We wish to start our message by first acknowledging the devastating floods happening in South-East Queensland. Personally, we know of at least one person in our community who has had significant loss already, and suspect many more will be impacted. We hope that you are all safe. Our thoughts are also with any members who are affected by the events occurring in Ukraine, and encourage everyone to spend an additional moment to take care of themselves, their families and colleagues at this trying time.

Science Meets Parliament 2022 has kicked off online this week, with Science Technology Australia members from around the country using science communication to directly engage politicians and policy makers. It’s an exciting program and we expect many ASC members will be, know of, or work with someone involved. With this year’s events happening online, we hope that those of you interested and with access to the event have secured your spots and engage with the opportunity thoroughly.

The executive committee met early last February for the first time since being elected for a very productive meeting. Several projects were workshopped on how we could increase the impact and visibility of ASC along with an array of other potential ideas. Initial scoping work is currently underway before we seek broader membership support, so for now, watch this space. We’ll have more information and ways we’d love the community to get involved in an upcoming SCOPE issue.

As we write this, we’re gearing up for our first meeting with the local committees and we’re looking forward to finding out everyone has planned for the year ahead. We know that not everyone is represented by an active branch committee and we are very interested in ways we can make it easier for new committees to coordinate. If you’re interested in representing your area, please do let us know.

Finally, we also send our congratulations to Lisa Harvey-Smith and her team for their efforts within the Women in STEM agenda. The team have recently released their Annual Review which highlights all of their work in 2021. It’s worth a read – details can be found below.

Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate this festival, and welcome to the year of the Tiger. It’s also World Interfaith Harmony Week, and later this month is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 Feb). We know that many of you will be acknowledging this day within your organisations and personally. We hope that you have meaningful messages on gender equity to share and continue the fight for full and equal access and participation for women and girls in science.

After a somewhat extended break over New Year, the national team will be meeting officially in their new roles for the first time tomorrow. For what feels like the real start of our co-presidency, this is a particularly exciting moment and we are keen to get going on plotting out the coming year. We’ve already had a catch-up with our National Editor, Cedric Bauer, to start discussions on this newsletter and our other internal communications. The three of us had a unanimous desire to amplify the voice of, and to prioritise projects in response to the broader membership.

To that end, we’ve put together a quick form to capture some initial thoughts to help shape our thinking for the year ahead both for SCOPE and more generally. You can access the form here, or feel free to email us directly if you’d prefer.

And finally – a quick congratulations to our National Secretary, Dr Michelle Reidlinger, who as of earlier this year, is the new Editor in Chief of the Journal of Science Communication. We wish you all the best in the role.

J&T