GEM Bylaws

Bylaws

Steering Committee

The GEM Steering Committee (SC) oversees all GEM activities, except funding. The SC consists of the chair, 4 science community representatives, the research area coordinators (see below), and the GEM meeting organizer (MO). These are the voting members. A quorum requires the votes (in person or via e-mail) of at least half the voting members and the chair. The chair's vote breaks a tie. Votes per e-mail are permissible and are solicited by the chair. When casting an e-mail vote the voting member should e-mail the vote to all other voting members.

The SC elects a successor when a member rotates out and the SC chair appoints the new member. A new SC chair will also be elected by the SC and appointed by the outgoing chair (remark: this is a change to rules prior to 2007 that the PM appoints SC members, which were found to be inconsistent with NSF procedures.) The SC chair and the science community representatives serve a term of 3 years. Care shall be taken that the voting members cover a broad range of GEM activities and interests and that the terms are staggered to maintain corporate memory.

In addition to the voting members the SC consists of the Student Representative, the GEM communications coordinator(s), liaisons to NASA, NOAA, CEDAR and SHINE, international liaisons, and the GEM program manager.

The GEM meeting organizer (MO) shall keep minutes of the each SC meeting. The minutes, excluding sensitive matters, shall be published in the GEM newsletter in a timely manner. Research Area Coordinators

The Research Area Coordinators oversee the Focus Groups. Each research area has 2 Research Area Coordinators, who serve a staggered 6 year term. The coordinators oversee the FGs and invite tutorial speakers suggested by the FGs (see below). At present there are 5 research areas. However, the SC may change this arrangement:

   * Dayside, including boundary layers and plasma/energy entry.
   * Inner magnetosphere and storms.
   * Tail, including plasma sheet and substorms.
   * Magnetosphere - ionosphere coupling, aurora.
   * GGCM, metrics, and validation 

The SC suggests Research Area Coordinators which are appointed by the PM.

Student Represenatives

A new student representative (SR) is elected by the students every year and serves a two year term, overlapping with the term of the previous SR. The SR organizes and runs the student sessions, i.e., talks and tutorials given by students for students, on the day preceeding the summer workshop. (S)he reports to the SC on the student activities. The SR from the previous year advises the currently active SR.

Focus Groups

Focus Groups (FG) are at the heart of GEM. FGs are proposed by the community. The proposal shall be brief, no more than 2 pages, and must include:

   * A description of the topic.
   * A description of how the FG would relate to existing FGs.
   * A specific goal, that includes a deliverable. Deliverables can be GGCM modules, empirical relations that lead to modules, solutions to specific science problems, challenges, data sets for validation and metrics, or paper collections.
   * The names of the co-chairs.
   * The term, not more than 5 years.
   * Expected activities, for example topics of WG sessions or challenges. 

Focus Groups run for no longer than 5 years. The FG co-chairs are expected to organize sessions at the summer workshop, and, if appropriate, also at the pre-AGU fall workshop. There is no set number of sessions that a FG should organize, but 2-3 sessions is considered to be typical.

The SC issues a call for FG proposals in early Fall of each year, with a deadline concurrent with the GEM proposal deadline, usually October 15. Proposals will be posted on the web and also be sent to the appropriate Research Area Coordinators. A breakout session at the Fall pre-AGU workshop will be held to allow proposers to present their proposals. The SC discusses the proposal and votes at its Fall AGU meeting which FGs to implement. The target number of active FGs at any time is ~12. Thus, there will be ~2-3 new FGs selected every year.

During its last year a FG writes a report that briefly outlines its activities, accomplishments, GGCM contributions, and resulting publications. This report is published in the GEM newsletter and also becomes part of the GEM 5-year report. Summer Workshop Plenary Tutorials

The student representative invites one tutorial speaker who gives the "student sponsored tutorial." The FG chairs suggest the other speakers for the plenary tutorials at the summer workshop. The area coordinators decide on the invitees.

The Communications Coordinator

The communication's coordinator provides the communication infrastructure for the GEM effort through the following activities:

   * Issues the electronic GEM Messenger containing short news items pertinent to the affairs of GEM. These include working group reports, meeting announcements, calls for participation and similar messages. Requires maintaining an up-to-date mailing list, allowing those listed to remove themselves from list, and maintaining the security of that list so that it is not used by those not associated with GEM or copied by them. This is a mediated newsletter under the active control of an editor who must be fully engaged 365 days a year.
   * Issues the electronic GEMstone containing an annual report on the status of the GEM project, centered on the activities at the annual (summer) meeting. Issued at least once per year, usually no more than twice. Paper copies are available. Uses the GEM Messenger mailing list. This newsletter requires the active collection of information in contrast to the GEM Messenger that responds to member requests for issuance.
   * Maintains the GEM webpage describing the organization, providing access to GEM documents, allowing the posting of tutorial presentations and working group presentations as requested. Allows virtual poster sessions for those not being able to attend GEM although this has not been used much recently. Provides the historical archive of GEM activities.
   * Provides access to data, mainly groundbased magnetometer data, in support of campaigns and general community research. Provides support for campaigns by providing a home for data sets used for joint study. However, as individual groups become more adept and have greater storage capacity themselves, this has become less necessary.
   * Leads the preparation of the seven-year report whenever it is requested. This has happened only once thus far. 

The coordinators are selected and funded by peer reviewed proposals to NSF. Transition

   * The GI and the MIC campaigns are dissolved. Their working groups, and the GGCM WGs become focus groups. These FGs should write up a "proposal" that guides their activities in the coming years.