Greetings all ARCUS members, supporters, and friends!
I'm writing this from sunny Anchorage, Alaska, where spring is returning with its complement of flowers, birds, and tourists. School is out and many on the ARCUS board and in the membership are likely headed to the field soon; I wish you the best of luck and an enjoyable and productive summer! We'll look forward to hearing how things went at our next annual membership meeting during AGU's Fall Meeting 2019.
On the ARCUS end, we have been busy as usual networking, communicating, educating, and facilitating Arctic research at its finest. We had a strong presence at the end of last year at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in Washington D.C., where we held our annual member meeting and reception (open to all interested parties, not just members!) and an inaugural "Arctic Funder's Meet and Greet" event featuring program officers from six federal agencies that fund Arctic research: NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC).
We used the ARCUS annual meeting as a chance to query the members and representatives present about: (1) specific opportunities ARCUS members could collaborate on, and (2) existing gaps in resources or support for the Arctic research community. The responses to these questions were documented in our annual meeting summary report. In case you missed it, the 2018 ARCUS Annual Meeting Summary Report is available on the ARCUS website.
So far this spring, ARCUS has had a successful board/staff retreat in Anchorage where we aligned current and upcoming project ideas with our new strategic plan (finalized fall 2018) to facilitate a strong sense of shared priorities within our team. In early May, we co-hosted the Anchorage Arctic Research Summit. The summit is an annual event aimed at bringing together the large and diverse research community in the Anchorage area to share updates, findings, and ideas in a unique and engaging format. This year's theme was "Transforming Research and Scholarship: Re-envisioning Arctic Environmental and Economic Security Through Indigeneity and Gender."
Moving forward, we are hoping to connect more profoundly with our membership over the coming months since one of our goals as an organization is to be responsive to your concerns and needs. One way we are doing this is to include more member-focused content in the monthly ARCUS Member newsletter. We invite you to share any news or announcements related to the Arctic research taking place within your institution, as well as to use this forum to highlight opportunities for collaboration or community challenges. For details, please contact ARCUS staff member, Brit Myers (brit [at] arcus.org).
That's all from the President's corner for now…until we meet again, be well and do good work. ARCUS appreciates all that you do to further our collective knowledge of the Arctic!
Audrey Taylor
President, ARCUS Board of Directors