AGU Council Research Articles

AGU Board Vacancy Filled, Council Leaders Chosen

American Geophysical Union members elected Lisa Graumlich to the AGU Board of Directors. AGU's Council also selected its new leadership team, heeding diversity criteria.

AGU Board and Council Assess 2014 and Set the Stage for 2015

The Council and Board of Directors honored outgoing leaders and introduced newly elected leaders.

AGU Board and Council Close Out Productive Year

The AGU Board of Directors and Council both held meetings in San Francisco the weekend before Fall Meeting, wrapping up a very busy and productive year. The Board and Council have a joint work plan (see http://sites.agu.org/leadership/bod/), and meetings are planned to provide a flow of information between the two groups, as well as to staff and other parts of the Union, including committees and task forces, editors, and sections and focus groups. Outcomes from the meetings are posted on AGU's website: Board outcomes can be found at http://sites.agu.org/leadership/bod/board‐outcomes/ and Council outcomes at, http://sites.agu.org/leadership/science‐council/council‐outcomes/.

Notification of Upcoming AGU Council Meeting

The AGU Council will meet on Sunday, 8 December 2013, beginning at 8:30 A.M., at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco, Calif. The meeting, which is open to all AGU members, will include discussions about strategies for AGU publishing and meetings, science‐related policies, and changes to the AGU bylaws.

AGU Ocean Research Position Statement Revised

During a series of meetings in June, following months of work by a panel of experts that included input from AGU membership, the AGU Council and Board Executive Committee adopted a revised ocean research position statement.

SWIRL Program Expanded for 2013 Meetings to Promote Interdisciplinary Collaboration

At the 2012 Fall Meeting, AGU implemented a new path for interdisciplinary collaboration through SWIRL sessions. This concept was initiated by the AGU Council and first developed by the AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee as a mechanism to identify, link, and organize select sessions from various sections into themes. The SWIRL themes provided attendees with the opportunity to explore an interdisciplinary experience at the Fall Meeting.

AGU Board and Council Meetings

The AGU Board and Council held meetings in San Francisco the weekend before Fall Meeting. Both meetings kicked off with a “Then and Now” presentation by Mike McPhaden, outgoing president; Carol Finn, incoming president; and executive director/CEO Chris McEntee. The presentation highlighted AGU's accomplishments under its strategic plan and new governance model in the past 2.5 years. The AGU leaders’ written State of the Union reports can be found at http://www.agu.org/about/strategic_plan.shtml.

Notification of upcoming AGU Council meeting

The AGU Council will meet on Sunday, 2 December 2012, at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco, Calif. The meeting, which is open to all AGU members, will include discussions of AGU's new Grand Challenge Project (a project that will be introduced to members at the 2012 Fall Meeting), the proposed AGU scientific ethics policy, publishing strategies, future plans for honors and recognition, and leadership transition as new members join the Council. This year the Council experimented with a new approach to conducting business. By holding virtual meetings throughout the year, Council members have been able to act in a more timely manner and provide input on important membership and science issues on the Board of Directors' agenda. The Council Leadership Team—an elected subset of the Council—also experimented with a new approach, meeting every month to keep moving projects forward. This approach has increased communication and improved effectiveness in Council decision making.

Aligning the honors program with AGU's mission

Over the past 2 years, AGU's Honors and Recognition (H&R) Committee (http://www.agu.org/about/governance/committees_boards/honors‐recog.shtml) has been working to better align the Union medals, awards, and prizes with AGU's new vision, core values, and strategic plan. The changes described below have been approved by the AGU Council. The H&R Committee reviewed and evaluated its charge to see how it can be aligned to better support AGU's strategic plan (http://www.agu.org/about/strategic_plan.shtml). The committee formally defined medals, awards, and prizes. Medals are given for a scientific body of work in Earth and space sciences. Awards are related to science, society, and talent pool goals. Prizes are presented jointly by AGU and some other nonprofit, for‐profit, government, and/or nongovernmental entities and involve significant funding.

Final slate for AGU elections this fall

Your vote is important! This fall, AGU members will elect leaders for the next term (1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014). This issue of Eos provides details about the upcoming election and information on candidates for open AGU Board and Council positions as well as section and focus group secretary positions. All regular and student members who joined or renewed their membership by 1 July 2012 are eligible to vote in this year's election of AGU leaders. The election will be held electronically, and all members must have a valid e‐mail address on file at AGU to receive login credentials from the company conducting the election.

Williams to become new AGU director of science

Billy Williams, who will join AGU as its new director of science on 15 June, will work to raise AGU's profile and impact and shape AGU's scientific activities and the development of scientific careers for AGU student members. As director of science, Williams will facilitate working relationships and communication of scientific information and resources between and among the AGU Board and Council, committees, sections and focus groups, AGU members (including students), staff, and external partners. In addition, he will facilitate and coordinate the development and implementation of memorandums of understanding and other collaborations with various scientific societies, and he will provide leadership for AGU's efforts to develop resources designed to assist students in preparing for scientific careers. Williams also will serve as senior staff member to the AGU Council.

