The chapter president needs to be accountable for the responsibilities involved in leading a student organization. Many chapters elect to have two co-presidents, but they are careful to split up tasks so that each individual is responsible for explicitly different jobs.
The treasurer can be responsible for being the lead on creating a budget for the year; developing a strategic plan to accomplish your fundraising goals; managing your chapter’s money, check writing, and expense approving; and for raising and distributing funds for regional and national conference attendance.
The recruitment coordinator is responsible for taking the lead on your chapter’s recruitment campaigns. We encourage members in this position to connect with our membership team at AMSA at members@amsa.org with any and all questions. This person will be a very visible part of your fall and winter recruitment drives, so choose an extrovert who revels in the spotlight but who will also pitch in to get the job done. The coordinator may organize chapter events or a survival seminar as part of recruitment efforts. Be sure the recruitment coordinator is acquainted
This position serves as your chapter’s primary contact for legislative activities of the AMSA education and advocacy fellow (EAF) and AMSA’s action committees. This officer can distribute information about current legislation affecting medical students, serve as the key link for communicating local and state legislative issues affecting medical students to the EAF, and facilitate local chapter member involvement in legislative issues. A strong relationship with the EAF is needed to be an efficient advocacy representative for your chapter. You can find contact information for our fellow and our action committee members in the directory in the back of this guide.
AMSA has nine action committees: Community & Public Health; Global Health; Health Policy; Wellness & Student Life; Medical Education; Gender & Sexuality; Professionalism & Ethics; Professional Development; and Race, Ethnicity & Culture in Health. The action committee representative serves as an intermediary between a particular committee and the local chapter, and distributes information concerning activities and projects on issues related to each. This person should promote AMSA opportunities to chapter members, attend programs coordinated by the committees at Convention, and coordinate local projects on committee issues with national action committee leaders. Contacts for action committee leaders can be found in the back of this guide, in the directory.
If you elect action committee representatives before Convention, you can assign these individuals to attend the meeting times and programming coordinated by each committee to familiarize themselves with their respective committee. If you elect action committee representatives after Convention, encourage those attending convention to find a committee they’re interested in, attend the programming, and volunteer to become the liaison for the next year.
AMSA encourages all our chapters to celebrate one or all of the action weeks. You need at least one student coordinator to organize the week’s events and to serve as a contact for the National office. This student coordinator works with our EAF. As a local coordinators will have the opportunity to meet leaders and invite them to speak, work with health professional students and your local area health education center to plan the week’s events, involve your local elected officials and the media in your activities, and organize a week’s worth of events to further your classmates’ understanding of these events. Be sure to let the national office know what your chapter is planning by going here.
National Weeks of Action
- NPCW – National Primary Care Week
- AWARE – Week of Addiction and Recovery Education
- HEWA -Health Equity Week of Action
Each year at the Annual AMSA Convention & Exposition, the House of Delegates (HOD), the official legislative body through which AMSA creates national policy, meets to discuss current resolutions to the organization’s Constitution and Bylaws or to the PPP (“Preamble, Purpose and Principles”). The official delegate from each chapter is the policymaker for that chapter: He or she votes on the policies that define what AMSA is and what it stands for. The official delegate is responsible for discussing resolutions and candidates for national office with your chapter members before Convention and for facilitating discussions about AMSA’s policy so that your chapter can make informed decisions on each resolution. This person is then responsible for voting in the HOD based on the chapter’s collective decision or opinion. Delegates need not be experienced in parliamentary procedure to take part in the House of Delegates.
