Greetings!
Happy New Years to you and yours!
Hopefully, you all have had a wonderful Holiday season with family and friends and now look forward to the New Year with its resolutions! Rumor has it if you looked at all the resolutions made, losing weight would be #1 on everyone's list! Besides losing weight, what other resolutions have you made?
Resolutions are like goals to me -- something to set and work to attain. As I played with my four year-old grandson this week, I began to see how important resolutions were and the need to develop a simple and straight forward statement as the commitment to adopt for the new year.
GWIS was born in 1921, when a Cornell University female graduate student, Adele Lewis Grant, recognized that women had very little opportunity to exchange scientific ideas and network, living off-campus. She resolved to change the situation and organized an informal picnic and presented a plan for an organization of women who would band together for the mutual advantages and inspirations to be gained from an exchange of their scientific interests, as well as for the pleasure of social interactions. GWIS was formally organized on the 14th of May in 1921, and these ideals and aspirations became Sigma Delta Epsilon today ( 87th History of SDE-GWIS, (1921-2008), Wahlin, M.D.L., pg. 13).
Ninety years later we are still a meaningful and functional group true to the original concepts of supporting women in scientific research. What should we resolve to accomplish in our ninetieth year? As the executive director of GWIS, I'd like to share with you what I think our GWIS resolutions should be for 2011.
GWIS shall:
Engage in more meaningful member communications through the use of e-mail, web conferences, GWIS News, The Bulletin, phone calls, and snail mail.
Treat members with greater customer service, specifically by returning answers to questions within 24 hours.
Engage in better financial investment decisions in particular, by working with Merrill Lynch to invest the endowments and contributions to provide $60,000 for 2011 fellowships.
Celebrate with our four new 2010 chapters: Mu Sigma Upsilon from Michigan State University, Sigma Delta from Sioux Falls, SD and surrounding area, Kappa Rho from Penn State U-Hershey Campus and the latest approved and chartered chapter-Alpha at Cornell University!
Plan a blowout event for our 90th Anniversary at Cornell University from the 15th to the 19th of June, 2011!
We have come a long way, but still have the same foundational truths; e.g. "united in friendship through science." And this year, we are going to return to where we began, at Cornell University, for a big anniversary celebration! The National Organization, together with Alpha Chapter and its president, Megan Comins, will be hosting an exceptional commemoration for you on June 15-19, 2011. Please mark your calendar and come join the activities with us!
Happy New Year and good luck with your resolutions!
We remain united in friendship through science,
Dee McManus
National GWIS Executive Director
