Traditionally the role of a GEA representative has been to promote the Gender and Education Association in their organisation and country. From 2011 onwards we would like to extend this role in order to ensure that our regional representatives are active in the life of the organisation and that we are connecting with every country and region fully.
By agreeing to become/remain a regional representative you will be committing to the following:
– Writing four web posts every year for the Gender and Education website. To gain an idea of what we mean by a ‘web post’, please see the current posts featured on the GEA website . These do not have to be long and they can take a number of different forms (e.g. they could outline events in your region, recent publications, activities or conferences which may be of interest to other members, policy and practice related issues in your country, film reviews, educational resources, etc). These do not just have to be written by yourself, you can also encourage other local members to make contributions for your region on your behalf.
– Contributing one report every academic year for the GEA newsletter. In each newsletter we would like a regular ‘regional representatives’ feature, where we will be able to hear what is happening for GEA members in one or two countries at that particular time. We would like regional representatives to regularly contribute to this feature and at times that suit them (e.g. when they have an event that they are organising in their region). However, at a minimum we will contact you once a year to ask for a contribution for a particular volume of the newsletter.
– Providing a brief email summary of your work as a regional representative each year. Every year you will be contacted by the GEA executive committee member responsible for the regional representatives asking for a report of your activities that year. Your reply will only need to be in the form of a brief email, outlining the web posts that you have written, the contact you have been able to maintain with local members, the articles that you have produced for the newsletter and any events that you may have organised or attended as part of this role.
– Maintaining regular contact with your local members. We would like every regional representative to be responsible for maintaining contact with members from their regions through their own email list. In the first instance we will send you a list of all of your local registered members in order for you to compile your own email list. The list should be used on a regular basis to distribute information about the GEA and to encourage active participation in the life of the association. For example, we will expect you to encourage proposals for seedcorn activities, to develop proposals for hosting the GEA conference, to gain web posts from your local members or adverts and articles for the newsletters.
– Growing membership in your local regions. As part of your role we expect you to promote the GEA in your country or region. This will involve facilitating networking in your institution and country in order to bring likeminded researchers together and grow your local membership. The GEA executive committee member responsible for membership will send you a document outlining how you can actively develop membership in your local region or countries. You will also be asked for your ideas about membership and the benefits or resources we could be offering as an association.
– Involvement in future conferences. We would also like our regional representatives to become more involved in our conferences. For future Biennial conferences we will expect all regional representatives to nominate the keynote speakers that their local members would like to be included in the conference, to nominate referees for reviewing conference abstracts and to encourage and bring together symposia sessions which contain members from of the local network.
If you wish to become a GEA regional representative please follow the instructions laid out in the document attached. Please note that if your name is currently on our list of representativesand you would like to remain in the role then we will also need you to reapply by following these same instructions. Anyone who does not reapply for their position by 1st September 2011 will automatically be withdrawn from our current list.