Elections for AGU leadership positions: What you can expect in the months to come

It's hard to believe that it is again time to consider elections for AGU leadership positions. Just over 18 months ago, AGU launched a new governance model and strategic plan. Since then, the AGU Board of Directors, the AGU Council, and staff leaders have partnered with us, the members of the Governance Committee, to move AGU forward in the positive direction set by members. Much has been accomplished in a short time, and much is left to do to achieve AGU's envisioned future (see http://www.agu.org/about/mission.shtml). We need to elect the next set of leaders who can carry on the direction and vision set in motion by the Future Focus Task Force and the first group of Board and Council members tasked with guiding this new plan. This year, AGU members will elect leaders for the next term (2013–2014). Below is a synopsis of what we've been doing, along with a timeline for nominations and elections.

AGU Fellows Elected for 2012

The AGU Fellows program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the Earth and space sciences. The first class of AGU Fellows was elected in 1962, and AGU bylaws require that the size of a Fellows class be limited to no more than 0.1% of the total AGU membership. During the 2011 Fall Meeting, the AGU Council voted to align the nomination cycles for all Union honors. AGU will accept Fellows nominations for the class of 2013 from 15 January to 15 March 2013 and will announce elected Fellows in July 2013. The individuals listed below have been elected as the 2012 class of Fellows and will be recognized during the honors ceremony at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting, 6–10 December.

Does gender bias influence awards given by societies?

AGU is a participant in a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded project called Advancing Ways of Awarding Recognition in Disciplinary Societies (AWARDS), which seeks to examine whether gender bias affects selection of recipients of society awards. AGU is interested in learning why there is a higher proportion of female recipients of service and education awards over the past 2 decades. Combined with a lower rate of receipt of research awards, these results suggest that implicit (subconscious) bias in favor of male candidates still influences awardee selection. Six other professional societies (American Chemical Society, American Mathematical Society, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Mathematical Association of America, Society for Neuroscience, and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) are participating in the project. Volunteers from each participant society attended an Association for Women in Science (AWIS)–sponsored workshop in May 2010 to examine data and review literature on best practices for fair selection of society awardees. A draft proposal for implementing these practices will be brought before the AGU Council and the Honors and Recognition Committee at their upcoming meetings.

AGU Council adopts position statement on scientific expression

On 17 August the AGU Council voted to adopt an American Meteorological Society (AMS) statement on free and open communication of scientific findings as an official position of AGU. The statement appears below. Recent attacks on scientists who present facts that are controversial or politically charged, such as in cases involving climate science, have sparked action by AGU and other scientific societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Open communication and collaboration are essential to the scientific process and must not be deterred by politics, media, or faith. In a recent letter to the New York Times, AGU president Michael McPhaden stated that “misguided attempts to suppress scientific research, particularly through political pressure, will not make climate change or the role human activity plays in it magically disappear. It will, however, make the objective knowledge needed to inform good policy decisions disappear.”

AGU leadership reflects back, looks forward

AGU president Mike McPhaden, president‐elect Carol Finn, and executive director Chris McEntee have served in their current capacities for approximately a year. In this interview, held 18 August after the AGU Council meeting, they reflect back on the year and discuss prospects for the future.

AGU Board and Council Project Team Take Next Steps

AGU continues to actively implement its strategic plan. Both the AGU Board of Directors and the Council's Mission:Alignment Project (M:AP) team met during the last week of March at AGU headquarters in Washington, D. C. Significant progress was made at both meetings.

AGU Council Undertakes Mission:Alignment Project

Over the past 2 years, AGU has undertaken two critical initiatives designed to better position the organization for continued success. The first was a full membership vote to restructure governance to better address how both the science and the business of AGU are conducted. The second was to create a new long‐term strategic plan based on broad input from a cross section of science perspectives.Now the newly configured AGU Council, which represents all constituent voices, is focusing on a key question: Given our strategic plan, stakeholder expectations of AGU, and what is being asked of science and our members, how does our science need to be organized, recognized and rewarded, disseminated, and promoted?

AGU Council to Meet in December

The AGU Council will hold a meeting on Sunday, 12 December 2010, in San Francisco in conjunction with the Fall Meeting. This is the first meeting of the reconfigured Council, chaired by President‐elect Carol Finn. As an outcome of the membership vote a year ago, the composition and the focus of the Council changed. With the creation of the Board of Directors to handle the business and fiduciary responsibilities of the organization, the Council is free to focus on science policy and other science‐related matters.

2010–2012 AGU Council Takes Office

The AGU Council is the governing body responsible for science issues and is chaired by the Union president‐elect (for more information, visit http://www.agu.org/about/governance/). The newly expanded Council includes the 24 focus group chairs and vice‐chairs; 22 section presidents and presidents‐elect; five committee chairs; four student/early‐career scientists; and two ex officio members, the AGU president and the executive director. Council members elected their leadership team, which develops and oversees the work of the Council and defines issues of importance for Council deliberation.