ASC Co-Presidents’ Message, Jirana Boontanjai and Tom Carruthers

Welcome to possibly the busiest STEM event month in the year. For those not in the outreach sector, National Science Week is around the corner, held this year 13-21 August. There is still time to register an event on the national website – even if it is a private one. This small step helps demonstrate to our national leaders the interest and passion of the STEM outreach movement in Australia, and helps justify the continued national support for the festival.

If you are running an event, remember that both JCOM and PUS journals accept case studies. The evaluation resources available on the science week website can help, and there are academics within the membership who are keen to assist. Reach out to us if you’re keen for us to put you in touch with someone who can help.

For those of you who are regular readers of SCOPE, you’ll know that the Executive Committee has been dedicating the majority of our resources into the ASC strategy revision over the past 7 months. With the conclusion of 4 public and 1 internal round table (and a number of targeted interviews), this process is well underway. There’s still more to complete over the coming months, but we are quietly confident the effort will be worth it, resulting in a valuable and implementable strategy the whole membership can get behind. 

It is our vision to have a draft strategic plan outlined for the organisation in time for discussion and review at the next conference that we hope to hold within 9 months. We will soon be assembling a conference committee so if you’re keen to be involved, please get in touch.

And finally, while we are proud of the progress we have made this year toward the strategy and operational review, our passion for events has us itching to deliver something not centred on strategic review. We’ve a shortlist of ideas and will be putting the word out very soon on some exciting things to get involved with.

All the very best of health and success for Science Week.

T&J

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