Dear all,
This is a summary of our first virtual EC+ESC hour. During the call, not only the EC and ESC officers introduced themselves in a few sentences, but participants got the chance as well. This enabled us to get to know each other research interests, location, and current affiliation. We were overall 14 participants, which was great!
Together with @Joanna Mazur (Chair of the ESC), we introduced our past and ongoing activities, introduced the officers, and also gave a brief insight into the ASIS&T structure.
We also used the time to talk about challenges and opportunities on how the EC community could grow and how students could be integrated more intensely. One topic was students fees and how to motivate students to try out to be a member.
But we also talked about the aspect that it is necessary to think about how we could support not only more students but also researchers. One possibility could be to organize more events on specific topics in specific regions.
Especially I enjoyed it to listen to members of ASIS&T how they perceive the barriers or rather challenges from first hand. I think this is the right step to offer a platform for changes and future opportunities.
We were also asked if we support events organized by the members. Why not?
We would be happy to get the chance to support you, for example, by sharing events via our social media channels or maybe also to organize something together.
There was also a comment that it could be useful to encourage ambassadors, for example, by offering them free or discounted memberships as they advertise the EC and ESC activities.
This could be a good idea, as current members are mainly from Germany and the UK, which does not represent whole Europe! We need to change this.
Current EC members (81) (July 1, 2020): Extracted information from iConnect EC community:
21 Germany, 15 United Kingdom, 7 Croatia, 4 Netherlands, 4 France, 4 Switzerland, 4 Sweden
3 Italy, 3 Austria, 3 Turkey, 2 Norway, 2 Poland, 2 Denmark, 2 Spain, 1 Ireland, 1 Hungary, 1 Finland
1 Israel, 1 Belgium
But I also know that we have two members from Portugal. :)
Furthermore, it was also mentioned that it is important to explain the membership categories. For example, like that developing countries' fees are cheaper.
Even if the hour was very quick over, personally I have to say I enjoyed it to meet members from Europe (Poland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, UK, Hungary, France) and also non-members.
Thank you for this opportunity and for participating!
Hopefully, we will have more of this virtual hours.