not meet the requirements of members or alumni. They retain all the rights and privileges of members and alumni, but may not vote or serve as an officer of the Leadership Team. They shall be known as “Partners.” 
  4. Alumni: Alumni status shall be open to any former student of the SJSU iSchool who wishes to be engaged with the group. They retain all the rights and privileges of a member, however, they do not retain voting rights. They shall be known as “Alumni Members.” Rights include participation as a Mentor/Alumni Relations Liaison or a Past President, voting rights TBD.

Ready to join us?

There is no fee associated with membership. To become a member of the FGS group and receive updates on our events and blog posts, please complete this Google Group application.

Leadership Team Open Positions:

We currently are looking to fill the roles of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Blog Editor on our Leadership Team. Being a part of the Leadership Team allows you to gain valuable leadership skills and experience, as well as build other soft skills such as communication and organization. Being on the Leadership Team can also be used as evidence for Competency M in your ePortfolio!

Time commitment for LT roles is usually 1-2 hours per week.

We are looking to fill roles ASAP to allow for on-boarding before next semester. All roles will take over for the current team in May.

Chair:

  • Drafts quarterly report and records 1-min report for Faculty Retreats (in collaboration with Faculty Advisor)

  • Identify, invite, and secure guest FG faculty interviewee (2 months prior)

  • Represents FGSG to other SJSU student groups

  • Insures leadership roles are filled and/or prioritize leadership resources

    • Reviews & revises role descriptions

    • Initiates call for new Leadership Team (LT) candidates

    • Initiates process for vetting/selecting new LT appointments (in collaboration with Vice-Chair)

  • Meets monthly with Faculty Advisor

  • Represents FGSG at Director’s Student Leadership meetings (1 per term)

  • Collaborates with the Vice-Chair to create LT meeting agenda

  • Considers applying for School-sponsored professional conference support

Vice Chair:

  • Chief role is to facilitate “internally-facing” operations of FGSG and supports LT

  • Meets regularly with Chair

  • Facilitates calls for Leadership Team & FGSG meetings

    • Furnishes Faculty Advisor with content for posting to iSchool listserv

    • Furnishes content for call postings to social media, webpage

  • Collaborates with Chair to anticipate and fill leadership roles and/or prioritize leadership resources

    • Coordinates on-boarding of new LT appointees

  • Facilitates success and accounts for Leadership Team operations

  • Facilitates interviews with First Gen Faculty at General Meetings (1 per term)

Secretary:

  • Ensures that new LT members have appropriate access to FG information

  • Monitors membership, as well as helping to facilitate membership growth by working with other members of the Leadership Team.

  • Supports coordination and events for current students and alumni, including drafting event announcements for the student body.

  • Responds to membership requests and inquiries.

  • Keeps a record of all meetings and important information, dates, and deadlines.

  • Tracks Coffee & Chat attendance numbers and monthly discussion topics.

  • Monitors FGSG email account.

  • Sets up Zoom meetings for the group, records, and posts to appropriate places.

Blog Editor:

  • Writing blog posts about upcoming and recently passed events.

  • Coming up with other content suitable for the Blog.

  • Soliciting and editing submissions for publication.

  • Working with the webmaster, social media coordinator, and programming team to get appropriate and relevant information published.

If you are interested in any open position, please send your statement of purpose to firstgen.sjsu@gmail.com.