Howdy folks,
Well aren’t these exciting times to be an ASC-ist? This month marks the beginning of the formal process we hope will lead the ASC down the path to professionalisation.
Professionalisation will lift the value of everyone’s ASC membership to the next level. Being a member of a professional ASC association should be a peer-endorsement of competence (hell, let’s say excellence) in whatever aspect of science communication that member operates. I personally would love to see a time where people who want to engage science communication services actively look for membership of the ASC as a badge of trustworthiness and expertise that is second to none.
The call for initial submissions went out from Will Grant to the ASC list on March 27, and already a solid handful of responses has come back. We have received interesting and useful thoughts, and also some offers of help to move us ahead. There is a very enthusiastic vibe surrounding this process so far, and I hope any and all of you who are interested will get on the band wagon.
Of course, this is not a trivial exercise, and the ramifications are not trivial either. If you have any ideas or comments, concerns or reservations, please contact Will or me.
We are also now in the build-up to the Big Science Communication Summit in June, an event that will have a strong ASC presence woven throughout (stay tuned for more via the list). For me, this really marks the beginning of the countdown to the ASC conference in February 2014, and I expect that issues, ideas and relationships from the Summit will inspire us in building our own conference.
And speaking of the 2014 ASC national conference … would you like to be part of the conference team? We need a few dedicated and idea-rich folks to play with us starting ASAP. Please contact me if you want to explore the wonder that is the ASC conference committee!
Cheers for now,
Rod
Dr Rod Lamberts
National President
Australian Science Communicators