Early Career Engagement Task Force

Goals: The Task Force is set to

• better understand how to engage with and support early career astronomers;
• examine what factors encourage or dissuade early career astronomers from joining the AAS and contributing to the community.

Term: The term is temporary, starting in October 2022 and ending in May 2023 when the Task Force is expected to present their final reports to the Board of Trustees.

Charge: Consider the following questions and provide input and advice to the AAS Board. Discussing within circles, hosting focus groups, and/or holding interviews are encouraged. Please provide a written update by the end of the calendar year (to be discussed at the January Board meeting and Strategic Assembly in Seattle in January 2023) and a full report by the end of May (to be discussed at the June Board meeting and Strategic Assembly).

• Statistics and demographics: What fraction of early career astronomers become AAS members? How has this changed over time? Is there more granular information in the demographics that is informative?
• What issues are most important to early career people? How are these the same or different from the past?
• What current AAS activities are successful at engaging early-career people? What are the essential elements of these activities that enable their success?
• What current AAS activities are least successful at engaging early-career people? What elements of these activities contribute to this?
• What activities/elements/features could the AAS (reasonably) implement that would best support early-career people? Can you estimate the cost/scope/person power necessary to implement these?