IASNR Committee Activities & Updates
Want to get invovled with IASNR? Join a committee! To do so, contact the IASNR Office at [email protected].
Updates from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Kate Burgess, Council Member
National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, USA (2023 – 2025)
Trace Gale, Council Member
Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia, Chile (2023 – 2025)
We held a successful election and appreciate all IASNR members who submitted their votes. Please join us in congratulating new Executive Officers Christopher Raymond, Kelly Biedenweg, and John Parkins, along with council members Jesse Abrams, Claudia Benham, and Tom Fish. Aritra Chakrabarty was elected by the student members to serve as the new Student Representative-Elect. We want to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Student Representative Dana Johnson (University of British Columbia, Canada) who has made significant contributions to IASNR and our student community. Keahna Margeson (Dalhousie University, Canada) will move into the Student Representative position after the June conference. We look forward to introducing them and others on the IASNR Council at the All Members Meeting at the 2023 IASNR Conference in Portland, Maine, USA, June 11-15, 2023.
Chair: Chun-Yen Chang
Council Member, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Updates from the Elections Committee
We held a successful election and appreciate all IASNR members who submitted their votes. Please join us in congratulating new Executive Officers Christopher Raymond, Kelly Biedenweg, and John Parkins, along with council members Jesse Abrams, Claudia Benham, and Tom Fish. Aritra Chakrabarty was elected by the student members to serve as the new Student Representative-Elect. We want to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Student Representative Dana Johnson (University of British Columbia, Canada) who has made significant contributions to IASNR and our student community. Keahna Margeson (Dalhousie University, Canada) will move into the Student Representative position after the June conference. We look forward to introducing them and others on the IASNR Council at the All Members Meeting at the 2023 IASNR Conference in Portland, Maine, USA, June 11-15, 2023.
Co-Chair: Sarah Church
Council Member, Montana State University, USA
Updates from the Ethics Committee
The Ethics Committee welcomes our new student representative Kaustubh Kumar from Ohio State University – thank you Kaustubh, for joining us! Thank you too to Rose Keller who has stepped up to be our co-chair! The Ethics Committee, the Executive Council, and the IASNR Hubs continue to work together to further improve the accessibility of the Code and the processes it outlines. Part of this process includes developing an infographic that describes our Code of Ethics and launching a web-based form to report ethics violations (thank you Brooke McWherter!).
The Ethics Committee will implement a “welfare team” for the 2023 conference, allowing conference participants to share any ethics concerns or lack of feeling safe that might arise. Finally, we will be hosting a panel at the 2023 IASNR conference this summer titled: Research Ethics: A Roundtable Discussion with Members Working in Diverse Contexts to hold a discussion about research ethics with members working in varied contexts around the globe. If you plan to be at the conference, please plan to join us on June 13 at 2:30pm!
Updates from the Membership Committee
Since the last newsletter the Membership Committee initiated a survey among the attendees of the October 2022 Online IASNR conference with the theme of Access & Equity, so we can better understand the impacts of that event and some of the decisions made on who attended (e.g., not requiring IASNR membership). We will report on that when the results are back.
The Membership Committee also recently ran it’s second Bridgebuilder Award competition , the results of which will be announced at the upcoming IASNR Conference in Portland, ME. Thanks to everyone who served on that committee, and Candace May for chairing it.
At the 2023 IASNR Conference we will be running a “New Members” session on Sunday, June 11th, between the Student Forum and the Welcome Reception. We invite those who are coming to the IASNR conference for the first time, or returning after a break, to an informal session to get a head start at making connections for the week. We hope such folks will join members of the IASNR Executive, Council and Committees along with other new attendees to talk about what brings us all to IASNR and what the association aims to do. Afterwards we will head off to the Welcome Reception together.
