Handbook of Operations for the Sociological Practice Section

II. Duties of the Officers and Members

A. The Chair-Elect

The purpose of this handbook is to make it easier to be an effective Manager and Leader of the Section. The Chair-elect should be on top of the processes and decisions to be made, so that when s/he is Chair, the time spent in office can be used to implement change, rather than just figure out what to do. This Handbook shall be in both electronic and paper format. It is the job of the Chair to keep these formats up to date, and to pass it on to the new Chair-elect.

The Chair-Elect...

• 1. Serves as chair of the Program Committee, which means, makes sure that the next year's regular sessions are presented and organized.
• 2. Starts developing tasks to accomplish and a vision of the Section activities at the annual meeting two years hence, e.g., membership goals, session activities, communications, etc.
• 3. Works with committee members (the first year members) to develop and propose new sessions and workshops for the next two annual meetings. The committee should solicit ideas or participation from other council members and the entire membership by using the newsletter and the email list.
• 4. Organizes the reception (get the previous order and bill for guidance?find out if the menu amounts were adequate.)

• The business/council meeting. The Chair opens and presides over the Council/Business Meeting, but you should be expected to state something about what you plan to do (see previous agenda as an example, or minutes).
• The reception
• The new section officers orientation if you have not already attended one recently.

B. Chair

• 1. The business/council meeting. The Chair opens and presides over the Council/Business Meeting. Prior to the meeting, the Chair will have established an agenda. (An example of a recent agenda is appended to this Handbook.)
• Reception
• Section officers meeting with the Committee on Sections

During the year you will also have to:

• Keep tabs on whether the other committees are performing as required.
• Forward relevant information from the ASA to the rest of the Council as appropriate.
• Chair the Awards Committee: Gets nominees for the awards.
• Assist the Program Committee Chair (Chair-elect).
• Write an essay for each newsletter.
• Establish an agenda for the Council/Business meeting to be held at the end of the Chair's term.
• Preside over the Section Awards ceremony, usually held as part of the reception. Prior to the meeting, the Chair will insure that plaques or certificates have been prepared for awardees and will arrange for the student award winner to receive a monetary award.

C. Past-Chair:

• 1. Writes an annual report with the Secretary-Treasurer section (see below, section II-C for more detail). The Chair-elect might help if necessary. The annual report is one of the critical documents to show the Committee on Sections that we are a viable. Give a copy of the annual report to the Chair.
• 2. Gets nominees for vacating section council seats, chair and secretary-treasurer. Make sure nominees are willing to commit to attending all meetings during their stay in office, and be willing to take upon themselves the responsibility for section member assignments, such as Newsletter Editor, organizing a regular session, special session, or workshop, and/or participating in a workshop, as directed by the Chair.

D. Secretary-Treasurer:

• Takes minutes at the annual meeting, including a full roster of attendees. These minutes and the roster are also evidence of section viability.
• Prepares minutes, agenda and roster for the annual report.

E. Newsletter-Editor:

• Chairs the Communications Committee.
• Produces two newsletters per year.
• Provides Section officers and members documentation.
• [Get from Kathryn]

• 1. All Officers and Council members attend the business meeting and the reception.
• 2. The Chair opens and presides over the business/council meeting, with an agenda (see example) has been established beforehand by the Chair, Chair-elect, and Secretary-Treasurer.
• 3. The Chair-Elect makes opening remarks and discusses the plans to improve the overall quality and effectiveness of the Section. B. Other tasks for the ASA Annual Meeting:
  • 1. Orientation for new section officers (if you haven't already gone to one, but make sure someone goes).
  • 2. All Section officers should attend the reception, where the Chair will preside over the presentation of Section awards.
  C. During the Year
  
  • After the annual meeting, follow-up on any decisions made at the business/council meeting.
  • The first thing is to get the annual report done (Past Chair and Treasurer/Secretary)
  • Checklist for Annual Report:
    • A report of the business meeting held at the annual meeting, including how many people attended.
    • A report of the council meeting held at the annual meeting.
    • A review of the section's activities during your time as chair.
    • Plans for the coming year.
    • Copies of your section's newsletters (only if you prepared an electronic newsletter -- The ASA office has the paper copies for those that were printed).

      Your report may be as long as you like, but should be long enough to give the Committee on Sections and Council a good sense of what your section has been doing over the last year.

  The Committee on Sections will review all section Annual Reports for 200x during their mid-year meeting in November/December 200x-1. Also be advised that sections will not be allowed to incur any expenses in 2003 until their 2002 annual reports are received. If you have any questions about this report, please contact the ASA Governance Office at sections@asanet.org or by telephone at (202) 383-9005 x327.

  IV. Help from the ASA

  A. Contacts
  • Go to Janet Astner for issues about the annual meeting, unless someone else contacts you specifically.
  • Go to Michael Murphy about Section specific issues
  • Go to Carla Howery about SP Section annual meeting program activity planning.
  • Go to Sally Hillsman about the role of the Section in the ASA itself.
  B. Documents (if you don't get them, ask for them):
• Manual for Annual Meeting Session Organizers (get from meetings at asanet.org)
• Suggestions for Annual Meetings - Guidelines and Deadlines
• Section Manual. This manual tells you what the ASA requires of a Section, but does not tell you how to do the job. This very Handbook does.
• Manual for the ListServs .
• Section Officer Orientation