Author Archives: Jesse Shore

About Jesse Shore

Jesse Shore is passionate about engaging the community with science and in looking for ways to weave together the arts and sciences. He has been developing science based exhibitions and events since 1984, and was President of the Australian Science Communicators from 2010-2012. His business, Prismatic Sciences, produced five travelling exhibitions for the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry and he manages the ongoing national tour. He previously worked at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney as an exhibition project leader and Senior Curator of sciences. While at the museum he was one of the founders of the Ultimo Science Festival, a major National Science Week activity. He is currently collaborating with an artist to create artworks which have a science slant.

Post of ASC Assistant Treasurer – seeking applicants

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Assistant Treasurer, Australian Science Communicators www.asc.asn.au
Location: anywhere in Australia with broadband internet access
Honorarium: $300 per year.

The ASC is seeking applications from members interested in the post of Assistant Treasurer.

The Assistant Treasurer will assist the ASC Treasurer, David Ellyard, to manage the financial matters of the Association. The position offers opportunities to increase one’s financial skills and to be exposed to wider aspects of science communication and to the activities of the ASC.

The Assistant Treasurer position has been created as part of the succession planning for the management of the Association. It is intended that In due course the Assistant Treasurer will take over the full Treasurer’s role.

The Treasurer will induct and train the Assistant Treasurer. In the short term, the Assistant Treasurer will be responsible for a limited number of the Treasurer’s duties. Over time the Assistant Treasurer will gradually learn all the tasks of the Treasurer.

Duties of the Assistant Treasurer include:

  • Keeping the books under supervision of the Treasurer. (David Ellyard uses Quickbooks but other software (eg MYOB) could be used.);
  • Assisting the Treasurer prepare monthly accounts for reporting to the National Council and Executive;
  • Taking responsibility for the payment of invoices under the direction of the Treasurer.
  • Serving as a non-voting member of the National Council and Executive to contribute to discussions of programs and policy beyond their financial aspects.

The key selection criteria for this role are:

  • Demonstrated ability to be methodical and to keep financial records up to date;
  • Evidence of an interest in increasing one’s financial accounting skills;
  • Evidence of an established interest in science communication;
  • Computer and internet literacy. The successful applicant will be trained to use accounting software but it is desirable to have familiarity with Quickbooks, MYOB or similar accounting software;
  • Capacity to commit ~5 hours per month to ASC financial tasks;
  • It is desirable that the applicant is interested in the role of Treasurer in the context of succession planning of the ASC.

The Assistant Treasurer will receive an honorarium of $300. The Treasurer is allocated an honorarium of $1000.

Applications are invited by e-mail no later than 5 pm on 5 March 2012 for the attention of Jesse Shore, ASC National President at: jesse@prismaticsciences.com.

Please include a brief CV (two pages maximum) and a statement addressing the selection criteria with contact details of two professional referees (one page maximum).  Applications must be submitted in PDF or Word 2003/2007 format (.doc or .docx). Candidates must be current financial members of ASC.

If you have any technical questions about the role, e-mail David at: david@davidellyard.com

Additional information:

ASC Treasurer – statement of duties (as provided by the current Treasurer).

1. Prepare monthly accounts for reporting to the National Council and Executive, and provide an explanatory commentary.

2. Prepare and oversight the budget.

2. Provide advice to the National Council and Executive on the money dimension of ASC policy and programs (eg the national conference).

3. Pay bills (not many of these; e.g. Executive officer’s fee is done by a periodic direct transfer). Mostly done by EFT since the Treasurer is the only signatory at the moment.

5. Do the banking (not a lot. Most income is from membership fees which come via YourMembership, our membership registration company).

6. Organise the annual audit (this takes a bit of time) and present the accounts at the AGM.

7. Prepare and submit the Annual Return to the authorities (Treasurer has done this as it mostly deals with the accounts, and eases the task of the ASC Public Officer).

8. Keep the books. (David Ellyard uses Quickbooks but other software (eg MYOB) could be used. This would be a key task of the Assistant Treasurer)

9. Maintain liaison (eg with President, Executive officer, YourMembership).

10. Serve as a member of the National Council and Executive to offer advice on programs and policy beyond financial aspects.

11. Circulate monthly bank statements for accountability.

12. Pay capitation by 1 July of each year. Capitation is set at 10% of the membership fees of the number of members in a branch. An additional 10% may be paid on application to the Executive (e.g. to fund a special project).

