Club Structure

Leadership, Collaboration & Learning

At the Systems Biology Initiative, our mission is to help each other learn and grow by creating and developing opportunities we want to see on campus, to learn more about systems biology and to expand the impact of systems biology in our community. Every semester, members can pitch new projects to the club to find people who would like to join them in developing the projects they want to see. Our board is made up of all members in organizing committees (project committees) that run and develop our events.

Smaller projects that take a few weeks to complete are classified as specialty projects, usually run primarily by a few members (specialty project co-leads). They can be the organization of a tour of a biotechnology company you are interested, hosting a talk by a scientist whose work you are captivated by, or a trial run for an idea that you would like to develop into a larger project. Specialty projects can be pitched at any time during the year. Anyone can pitch specialty projects, including people in the general body and not on the current board.

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Larger projects, that take a semester or more to complete, are rotating projects. These projects are pitched during elections at the end of each semester, and project leads for these projects are voted upon by the board. All projects chosen by the board then form their own committees to develop the project. When a rotating project has demonstrated its success on campus, it is promoted to a club tradition and will continue in future semesters. The project leads are always re-elected each semester, though the same person can run for many semesters. If a rotating project was not successful, we discuss as a board how to improve the project and whether we would like to modify the project and re-pitch it, or we would like to leave this direction for now. Anyone can pitch rotating projects, including people in the general body and not on the current board.

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Everyone is guided and supported by members of the executive board, who oversees all of the projects of the club and creates social events to encourage community bonding, in addition to running the general administrative tasks of the club. The executive board leads discussions throughout the semester on the progress of each project, the challenges, and brainstorming of solutions to obstacles with project leads and the board as a whole. Project leads meet with the executive board once a month during the executive board meetings, which take place either immediately before or immediately after general board meetings.

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All executive board meetings are open meetings, unless the executive board specifically states beforehand that the meeting is closed. Open meetings indicate that anyone can join the executive board meeting and participate in our discussions. Closed meetings are meetings for executive board members only. We encourage all feedback to help improve our club and our work. Members who are interested in becoming part of the executive board are especially encouraged to attend our open meetings. Members who regularly attend executive board meetings become executive board OCMs (operational committee members), who are mentored to become executive board members in the future. During elections, current executive board members give recommendations for executive board OCMs based on their work. Executive board members are elected annually in December. All former executive board members become Senior Advisors who join executive board meetings once a month to offer advice and support. This allows a smooth transition of the executive board from one year to the next.

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We recruit new members for the board at the beginning of each semester, and members can join the board at any time during the year. To stay up to date about our activities, subscribe to our email list on our Home page! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at sbi.columbia@gmail.com. 

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A list of current projects can be found on the 'Projects' page. 

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