A Message From the New AReMS President
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I would like to spend a few minutes to share with the AReMS membership my goals for the next two years (see the “officers” link for a list of officers and duration of terms). I am in my 16th year of membership having been introduced to AREMS by Rex Baird when I was a new faculty member at my former position with UVa-Wise (nee Clinch Valley College). Now, you will probably have noticed that I spelled AREMS/AReMS two different ways. |
When I joined 16 years ago, we were called the Appalachian
Regional Electron Microscopy Society. A decision to acknowledge the myriad of
microscopy methods led us to move the word “electron” to lower case, AReMS.
This lasted a rather short time and the “electron” word vanished all together,
absorbing the “e” into the word “Regional”. We are now the Appalachian Regional Microscopy Society.
Another major change in our modus operandi was to move from two rotating meetings per year (with
host institutions) to a single Fall meeting in a central location (Boone, NC). Although
this format allows our members to commit to our annual meeting a full year
ahead of time, it removes the adventure of visiting new locales with local hosts.
This economically-induced change of venue has taken away an important part of
our history. Aside from the papers, posters, lectures, equipment debut, and
social interactions, our meetings provided new learning experiences as we
rotated from one host institution to another. The meeting site itself provided
a learning experience through exposure to microscopy-based research and
applications in industrial, commercial, and academic settings. I regard our current status of using hotel
meeting rooms as a necessary economic evil!
My plans for the future include the following:
1)
At
our annual meeting, I hope to develop an “Essentials of Microscopy” Friday
morning presentation block that will invite speakers to review some “back to
basics” aspect of equipment (electron or light microscopy with examples of
biological or physical applications). This presentation will help
familiarize physicists with biological applications of microscopy and
biologists with physical applications of microscopy. The goal will be to
eventually broaden and enhance audience comprehension (especially our newer
(student) members) of practical papers.
2)
I
plan to allocate a 1 hour break on Friday morning to allow visiting with
vendors and viewing posters. We may want to consider two half hours breaks to
separate the two purposes.
3)
The
Thursday afternoon workshops have become an important part of our annual
meeting. I plan to have at least two worships at future meetings.
4)
I
see the need for the executive committee to set longer-term goals (5 years) to
take us out of “survival mode”. Perhaps we should create a non-voting (in
executive council) “ad hoc advisory board” to help with current and
future planning issues. Essentially, they will take a hard look at who we are
and where we are going! All recommendations of the ad hoc committee will
be presented to the Executive Committee for careful discussion and voting.
5)
AReMS
membership falls into three categories: commercial, physics, and biology. I am pleased to see growth in our commercial
and physical membership but acknowledge that biology is trailing. I will put
forward a concerted effort to resurrect and rejuvenate representation of the
biological sciences while maintaining physical and commercial representation.
6)
We
need to redefine ourselves to include the important role of student scientists.
“AReMS is a society of scientists aimed at providing a venue for the
free-exchange of ideas related to the development of microscopy-based equipment
and techniques with applications in the pure and applied physical and
biological sciences. AReMS proudly
provides a nurturing environment for burgeoning microscopists.”
7)
I
hope to “let the cat out of the bag’ and begin to advertise AReMS in the
scientific community.
These lofty goals come in the form of recommendations. They
will be discussed in executive council; evaluated for constitutional
compliance; and presented to the membership (that’s you) during our annual
meeting. In the end, AReMS is your society. What you have me do with it?
Stan
Kunigelis
2010-2012
President