Minutes from the 2011 GECC Business Meeting
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Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 11:45am-12:30pm
General opening remarks about GECC
The Graduate and Early Career Caucus (GECC) seeks to address the concerns and issues of graduate students and scholars in the early stages of their careers. As an official committee of the History of Science Society (HSS), GECC offers a mentoring program and sponsors a session and social events at the HSS annual meeting and 3-societies conference. The chairs and officers are graduate students and early career members of HSS, who act as liaisons between the standing committees of HSS and the student and early career constituency.
General opening remarks about GECC officers
The four GECC officers will continue in their positions for the 2012 calendar year. They are
- Co-chairs (and HSS session organizers):
- Nathan Crowe, Arizona State University
- Melinda Gormley, University of Notre Dame
- Information Officer: Matthew White, University of Florida
- Mentorship Program Officer: Rachel N. Mason Dentinger, Independent Scholar
Elections of new officers will be conducted at the 2012 HSS meeting.
- It is unclear at this point which positions will be open at the 2012 HSS meeting.
- Each position has a minimum two-year term.
About GECC positions
- GECC Chairs (2 people) work closely together to coordinate GECC activities and oversee the Caucus’s operations. The co-chairs also interact with the Executive Director of HSS. Each position has a minimum of a two-year commitment and only one new chair will be added in any given year so that there is continuity.
- The Communications and Information Officer (1person) keeps the online outlets current with recent information on GECC and its programs and events, especially those related to the HSS Annual Meeting. GECC posts information on our website (http://hssgecc.wordpress.com/), listserv, Facebook (History of Science Society Graduate and Early Career Caucus), Linked In, and Twitter. This position has a two-year commitment minimum.
- The Mentorship Program Officer (1 person) solicits participation from faculty members as mentors and graduate students and early careerists as mentees, and then matches a seasoned scholar with a newer scholar based on common research interests. The Mentorship Program Officer also coordinates other mentoring programs including the Women’s Tea, an afternoon tea at the HSS meeting that brings together a handful of seasoned scholars from the Women’s Caucus and a dozen or so newer scholars.
Officer and attendee introductions
Discussion about pressing problems for current graduate students and early careerists and what GECC members would like as a topic for the GECC session at next year’s annual meeting in San Diego. Possible session topics are:
- Structure of profession and positive ways to create change – ground session in a narrow discussion of victories such as STS majors and minors or program building and have people who started programs discuss challenges and opportunities.
- Making yourself marketable – for example, hyperprofessionalism is a problem for getting jobs
- Jobs outside of academia – Matthew Stanley is one possible person because he is outside the norm of academia and yet works within academia
Possible skills panel topics are:
- How to organize a conference
- How to teach a history of science and technology course. Committee on education is taking this topic on.
- Academia’s evaluation system
Possible tactics are:
- Getting involved in “preparing future faculty” (PFF)
- Looking to Situating Science (www.situsci.ca), a cluster in Canada that funds workshops and mentorship, for speakers and ideas. Program Director is Gordan McOuat and Co-Applicant at Large is Lesley Cormack
Passed out GECC business cards with contact information
- With general questions, contact hss.gecc@gmail.com.
- For the mentorship program, contact HSSmentorship@gmail.com.
GECC Officers, 2011-2012:
Nathan Crowe, Arizona State University – GECC co-chair, in attendance
Melinda Gormley, University of Notre Dame – GECC co-chair, in attendance
Matthew White, University of Florida – Communications and Information Officer, in attendance
Rachel N. Mason Dentinger, Independent Scholar – Mentorship Program Officer, unable to attend