USAPECS had its first Board Call on January 8, 2015. Present on the call were Alice Bradley, Ellyn Enderlin, Allen Pope, Emily Voytek, Adam Naito, Mia Bennett, Olivia Lee, Shelly Knuth, Jeff Bowman, and Alex Thornton. Ellyn Enderlin and Alice Bradley were elected Co-Chairs of the Board.
Web Presence
Mia Bennett is taking over responsibility for the website. Immediate plans include adding a page for board member bios and posting a summary from the first call. Suggestions and especially additional content to go on the website (articles, events, links, etc) should go through her. There is also now a twitter handle (@US_APECS), but the decision was made to not get a Facebook page right now. If content is appropriate for cross-posting on the APECS website (once the new version is posted), we are encouraged to post things there too. All events should be announced on the APECS site.
The USAPECS email list is maintained by the APECS Director, and people are added to it when they register for APECS. Members of USAPECS must therefore be members of APECS in order to get on the mailing list.
Fundraising, Organizational Partnerships, and Advisory Board
Over the next year, we will need to do some fundraising in order to support events, including the field school, and maintain development of the national committee. On the call, we determined that there are three areas that we need to focus brainstorming activity:
Organizational Partnerships – Given that we are a newly established group in the US, one of the priorities is to establish communication and credibility with other organizations and players in the US polar science community. This list is basically groups that should know we exist.
Fundraising – In addition to establishing contact with different organizations in the US, USAPECS will need funding to support the field safety school and other activities. This includes funding calls from NSF etc, and organizations that may be able to help support our activities.
Advisory Board – established scientists and professionals in the polar research community that can help USAPECS achieve our goals.
Goals for Year 1
There are four projects that have been identified (with people volunteering to lead):
Field Safety School (lead by Ellyn Enderlin)
The field safety school is the first major project lead by USAPECS. It will offer a chance for ECR to get hands-on training in field safety that may be glossed over in prep for a field campaign or assumed that a grad student or postdoc has sufficient previous experience. The FSS is meant to fill in the gaps in the current system.
Introductory Webinars (lead by Chelsea Thompson)
A series of webinars organized on the theme “Introduction to Science-X for other polar scientists.” These can be offered by either ECRs or particularly engaging senior scientists, based on the subject and availability.
Compile and approve organizational documents (lead by Alice Bradley)
Formalize USAPECS organizational structure and document mission and broader goals. This document is intended to be revised every few years as the organization gets better established in the US.
Events at US meetings (all)
For conferences related to polar sciences located in the US, USAPECS will make an effort to organize some sort of either career-related, outreach, or social event in conjuction with the meeting. Meetings outside of the US are outside of our purview.
Additional projects, especially in outreach, will be added as the group grows and planning continues.