North American community members: How to become an elected member of NAASC:

Take part in the annual election each fall

Fall 2024 election

(1) Call for nominations (from North American Scientists): September 12-September 27, 2024 (self-nominations accepted)

(2) Nominees will be contacted to ask if they want to be on the ballot & request their statement

(3) Nominee Statement Deadline: 14 October, by end of day: provide a Candidate Statement (see example statements for Faculty & Early Career Scholars)

(3) ~16-29 October: Online ballot for the North American Arabidopsis Community election (candidate statements on the ballot to help you vote)

(4) ~31 October: the top vote-getters (2 for faculty, 3 for early career) will be offered a NAASC term

YOU MUST BE IN NORTH AMERICA (USA, CANADA, MEXICO) TO NOMINATE, BE NOMINATED, OR VOTE

What NAASC members do

Scroll ahead to minutes 1:30 - 5:45 to hear a NAASC member describe:

  • What is NAASC?

  • What does NAASC do

NAASC MISSION OVERVIEW

  • Our mission is to promote Arabidopsis research and researchers to perform cutting edge biology, and provide opportunities to engage and diversify the next generation of scientists. 

  • Our three foci are:

    • Advocate/Support Fundamental Plant Biology using Arabidopsis: See NAASC publications & events for this theme here.

    • Support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging in the Arabidopsis Community: See NAASC publications & events for this theme here.

    • Organize North American instances of the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR), currently in a 3 year rotation with Europe & Asia. NAASC efforts for ICAR here; We recently organized ICAR 2024-San Diego and will next work on ICAR 2027.

    • To increase input from early career scientists, we have added a new type of NAASC membership, with one year terms.

      Members:

    • Interact with elected faculty leaders in Arabidopsis biology, 3 elected early career scholars (ECS) & the NAASC Executive Director to execute NAASC’s mission. 

    • Serve on a NAASC subcommittee or working group (Footnote 1) of their choice to collaboratively develop activities, advise the Executive Director, and participate in implementation

    • Interact with community members on working groups and subcommittees.

    • Interact with key groups such as MASC, ABRC, TAIR, etc. to coordinate improvements for Arabidopsis researchers, educators, and for collaboration, coordination, and communication 

Examples of past NAASC Faculty activities: 

    • Select ICAR 2024 mini-symposia from community submissions

    • Solicit nominees for NAASC awards, Select awardees (Footnote 2)

    • Discuss/decide location & format of ICARs

    • Implement community webinars e.g., career development, DEIB, fundamental biology

    • Develop funding proposals to support NAASC activities

    • Engage in grant-funded activities, e.g., workshops, training, outreach

    • Advertise/disseminate information about NAASC activities

    • Represent NAASC to the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee & other groups

    • Participate in community initiatives, e.g., as 1 of 6 societies in the Root & Shoot NSF RCN award

Examples of past NAASC Early Career Scholar activities: 

    • Work collaboratively to plan online professional development seminars and workshops for broad accessibility by the community

    • Participate in NAASC working groups and subcommittees

    • Advise NAASC members on initiatives & activities

    • Network with NAASC Faculty & Executive Director

    • Participate in NAASC career scholar professional development activities

    • Wrote a blog on the topic of their choice & that is of interest to the Arabidopsis community

      • See Margot Smit’s blog here

      • See Arif Ashraf’s blog here

      • See Luis de Luna’s blog here

    • Connect with peer Early Career Scholar members

The 2024 election cycle runs 12 September - 31 October

You must be in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) to nominate, be nominated, or vote.

*see Candidate Statement examples, below

Electing 2 Faculty NAASC Nominees for 5 year terms

Key Information for Faculty Nominees (5 year term)

You must be in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) to nominate, be nominated, or vote.

Please review “What NAASC Members Do” and “Example Faculty activities” shown above.

Eligible: Faculty (any rank or type) at North American research & academic institutions that conduct research and training using Arabidopsis (at least in part)

Term: Nov 1 , 2024-Oct 31, 2029

Estimated Time Commitment*: ~1-2 hours/Per month, average*: Meetings (~1h) Email discussion (~0.5h) Activity implementation (~0.5h) *expected to be more, on average, the year up to when NAASC organizes ICAR, less other years. Next expected NAASC-organized ICAR: ICAR 2027

Compensation for Faculty Members: NAASC funding for ICAR travel support depends on our fundraising success; we seek to provide up to $1,000 USD/year per NAASC member to participate in non-domestic ICARs and seek to provide more funding for NAASC-organized ICARs (free registration & contribution to travel expenses). Next expected NAASC-organized ICAR: ICAR 2027