ASC conference – a social happening

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Cocktails in UTS’s new Great Hall? Café Scientific in a pub? Book Launch event of The Genome Generation? Pre-conference drinks with sci-comm up-and-comings?

Yes to all! The conference social calendar is now in place and we even offer a choice on the Tuesday evening.

First off is a relaxed pre-conference get-together at the Belgian Beer Café in the Rocks on Sunday 26 February from 6pm. Will Grant is organising this event. Reply to his tweet @willozap if attending.

Science Communication Tweetup pre #asc2012. 6pm, 26th Feb, Belgian Beer Cafe The Rocks (See Map Here) ping @willozap if attending!

Get dressed up on Monday 27 February for a cocktail function from 6-8pm at the newly refurbished Great Hall of the University Technology Sydney. All registered conference delegates are invited to this convivial gathering. Arrive on time to mingle and relax. There will be a couple of brief presentations and then some more mingling, etc. UTS has a lot to show off – you’ll hear about the exciting major rejuvenation of the university and its neighbourhood, its new science facilities and novel partnerships in communicating science. The Great Hall is in the Tower building on Broadway in Ultimo, a short walk or a quick bus ride from the conference venue.

Tuesday 28 February offers two events from 6-8pm for different tastes. In fact your choice of which one to go to may be influenced by where you want to eat afterwards.

  • The science team at the ABC with support from NETS and Rod Lamberts, our conference convenor, are putting on a light-hearted conversation about seriously communicating science, and the best part is that’s in a pub (location TBA).
  • The second event is in restaurant rich Glebe (a short bus or taxi ride from the Masonic Centre). Elizabeth Finkel’s latest book, The Genome Generation, will be launched at Gleebooks on Glebe Point Road. The first 20 delegates to RSVP will get free entry (otherwise $10). Drinks are available. Elizabeth will be in conversation with Wilson da Silva, editor-in-chief of Cosmos Magazine. See http://www.gleebooks.com.au/default.asp?p=events/events4_htm#Elizabeth_Finkel.

More information about how to RSVP for the events will come soon.

More details are being added to the conference program and many sessions have powerful panels of potent presenters. The sooner you register the quicker you can reserve your place for sessions and events that have limited numbers.

So get organised and get registered – go to http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/register/ to make it happen.

Jesse Shore
National President

Speed mentoring at ASC conference

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The ASC conference is less than six weeks away and additional program details and events keep coming in. We will announce our line up great social events for the Monday and Tuesday nights very soon. The speed mentoring session on day 1 of the conference is looking amazing with 15 mentors to be on hand. ASC members have often requested a mentoring program and this experimental format will be our first step toward providing that service.

Speed mentoring offers early career science communicators a chance to get tips and cautionary tales from those who have spent years honing their skills and advancing the craft. Mentors include:

  • Karl Kruszelnicki (aka Dr Karl – author, television and radio personality, Sleek Geek Week presenter, etc)
  • Adam Spencer (Dr Karl’s partner in the Sleek Geek Week science roadshow and television program, and ABC local radio breakfast announcer)
  • Wilson da Silva (editor-in-chief of Cosmos magazine)
  • Paul Willis (formerly of ABC TV’s Catalyst and now Director of RiAus)
  • Bernie Hobbs (broadcaster extraordinaire and formerly on the New Inventors program)
  • Elizabeth Finkel (award winning science journalist and book author)
  • John Curran (General Manager, CSIRO Communications)
  • Susannah Eliott (CEO, Australian Science Media Centre)
  • and seven other diversely experienced long-term achievers.

Everyone is invited although the target audience for this session are students and those relatively new to communicating science. We don’t want to get too crowded so we can to ensure everyone talks with several mentors.

I’ll be stage-managing the session (less formal than chairing or facilitating and more polite than saying shepherding). I’ve gathered the key ingredients and you folks are the reagents so let’s see what we can mix up on the day. Let me know whether you want to attend so I can plan out this experiment.

You can still register for the conference and it is great value. The program is bursting at the seams with great topics, issues, professional development, science-art, and all of Australia’s Chief Scientists. Drop me a line if you have yet to register as that helps with our planning.

Jesse Shore
Speed mentor wrangler

ASC National Conference 2012 – Dec 2011 update

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The full program for the National Conference is now on the conference website, http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/. Increasingly detailed information will be added regularly to the site.

The early bird deadline has been extended to 15 January 2012. As usual ASC members get a significant discount to the non-members rate.

The conference will be at Sydney Masonic Centre from 27-29 February 2011.

