Call for Nominations: Student Council Representative

The Society of Systematic Biologists Council is inviting nominations for one new graduate student representative for 2021-2022. The elected student representative will serve a 2-year term beginning January 1, 2021. 
 
As a member of the SSB Council, you will have the opportunity to participate in the workings of a society and interact with many of the great researchers in the society. Student council members will aid the society in developing initiatives to better serve our student members, participate in council meetings to provide input, and engage with student representatives from other societies (e.g., the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution) to support joint activities, such as student-oriented events at the Evolution meetings.
 
Student representatives are expected to be active members of SSB, to attend the annual Evolution meeting (travel costs and one night of accommodation are covered by the society), and to serve on the council for their full term (extension into postdoctoral work is fine).
 
To Apply: 
Any student member of SSB may nominate themselves. Faculty are also encouraged to nominate student members of SSB provided the student has provided consent to the nomination. Please email nominations to [email protected] with the subject “SSB Student Rep Nomination”. Nominations will be accepted from October 20, 2020 - November 20, 2020. 
 
Nomination materials include a single PDF document containing a CV (2 page limit) and a short  (250 word limit) paragraph for voters describing your academic background and why you would want to serve on the council. You can visit our website, www.systbio.org, to learn more about the society and its activities. Faculty nominations must include the student’s CV and background paragraph as well. Nomination packets should be saved as SSBStudentRep_LastName.pdf (where LastName is that of the student). 
 
Our society has strength in diversity, and we want our society leadership to reflect the general diversity of our society and more broadly, global diversity. Students who identify as, and/or have a strong record of advocating for, underrepresented folks in evolutionary biology are highly encouraged to apply. We hope for applicants along the gender spectrum. 
 
Voting: 
Ballots to vote for the graduate student representative will be sent out to student members of SSB in December 2020 and voting will remain open for a two week period.