Dear MAS member,
Fall is upon us and in these unprecedented times, we find ourselves continually adapting to new home and workplace routines. M&M 2020 also adapted by providing an all virtual conference. Thanks to the many members, and particularly our Sustaining Members, who embraced this change and participated in the meeting. The new format saw an increase in student and postdoc participation with over 1000 in attendance, the most in M&M history! At the conclusion of the virtual Annual Business Meeting, Rhonda passed the beads (or shells if you prefer) of office to me. Despite the challenges of the past year, MAS continues to thrive both financially and through member engagement and I look forward to continuing this trend.
The activities of the past year are summarized in the Annual Business Meeting minutes and committee reports. The highlights include virtually presenting the annual Society and M&M Student and Postdoc awards, electing Christopher Kiely, Lothar Struder, and Yimei Zhu to the 2020 Fellows Class, and increasing our membership to nearly 600 strong. In lieu of the annual Meal with a Mentor, MAS hosted a virtual panel discussion on mentoring for an inclusive M&M community. COVID-19 postponed EBSD 2020 and many AReS gatherings but MAS rebounded by providing webinars presented by Vin Smentkowski and Donovan Leonard. As of early August, our total assets are >$770,000 and our investment portfolio continues to weather the ups and downs of the market.
Looking forward, our annual election will be held November 1 to December 1. Be on the lookout for an email from electionsonline.com to fill out your ballot. To improve our operations and to better serve our membership, Council plans to purchase a business Zoom membership, documents are moving to Google for non-profits platform, MAS will sponsor the M&M Pre-meeting Congress X60 for students and postdocs, efforts will continue to organize materials for the archives at the Science History Institute, and generate new content for the website.
Finally, please consider renewing your membership. To take full advantage of your membership benefits, consider applying for the Goldstein Scholar Award, sponsor an Early Career Scholar in your lab, attend a MAS webinar, nominate your colleagues for our many MAS awards or Fellows Program, suggest or help to plan a Topical Conference, or send us news to share through our social media platforms. Let us know other ways that we may better serve you.
As always, thank you for your continued support of the Society!