Fall 2010 State of the Society Letter: |
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As President of SSR, I am full of enthusiasm for the year ahead and optimism for the long-term health and impact of our society.
It was very apparent at our meeting last month that SSR embraces a growing cadre of Trainee members who contribute both innovative research and energetic service at every turn. They are a credit to our loyal Regular members who mentor them and publish their best science in Biology of Reproduction (BOR). As time marches on, the number of Emeritus members has grown. Retired members, eager to remain engaged with SSR, continue to provide us with their unique experience and insights as well as generous financial support. SSR is also fortunate to have a dedicated Board of Directors, committee chairs, and members who volunteer their time and talents to keep SSR vibrant in all its dimensions. And, SSR operations are run by a talented, diligent and wonderfully committed Executive Director and staff.
Collectively, our job is to ensure the health and sustainability of SSR in a world that is constantly changing. My everyday world at EPA is all about “Sustainability,” so I can’t help but draw parallels with SSR. A simple definition of sustainability is a balance between resources consumed and those available, whether talking about the world or our society. Thus we need to be mindful of balancing the resources (human and capital) needed to sustain SSR’s operations against those available from member dues, our Journal, and other sources. A simple equation keeps the system going year by year. However, at intervals, major adjustments are needed to insure sustainability for the long run through innovation and enhanced scientific impact, a vision delineated in SSR’s strategic plan
(http://www.ssr.org/Documents/2010-02-26StratPlan09.pdf).
With this year’s State of the Society letter, I am pleased to announce several important changes designed to benefit our members while keeping BOR at the forefront of science publishing. The Publications Committee has recommended and the Board has approved these changes after an in-depth cost-benefit analysis in consultation with our Treasurer.
1. Effective with the January 2011 issue, BOR will become a fully electronic, online-only journal, and all SSR members will receive access to the online journal as a benefit of membership. A subscription to the monthly, printed journal will no longer be offered to members as a benefit of membership at a subsidized rate.
What this means: BOR will lead our field in electronic publication, and will be better able to add new, attractive features as proposed by our Editors-in-Chief. Costs of producing and distributing BOR will be decreased. Individuals will still be able to purchase printed copies, but at full price and at their own expense.
2. Effective September 1, 2010, page charges are eliminated for Regular and Associate members of SSR. To be very specific: papers submitted on or after September 1, 2010, will not be assessed page or color charges when the corresponding author is a Regular or Associate member of SSR in good standing (dues fully paid) at the time the manuscript is submitted. Non-member authors will continue to be assessed page charges, but will not be assessed color charges. This member-only benefit is made possible largely, but not wholly, from the savings gained by eliminating the printed version. This is an important adjustment in our sustainability equation.
What this means: We expect that this new benefit for Regular members will
- enhance our ability to recruit and retain members;
- enable members to submit their best papers to BOR without having to consider the expense of page charges; and,
- make BOR more competitive with other journals in the field that do not assess page charges.
3. Also effective September 1, 2010, the all-inclusive charge for an “open access” article is reduced from $3,000 to $1,800 when the corresponding author is a Regular or Associate member of SSR (as for point 2 above). The all-inclusive charge for non-members remains at $3,000.
4. These changes reduce income as well as costs, and result in a net loss of income. Therefore, to be fiscally responsible and re-balance the equation, the Board has voted a modest dues increase in 2011. The increase applies proportionately to all membership categories. Thus, trainee dues remain deeply discounted at 22% (graduate students) and 29% (postdocs) of the cost of full membership. Trainees will continue to receive BOR with their membership. Also, the dues discount for Regular and Associate members from developing nations remains at 50%.
What this means: Member dues contribute to, but do not fully cover, the costs of publishing BOR and of running SSR—including its Business Office. An increase in dues will help re-balance the equation. No one likes dues increases and the Board did not make this decision lightly. However, our best analyses indicate that this action is necessary to operate with a balanced budget. We will continually analyze the impacts of these changes on our overall budget with the goal of sustaining SSR’s financial health for the future. Since dues alone are not sufficient to balance the budget, we will also address income needs through new fund-raising approaches and optimization of income from the annual meeting.
Members matter most
To achieve a sustainable SSR, we recognize that you, our fellow members, are our biggest asset and our best hope for the future. This year’s annual meeting was noteworthy in many ways. For the first time, more than 50% of the attendees were Trainees! Trainees also volunteered in record numbers to help with annual meeting logistics, making it a more pleasant experience for all attendees and providing Trainees with valuable management experience. We clearly want to sustain SSR’s traditional strength in Trainee mentorship. To do so, we plan to continue to make the SSR meeting affordable for Trainee participation through reduced registration fees, subsidized ticket costs for the trainee-mentor luncheon and the barbeque, and lower-cost lodging arrangements. Our strong support for Trainees, coupled with our outstanding scientific program, helps us compete for meeting support from NICHD and USDA, much of which we return to Trainee members in the form of travel grants. The quality of our meetings also helps us attract foundation support, some of which is returned to Trainees in the form of merit awards and travel grants.
We hope these benefits will encourage Trainees to join SSR and become lifelong Regular members. Our Regular membership has declined slightly but steadily over the last 3–5 years in part due to increasing numbers of retiring members. To reverse or at least arrest this trend, SSR needs to actively recruit new Regular as well as Trainee members. The Membership Committee is working on ways to do this, but our best and most successful approach has always been one-on-one invitations from members to their colleagues. We count on each of you to help.
To be sustainable, SSR also needs to maintain its identity and communicate its scientific impact in a changing research climate. The best science is often appreciated by the public only after it contributes to an improvement in health and quality of life. Therefore, at our annual meeting we are tying to increase attention on the translational applications, both realized and potential, of our basic curiosity-driven research. As a society, we are also extending our reach to include sister societies in related fields and international colleagues around the globe, and creating outreach efforts to high school and college students as well as governments, both local and national. We appreciate that a diverse membership expands our perspectives and provides broader opportunities for research collaboration.
During the year ahead, look for news of initiatives in all the directions mentioned in this letter. Help sustain SSR as a vibrant and wonderfully collegial organization. I am calling on each of you to send me or specific committee chairs your ideas, and to offer your help in implementing them. Also, please be patient as we update ssr.org with a lot of new information.
Speaking both for myself and on behalf of the Board of Directors, SSR is in good hands—your hands.
SSR President, 2010–11