From the Executive Office

There’s Lots of Stuff at the Bottom

Apologies to Richard Feynman for stealing and manipulating his well-known quote. But sometimes it's the little things that count, and for this column I want to highlight some new or relatively unknown activities that the AAS does that benefit our members and benefit our profession. I’m going to focus on links available at the bottom of the AAS webpage that we know are relatively infrequently visited but that provide tangible value to you, our members.

First and foremost is the relatively new photo archive. Using a third-party service, our communications team have built (and are continuing to add to) an easy-to-use photo archive of snapshots taken at our meetings. These are no ordinary cell-phone selfies; we now regularly contract with professional photographers to help document the activities at our meetings. Ultimately we use a subset of the shots in photo spreads that we publicize in our electronic communications and online, but we also provide access to all of the usable shots to you, our members. The link to the archive can be found at the very bottom of the AAS website by clicking on the Photo Gallery link (or by going directly to photos.aas.org). There you will find the photos organized by meeting; each features a highlights gallery of several dozen images with captions, along with hundreds of additional photos organized by session type. So far we have photos from the 2014 summer meeting in Boston and the winter 2014 meeting in Washington, DC, but we will add more over time. We include shots from press conferences, people at their posters, plenary and Town Hall speakers, and extra events like Open Mic Night, held for the first time at the DC meeting.

As a side note, let me point out that we are going to undertake an Open Mic Night again this coming winter in Seattle. I was completely blown away by the talented people we had participate in DC, and we hope to expand both the number and diversity of performances for Seattle. Everyone had a great time, and I'm sure this next one will be even more fun, so consider getting together with a friend or just sharing your talents on your own. Everyone is welcome!

To help celebrate achievement in our discipline, the AAS and its Divisions have established a wide range of prizes. By recognizing individuals who have done great work, we celebrate our science and help underpin our mission to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe. However, we can only have honorees if we receive nominations, and we get a relatively small number of nominations given the tremendous range of accomplishments evident in our journals on a monthly basis, let alone over the course of a year. People at all stages of their career can be nominated — and can do the nominating! We need more nominations for all of our prizes to help ensure that a large pool of individuals is considered, which ultimately helps us recognize the very best work. You can find a link to the nomination details at the bottom of the AAS webpage by clicking on the Prize Nominations link. Clicking on the Grants and Prizes link will take you to a page summarizing information about our prizes, which also has a link to a list of all of them, including the prizes of the Divisions.

The AAS carries out a wide range of media activities that support our discipline. In addition to operating a press-release-distribution service, which helps journalists by providing several curated press releases per day instead of just a torrent of releases only slightly connected to our science, we also hold press conferences at AAS meetings and help our Divisions with their own media activities. We will soon hire a Science Highlights Editor, who will cull the published articles in our journals for newsworthy and noteworthy scientific results to share with the broader scientific community and the public. We even have archived press-conference webcasts, which can be watched by anyone, whether for informational purposes or to learn what it's like to participate in a press conference. Again, at the bottom of the AAS webpage, click on the link to Media & Press for details and links to all the goodies mentioned above, including how to send press releases to the AAS for distribution, a description of what makes a science result newsworthy, and our process for pulling together press conferences along with other details.

The AAS Agents program has been running for just about a year now and is making some great progress. Its goal is to help improve the communication between our members and the Society by placing knowledgeable advocates — the AAS Agents — in all academic departments. The Agents receive training on the ins and outs of Society activities and, in exchange for helping communicate with and educate their colleagues, get some special perks. If you are unsure if your department has an agent or not, click through to the Agents program and review the current roster. If you would like to apply to be an AAS Agent and your department or institution doesn’t have one, you can apply directly online after logging in to the AAS webpage with your member credentials. The Agents program is already proving its value, and we will grow and enhance it in the coming years.

One item not to be overlooked is our obituary service. The AAS attempts to document the scientific life of each of our members with an obituary written by a colleague or friend (or group thereof). The effort has been ongoing for many decades and continues to provide a unique and often touching view of our colleagues who have passed away. The AAS Historical Astronomy Division, especially the vice-chair of the HAD governing committee, helps achieve this goal by identifying authors for obituaries as needed. If you would like to volunteer to write an obituary for a colleague, you may do so by contacting the HAD vice-chair. There is an email link directly available on the Obituaries page, which is linked from the bottom of the AAS website. Also on that page is a navigable list of links to recently published obituaries. We maintain links to external obituaries until we received an AAS obituary, which we also ultimately publish online and provide to the Astrophysics Data System and other services through DOIs.

Finally, in addition to links to our mission, bylaws, governance, and staff directory information (all worth a close look) is a link to donate and/or renew in the Society. We have a wide range of programs you can opt to support with a charitable donation. Don’t forget the AAS when you are considering your end-of-year tax-deductible donations. I want to also highlight that the AAS accepts donations of appreciated stock, which can be doubly beneficial to donors by providing both a direct tax deduction of the appreciated value of the stock and reducing your capital-gains exposure. The Society also supports and can help with planned giving in your will or estate. Many members have included the AAS in their estate planning; doing so will greatly assist the Society and leave a lasting legacy in your name for years to come. If you would like to consider including the AAS in your will, please contact me directly so that I can help you complete all the paperwork correctly, ensuring the impact your generous contribution will have.

Although all the items I’ve talked about are at the bottom of our website, they are there mainly to balance the even more relevant and frequently used links at the top of the page, which I’ll spend some time on next column. For now, keep in mind that not all valuable information is always provided front and center, and take a few minutes to explore the information and resources we provide to you to help us all achieve our mission.