NAASC is a non-profit without specific dedicated funding streams. We have one year of paid membership to help sustainability. Otherwise our potential for revenue comes from (1) submitting grant proposals to fund specific activities and (2) if we have fundraising success that exceeds costs for ICARs that we organize (every 3 years)

Benefits of being a NAASC faculty member

While NAASC members primarily serve as volunteers to support the Arabidopsis community, there are numerous personal & professional benefits, e.g.,

  • we fundraise to enable NAASC members to attend ICARs via travel support (described above)

  • we strive to publish papers based on our activities

  • members build professional & personal networks

  • members help shape ICAR program and location

  • members decide which community-supportive activities to engage in

  • opportunities to network with early career scholars and members of under-represented groups in STEM via the NAASC Early Career Scholars (ECS) program and Inclusivity Scholars (ISP) program and ISP cohort.

NAASC members are expected to fulfill their duties (regular engagement in email, meetings & activities) to receive travel funds and to remain in good-standing on NAASC.

Elected Faculty members will:

  1. Join a subcommittee/working group of their choice (usually meets 1 hour/month or 1 hour/quarterly) (Footnote 1)

  2. Join quarterly all NAASC zoom meetings (meets ~1 hour, quarterly)

  3. Regularly participate in email discussion of NAASC issues (~0.5h/month, less in non-ICAR years, more in ICAR years)

  4. Participate in NAASC activities (~1h/month; more in an ICAR year)

  5. Be willing to take on a NAASC Board of Director role, as shown (Footnote 3)

General Description of service by term (note: NAASC activities are decided by NAASC and may change)

  1. Year 1: Nov '24-Oct '25: Off-ICAR year activities as decided by NAASC, for example: reviewing/selecting: travel awards to ICAR 2025 and/or community awards; participating in a working group; helping to support a community webinar

  2. Year 2: Nov '25-Oct '26: Likely to be preparation discussions for ICAR 2027- North America (i.e., choose location, start developing invited program)

  3. Year 3: Nov '26-Oct '27: Likely organizing ICAR 2027- expected to be NAASC organized in North America.

  4. Year 4: Nov '27-Oct '28: Off-ICAR year activities as decided by NAASC (as in Year 1)

  5. Year 5: Nov '28-Oct '29: Off-ICAR year activities as decided by NAASC (as in Year 1)

How to Apply: Faculty Nomination & Application Steps

  1. You are nominated or self-nominate. The nomination form will list the current NAASC subcommittees and working groups (Footnote 1). Nominators are asked to (optionally) indicate which of these the nominee may be especially a good fit for, or have skills or knowledge that would benefit the committee.

  2. NAASC will contact you for a Candidate Statement to go on the ballot (see example Faculty Candidate Statements). Statement prompts ( ~200-600 words): Motivation/interest to serve on NAASC; Brief description of your work using Arabidopsis; Your priority area(s) if elected to NAASC; How you promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) in plant biology, or science, generally.

  3. You will provide this statement by 14 October to arabidopsisconference@gmail.com

  4. NAASC will place Candidate Statements on the ballot. Voting will occur for 2 weeks

    You must be in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) to nominate, be nominated, or vote.

Electing 3 Early Career Scholar Nominees for 1 year terms

Information for Early Career Scholar Nominees (1 year term)

You must be in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) to nominate, be nominated, or vote.

Please review “What NAASC Members Do” and “Example activities of Early Career Scholars” above.

Eligible: Graduate students & postdoctoral scholars (in a postdoc title) at North American research & academic institutions that study and/or conduct research using Arabidopsis (at least in part)

Term: Nov 1 , 2024-Oct 31, 2025

Estimated Time Commitment: ~1-2 hours/Per month on average: Meetings (~1 h) Email discussion (0.25h) Organizing event (~05h) Writing blogs (~025h).

Compensation for Early Career Scholar Members: $250 stipend at conclusion of your term & successful completion of service

Benefits of being a NAASC Early Career Scholar member

  • $250 stipend at conclusion of your term & successful completion of service

  • Gain new leadership and communication skills

  • Include this position on your CV

  • Career development opportunities

  • Expand and strengthen your professional network

Description of NAASC service for Early Career Scholars

Elected ECS members will:

  1. Join the Early Career Scholars Subcommittee (ECSS) which meets 1-2 times quarterly to plan activities such as seminars & workshops aimed at early career scholar interests (~2 workshops/activities in a 1 year term).

