Flattening the Curve at the AAS

From the Executive Office

I’m happy to report that no member of the AAS staff or of our editorial teams at the journals or Sky & Telescope have fallen ill with the coronavirus. We continue to work remotely, consistent with current guidance as we collectively work, along with you, our members, and the entire nation to "flatten the curve." Signs are positive, but we have a while to go yet.

On the positive side, we’ve received more than 640 abstracts for our virtual 236th AAS meeting in June, and registrations are coming in quickly. We have 20 or so exhibitors and sponsors and are working to confirm more. AAS staff (including me) sat in on some of the American Physical Society's April meeting, also held virtually, and took copious notes on what worked well and what didn't. This will help us ensure that our own virtual meeting delivers maximum value to attendees. The content looks like it will be great, and I look forward to sorting the abstracts.

Working with our Committee on Employment, we will be providing enhanced and expanded career services in the coming months. Alaina Levine, who has given workshops and provided one-on-one advice at our conferences, will be producing webinars, online tip sheets, and articles of use to those early in their career or looking to make a change. Her first webinar on virtual networking is now posted online and will be complemented in the coming weeks with more. If you have an idea for content that you might value, please let our Employment Committee know.

Our journals continue to see steady submissions consistent with prior-year numbers, and submissions for our new Planetary Science Journal, published in partnership with the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences, are coming in as well. Ultimately, the various shutdowns may have an impact on the number of manuscripts we receive, but we remain hopeful that research will continue apace, despite the pandemic. Data archives are open for business, so if you're not overly burdened at home, there may be time and space to undertake some new work or write up an old result that’s been sitting on your desk. 

A new series of videos featuring author interviews is being steadily published to the AAS YouTube channel by AAS Lead Editor Frank Timmes. I’ve really enjoyed watching these as they capture, in a small way, the enjoyment of chatting with a colleague in depth about their research work. Frank is casting his gaze wide and not just focusing on his own topical corridor, High-Energy Phenomena and Fundamental Physics. Combined with some videos providing advice on taking courses online and descriptive pieces about how the AAS journals operate, he’s building up quite a catalog of content. If you have a few minutes take a peek and see what you think.

And don’t forget to sign up for AAS Nova, our research-highlights website, which features short summaries of interesting papers that appear in our journals each week. Sky & Telescope is doing well, with subscription renewals coming in regularly and, like other magazines at this time, some new subscribers signing up. I’m hopeful that our strategy of leading with the digital subscription as the preferred option will help us grow our subscriber base during these challenging times, while we continue to work with our printer to put out a high-quality, lovely print copy monthly (we’re also just about ready to release new versions of the popular Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas and Jumbo Edition on the online store). The amateur community loves these atlases (I have a set myself), and I’m sure they will make an excellent addition to a personal or campus observatory too. Stay tuned for news of their availability.

Although the current economic conditions are extreme, the AAS is in a good financial position. We anticipate that a wide range of normal expenses (e.g., travel) will be far lower this year, so that even though some of our revenues will also decline, we will not face any existential financial threat. As we’re just starting our audit for 2019, I can’t state for sure what our 2019 outcome will be exactly (until auditors approve the books), but we’re anticipating a slight surplus, which will end up bolstering our reserves. The AAS undertakes all of its activities with the intent of covering costs, while delivering a small amount of funds to our financial reserves for the proverbial rainy day. Unlike many other organizations that use substantial revenues from their publishing activities to offset organizational programs, the AAS does not. This helps keep our journal prices to authors and subscribers low, while requiring Society programs to be funded from other sources. The Board is extremely careful undertaking new activities in this model, which helps ensure tight alignment with our mission and goals in everything we do.

I remain confident the AAS will get through this challenging time, though we may have to make some adjustments as conditions change. We will remain focused on our members and the challenges they are or will be facing in the coming months and find ways, where we can, to help, while remaining true to our mission.

It is a true honor to be working with our talented staff, engaged leadership, diligent authors, and everyone else we serve or benefit from. Please keep yourself and your loved ones safe. Don’t forget that one sky connects us all and that our shared goal to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe has deep meaning and importance, even in troubled times.