The sign of a good conference program is when it is difficult to choose between the parallel sessions. I’ll be torn between competing interests for every session and once again wish I could be in two or more places at once.

Day 1

  • Opening keynote: Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist will open the conference and be the first plenary speaker.
  • Before and after lunch: an overview of Inspiring Australia followed by an in-depth look at regional outcomes
  • After lunch: State Chief Scientists will feature in a plenary and then in parallel sessions.

Day 2

  • Plenary: Careers in science communicating– hear about career possibilities and resources.
  • Plenary: Sophisticated Social Media Use & Science – continuing insights into how to use a range of rapidly evolving communication channels to communicate science (and maybe make a buck?).
  • Plenary: The NBN and how to use it – a science communication perspective of nation changing technology.

Day 3

  • Plenary: Three astronomers walked into a bar…Features a Video of interview with Brian Schmidt and David Malin, astronomical photographer – an illustrated talk– in an exclusive for the conference, Brian Schmidt, the 2011 Nobel Prize winner for Physics, is interviewed on video by Rod Lamberts. The discussion will interweave winning a major science prize with effective science communication of astronomy.
    • Plenary: “Discoveries Need Dollars: Protect research”: A case study of a successful science advocacy campaign– explore how heads of science advocacy groups represent their members’ interests to politicians and government departments.
    • Plenary: Science to Policy: War Stories from the Heart of the Action – the big wigs will be prodded to tell all as they are quizzed about the role and funding for science communication in their patches.
    • Plenary: What’s the Buzz? What’s new in Science Television – get the goods on science for the small screen.

Other parallel session topics include (partial listing; PD means session has a professional development focus):
*       Speed mentoring (PD)
*       The consultancy game – a follow-on from the careers plenary
*       Making a communication plan – a seven step process (PD)
*        engaging with the media (PD)
*       Philanthropy, fundraising and science communication
*       Beyond evaluation (PD)
*       Science as theatre
*       Putting the ‘confer’ back into conferences (PD)
*       The latest in research in science communication
*       Science and art sessions and exhibitions
*       War on science

Website: The conference website is http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/.
Online registration is active. See http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/register/.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC corporate members – meeting with Scitech

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Interest is growing for organisations to become corporate members of the ASC. While I was in Perth for the 2011 ASC AGM I took the opportunity to meet with the management of one of our most recent new corporate members, Scitech.

Scitech is Perth’s and WA’s state-wide active and progressive science centre. Alan Brien, the director of Scitech, led the discussion which ranged over the recent history of Scitech and its key activities in science communication.

Some of the main points included that Scitech is the lead state institution for overseeing Inspiring Australia activities in WA. Alan’s team gave an update on developments of ScienceNetworkWA, http://sciencewa.net.au/, its online connection to science activity in the state.

We explored a few ways that Scitech and the ASC could work more closely together, starting off with the National Conference. I look forward to seeing some of the ideas being realised soon.

Jesse Shore
National President

ASC AGM outcomes

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The first ASC AGM held in Perth was well attended and lively with discussion of many matters. Most of those present offered comments and questions which revealed the insight and enthusiasm of ASC WA members.

In brief, the main reports of this meeting held on 30 November were:

From the President:

  • Progress toward planning the 2012 national conference
  • The activity of the branches with ACT, SE-Qld and SA being especially active and WA running the enormous Astrofest event (attended by 3000 people)
  • Networking with the Tall Poppy Campaign and supporting science communication events run by other organisations
  • Maintaining contact with the National Inspiring Australia team and some of their state and territory representatives
  • Upgrades to the ASC website and news of major improvements planned for 2012.

From the Treasurer:

  • The Association remains in a sound financial position
  • Membership dues remain at $88 for an individual membership for a full year (dues were last raised 5 years ago) and student membership at 40% of the individual rate
  • Branches will receive capitation at 10% of the dues income from their members and up to another 10% for special projects on submission to the Executive;

The main outcomes were:

  • Election of 2012 ASC President: there was one nomination for President and I was elected.
  • Motion to amend the Constitution: the meeting approved the proposal for a minor change in wording to specifically mention that branches may have rules. The previous clause only mentioned branches having Constitutions.

The meeting ended promptly at 7.15pm and the David Ellyard’s third consecutive end-of-year science trivia quiz got under way. Forty five people formed numerous teams for a spirited evening of well-played competition. Last year the AGM made it to Adelaide for the first time and the decision to travel further west once again proved sound.