Co-Chair: Kate Sherren
Council Member, Dalhousie University, Canada
Co-Chair: Mysha Clarke
Council Member, University of Florida, USA
Updates from the Professional Development Committee
The IASNR Professional Development Committee looks forward to serving the needs of IASNR members. We have two networking events planned for this year’s IASNR conference and other events being planned for the coming year. The first event will be a short video series highlighting tips and strategies to have a great networking experience during the IASNR conference. This first virtual video series will open in late May and feature 4 IASNR members sharing their advice and recommendations to expand your network and build collaboration as you prepare to attend the conference.
The second event with be a “Networking Happy Hour” on June 12th at 7pm during the conference for all members at various careers stages. It will be a great opportunity to network, meet other IASNR members, and enjoy some delicious food with wonderful colleagues! We are always interested in hearing member feedback so please get in touch via [email protected] if you have ideas about how to improve networking opportunities, mentoring and other professional development initiatives.
Updates from the Publications Committee
The IASNR Publications Committee works to support the SNR Press and the SNR Journal. The Publications committee has been meeting monthly in 2023. The committee concluded its work on the “Action Plan” for the SNR Press and Book Series with an analysis of the topics presented at the last four IASNR conferences and analysis of participation IASNR online conference sessions to determine the most popular topics and themes. We have forwarded the results of these analyses to the SNR Press Editorial Board for consideration for potential solicitation of new book projects. A last item on potential textbooks to be considered for the SNR Press and Book Series is scheduled to be discussed in one of the future meetings of the committee. We have committee spots available. If you are interested in joining the Publications Committee, please send an email to Tasos Hovardas ([email protected]) or Lee Cerveny ([email protected]).
Chair: Tasos Hovardas
Council Member, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Why not publish your next book-length product with the IASNR Book Series? If you have a book proposal, contact Rachel Levay.
Dana Johnson, Student Representative
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (2021 – 2023)
Keahna Margeson, Student Representative- Elect
Dalhousie University, Canada (2022-2024)
The Student Affairs Committee (SAC) is planning two events in association with the IASNR Conference in Portland, Maine. This year the SAC will be hosting a Student Forum (June 11) and Quiz Bowl (June 14). We invite interested students to attend both events.
- The Student Forum is a professional development workshop for students that is held prior to the start of the conference. The main objective of this event is to enhance the conference experience for new scholars, provide networking opportunities, and teach important professional development skills through panels, presentations, and participatory activities. Registration for the Student Forum is $10 USD and available on the IASNR Conference registration website.
- Quiz Bowl is a fun, casual event, where teams compete head-to-head to answer questions from multiple areas. The questions will fit the theme of the conference: “Bridging the Gap between Research & Practice – Communicating & Collaborating with Practitioners”. Students who are registered for the conference should be on the lookout for an email with a registration link and more details about the event in the next couple of weeks.
For students who are interested in helping plan either event, please reach out to Keahna Margeson ([email protected]) or Dana Johnson ([email protected]).
New student members are welcome! SAC continues to actively seek input from students on ways that the organization can best serve student members. New members are always welcome!
SAC Slack Channel. The best way to stay in touch and up to date with SAC activities is to attend SAC meetings and join our Slack channel. Here is a link to join the IASNR SAC Slack- https://join.slack.com/t/iasnrsac/shared_invite/zt-1tctfl97b-_YmXIuRcd66BBCh3iKNCRw.
Updates from the Conference Support Committee
In addition to planning for out-year conferences and working closely with the planning committee for this year’s conference in Maine, the Conference Support Committee has put sustained time and thought into how best to meet changing expectations for conference formats. Virtual and hybrid conferences were already growing in popularity before the Covid-19 pandemic changed how we work and interact, and sudden restrictions on travel and meetings forced IASNR to quickly pivot to virtual conference formats in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 we held our first in-person conference in three years, and we also organized a follow-up virtual conference for those who couldn’t attend in person in San José, Costa Rica. As we look forward to future years, we are considering how to make IASNR conferences as inclusive and valuable as possible to our increasingly international membership. No decisions have been made yet, but it is likely that future years will see us piloting new formats to best meet the needs of our community.
Chair: Jesse Abrams
Council Member, University of Georgia, USA