Membership Committee
Purpose
The purpose of the Membership Committee is to recruit new members, sustain continuing members, and encourage professional growth among all members. Because graduate students represent the future, the committee should concentrate on graduate student recruitment for long-term benefits while continuing to encourage faculty recruitment as well as the recruitment of others with educational research concerns in other professional areas.
Selection
The committee chair is appointed by the President. The President and committee chair will appoint the remaining members, assuring that each state is represented by two committee members, including the chair. Each committee member will serve a two-year term with half of the committee membership being reappointed each year.
Specific Charge to the Committee
This committee is to promote activities that will ensure the continued participation of members and conference participants. The committee also accepts responsibility for promoting activities that encourage the affixation and participation of beginning researchers, particularly as they complete their graduate studies. A further mission of the committee is to seek out researchers in institutions whose faculty are not currently affiliated with MSERA and to encourage their participation. The overall goal is not just to increase numbers of participants but also to make this organization a representative, responsive research group.
Responsibilities
Following designated Annual Meetings, a poll of those members not in attendance can be made to determine reasons for nonattendance and be potentially remedied. This may be done in alternate years or as frequently as the Board deems desirable.
Following the Annual Meeting, revise the MSERA brochure to reflect changes in Officers and distribute new versions to Board members, the Executive Secretary, and the editor of the Researcher for distribution. When the dates (day and month) for future Annual Meetings are established, they should be included in the membership brochure along with the year and city. The "Services to Members" section should include, among other items, the following: Research in the Schools, awards presented by MSERA, the MSERA Archives as a source of papers previously presented at MSERA, the MSERA membership Directory, and a statement indicating that MSERA's Annual Meeting is recognized by ERIC and that MSERA facilitates ERIC submission of papers presented at the MSERA Annual Meeting.
Following the Annual Meeting, usually in January, send a welcoming letter to new members of the organization.
Dependent on the continued success of the New Member Reception, continue to recognize new members through its continuance.
According to the Bylaws of the Association, the duties of the elected Directors include stimulating interest and promoting membership in the Association from the respective groups they were elected to represent or in general. The chair of this committee may encourage State Directors to identify an individual at every institution of higher learning in their respective states (or particularly those institutions that are not currently represented in MSERA), inform that person about MSERA, and encourage participation in MSERA by that person's institution. It is especially critical that these "key'' people become members and receive the Researcher. Similarly, encourage the Department of Education Director to establish and maintain contacts with every State Department of Education and its affiliates within the MSERA region; encourage the public school Director to establish and maintain contacts with every school district within the MSERA domain. Request that the President delegate the President-Elect to establish contacts with research centers, military educators, and others not falling under the auspices of public schools, State Departments of Education, or higher education institutions.
Invite AERA members from member states who are not MSERA members to join by sending them a "Call for Papers" along with a letter of invitation. (This is currently done by the editor of the MSERA Researcher.)
Challenge sustaining members to assist in the recruitment of new members.
New Member Breakfast (held in conjunction with graduate
students):