Jesse Shore
National President

Inspiring Australia competitive grant round is coming soon

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Inspiring Australia has announced a competitive grants round is intended to open in mid-January and will close by the end of February 2012. The grants round is to support all aspects of the Inspiring Australia strategy. There will be a focus on science engagement projects that target people who may not have had interest in or access to science engagement activities in the past.

Successful applicants will be announced and funding agreements confirmed by June.

A total of $5 million will be available for projects to be delivered in calendar years 2012, 2013 and/or 2014.

For the full notice see http://www.prodocom.com.au/html/actions/viewonline.php?ID=280451&cc=&loc=783a5c372d31315c74656d705c6175656475717565737461636f6e6d7374796c65735c68746d6c656d61696c5c3238303435315c3835393736365c6174746163685c&email=csmith@riaus.org.au.

Jesse Shore
National president

ASC national conference travel grants

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Up to four travel grants of $200-400 each are available to ASC members from WA for attending the Australian Science Communicators conference in Sydney in February 2012.

The ASC conference will be held 27-29 February 2012 in Sydney at the Sydney Masonic Centre, a centrally located conference venue. We look forward to ASC members from around Australia attending the conference.

To make the event affordable we kept conference registration fees low and sourced economically priced hotels as part of the conference accommodation offering.

We want to encourage more distant members to make the trip and we know that travel costs are a factor, especially to our many members in Western Australia. The National Executive has noted that return airfares from Perth to Sydney average $200 more than flights from other capital cities, with the exception of Darwin which is even more expensive.

The National Executive and WA branch committee will help up to four ASC members overcome the hurdle of this extra cost. Each group are contributing equally to provide $800 towards travel grants. The branch will decide how to allocate the funds, in grants of $200 to $400 each.

ASC conference travel grants

General criteria. To be eligible all applicants must

  • be residents of Western Australia, and current financial members of the Association (you may apply for membership when you submit your application for the travel grant). You can join or renew membership online at http://www.asc.asn.au/join/.
  • have limited or no financial support to attend the conference.
  • submit travel grant applications to the WA branch, asc.events.wa@gmail.com by 6 January 2012. Details of the application are below.

To apply for the grant: send an email to WA branch, asc.events.wa@gmail.com, with a statement in 100 words or less what you want to gain from attending the conference and how the grant will assist you to attend. Include full contact details with the address of your primary residence.

Applications will be assessed by representatives of both the WA branch committee and the National Executive. Applicants will be advised of the outcome in mid-January 2012.

Winning applicants must register for the conference to receive the grant and will get the early bird rate. Each winner will be invited to write an article for Scope about their conference experience.

The WA branch reserves the right not to award any grants.

Emma Donnelly, President of ASC WA Branch
Jesse Shore, National president

Australian Science Communicators welcomes new science and industry Ministers

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The Australian Science Communicators, the peak professional group of people who make science accessible to diverse audiences, welcome the appointment of Senator Chris Evans as Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Greg Combet as Minister for Industry and Innovation.

“Minister Evans has an opportunity to encourage improving the communication of science in the tertiary education area and to continue to seek to engage Australians with science,” said Dr Jesse Shore, President, ASC.

Inspiring Australia is the government’s science communication program. The report proposing the program was announced in early 2010 at the opening of the ASC conference. The program has been in operation for around a year later and holds promise to increase the effectiveness of delivering science messages throughout the country.

The ASC will continue to work with the Inspiring Australia team and sees opportunities for the program to link science and innovation between Ministers Evans’ and Combet’s departments.

ASC congratulates Senator Kim Carr for his leadership as Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science & Research since 2007 and especially for his passion about communicating science.

Jesse Shore
President, Australian Science Communicators

AGM in Perth, 30 November 2011: reminder about proxies and membership

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I hope to see WA members and some from the more easterly states at the AGM. If you are unable to attend please send your proxy to Sarah Lau, slau@chemcentre.wa.gov.au, or someone else you know is attending the meeting.

The WA branch of the ASC has agreed to host this year’s national AGM in Perth. We will keep the AGM short and to the point, have some lively discussion, and follow it with an evening of entertainment.

David Ellyard is presenting his science quiz. Around 100 people enjoyed this competitive challenge at last year’s end-of-year meeting in Adelaide.

Only financial members can attend the AGM so renew now if you haven’t done so already. The quiz will be open to all so bring someone along and remember to register for the event.

See you in Perth soon!

Jesse Shore
National President