2024 Annual Conference
I led the planning team for this year’s annual meeting hosted by UW in Seattle, WA. We gathered 27 students from 8 programs at 3 institutions in Washington and Oregon (University of Washington, Oregon State University, Western Washington University) for a full day of presentations on the high caliber original research students are conducting in our region. I secured grant funding to cover planning expenses, managed the budget, and coordinated our 4-person student planning team.
Admin Duties
As one of the Chapter leaders, I perform a number of duties in the interest of increasing and maintaining the connections between marine mammalogy students in our region. This is mostly admin stuff - managing the listserv, maintaining chapter records, and acting as an information repository when needed.
In 2023 we published our inaugural biannual newsletter focused on sharing research updates, new technology, and field “bloopers” within the group. This newsletter is intentionally limited to student members in order to facilitate open communication and relationship building in a casual format. So far it’s been a great way to keep in touch between meetings.
In 2023 we also published our first merchandise storefront with a logo that was developed by past student members. It’s been awesome to see the group get excited about showing off their chapter and recruiting new members from their institutions.
In the coming year we will be revamping our website and improving our recruitment efforts at Canadian institutions.
This group is a great community and has been a resource and support network for me since undergrad. I love trying to create a similarly supportive and welcoming atmosphere for new students and helping us develop the kind of professional network in each other that we can rely on for the rest of our careers in this small marine mammal world.