  2. Join a NAASC working group or subcommittee of your choice, some options
    (a) Inclusivity Scholars Subcommittee
    (b) the Awards Subcommittee (to be confirmed if we will give out awards this term) (see Footnote 2 below for details on the awards)
    (c) consider developing a new topical committee/initiative/activity (if there’s enough interest)

  3. Join NAASC quarterly Board Member zoom calls: these are quarterly meetings for 1 hour aimed at discussing important topics to NAASC, making decisions, and brief discussions with working groups and subcommittees (if discussion is needed; otherwise updates are written). These quarterly calls are also a chance to get to know the 10 faculty members on NAASC.

  4. Write 1 blog post on a topic of interest to you and relevance to the Arabidopsis Community for a NAASC blog on our website. SEE EXAMPLES FROM PAST ELECTED ECSS ABOVE.

  5. Do 1 interview of a past NAASC member and write a short (1 page) summary for a NAASC blog for our website.

  6. Help organize at least 1 workshop, panel or seminar (by Zoom)- in collaboration with NAASC members on the working group or subcommittee(s) you are on. Examples of previous events here.

How to Apply: Nominate (be nominated) & Submit 2 brief documents for the Early Career Scholar Election

  1. You are nominated or self-nominate: By 27 September (nominators: North American scientists only)

  2. NAASC will email you for 1 candidate statement & 1 paragraph:
    (1) Candidate Statement (150-400 words) about your interest to serve, your background, your priorities, and a short response on DEIB (see example ECS Candidate Statements). This will go on the ballot.
    (2) Informational paragraph: The name of the NAASC subcommittee(s) or working group(s) you are interested in and a brief outline of one activity idea for a NAASC working group or subcommittee. This information is for NAASC internal use. Our objective is to be open to experienced and inexperienced scholars who wish to be engaged and the “idea” statement can stand in for previous experience. Both experience & ideas are valued by NAASC. ECS will also be on ECSS.

  3. Provide information in this template (candidate statement & name(s) of committee/group and idea) by the deadline (14 OCTOBER) to NAASC: arabidopsisconference@gmail.com

  4. NAASC will review submissions & select some or all Candidate Statements for the ballot. Voting will occur over ~2 weeks in October

    You must be an Arabidopsis community member in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) to nominate, be nominated, or vote.

“The ECSS member selection was the most democratic process. As I started working with the ECSS, it has not only enhanced the networking opportunity, but also provides a good idea how an organization work. I will highly recommend ECSs consider this opportunity.”
— Arif Ashraf, past ECS member
“The NAASC is the most community-driven and community-oriented organization out there. Joanna is the highlight here, extremely supportive and truly committed with DEIB.”
— Luis deLuna, past ECS member

Footnotes

(1) Working Groups & Subcommittees (subject to change based on NAASC member interest)

  1. WG1: Financial Sustainability & Membership- develop the membership model started in 2023 for NAASC financial sustainability & community engagement;  other sustainability considerations.

  2. WG4: ISS/DEIB workshops- Inclusivity Scholars Subcommittee (co-chaired currently by Cris Argueso and Ment Ayalew)- supports initiatives for members of under-represented groups in US STEM, primarily via the Inclusivity Scholars Cohort Program for ICAR; also develops Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging workshops for ICAR.

  3. WG6: Fundamental Biology- develop activities to ensure that funding agencies and others understand the value and impact of fundamental plant biology

  4. WG7: ECSS- Early Career Scholars Subcommittee (co-chaired currently by Dior Kelley and Glen Uhrig)- provides representation ECS to NAASC, provide a forum to address issues specific to ECS

  5. WG9: NAASC Awards- described in Footnote (2)- annually: help solicit nominations, refine rubrics, select awardees. 2023 is the first award cycle; awardees will be selected ~early November. Members elected this term can help with the award selection process. Awardees will be invited to speak at ICAR 2024.

(2) Planned NAASC Awards- FIRST awarded at ICAR 2024- tbd when next awarded

  1. NAASC Arabidopsis Community Lifetime Achievement Award (two awards)

  2. NAASC Excellence in Supporting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging in the Arabidopsis Community Award (2 awards: later & early career)

  3. NAASC Dissemination of Arabidopsis Knowledge Award (2 awards: later & early career)

(3) Board of Director Roles- by year on NAASC*

Year 1: no specific role; new members are '“Directors” for the NAASC Executive Board of Directors. 1 member will become Treasurer next year when the current Treasurer completes their 5 year term.

Year 2: One Director elected in Year 1 becomes the new Treasurer; The second Director typically becomes Vice President in Y4, then President in Y5.

Year 3: Treasurer continues.

Year 4: Non-Treasurer typically becomes Vice-President

Year 5: Vice President from Y4 becomes President

*these roles are open to flexibility as needed, e.g., if a member needs to switch from one to another for any particular reason. The roles are structural guidelines to help manage NAASC and share the effort on the Board.