Question of the month- societies
Posted by the Node, on 30 June 2015
Last week the International Society for Stem Cell Biology meeting took place in Stockholm, and next week is the turn of the Society for Developmental Biology meeting, in Utah. However, an annual meeting is not the only thing that a society may do. Other activities can include, for example, the publication of a peer-reviewed journal, advocacy for science funding, outreach/and or education of the public and its members, or the creation of networking opportunities. Are all of these useful? Do they play a role in your decision to become a member of a society? This month we are asking:
What is the role that scholarly societies play or should play in the community, and how important are they?
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One thing they can do is to provide resources for members for things such as career development – ASBMB is actually running a survey on this right now:
http://futureofresearch.org/2015/06/27/asbmb-survey/
But also they can provide a platform for engaging a community and encouraging them to advocate for funding, provide outreach, support members and provide a networking platform. I’m quite heavily involved with ASCB’s postdoc and student committee, COMPASS (http://ascb.org/committee-for-postdocs-and-students-compass/) – with representation on ASCB Council, and opportunities to write for blogs, the newsletter, provide outreach, get involved with organization of the annual meeting and provide resources for career development, policy work, outreach, etc., it makes you feel really involved with the community, but also provides a framework for your field to try to work together on common goals, which I think a society can do more easily than an institution or department.