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I am writing this a few days after a unique event, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, where Jupiter and Saturn came closer together in the sky than since 1623. This prompted me to reflect on the word “conjunction,” defined as a part of speech used to express relationships between things in a sentence, link different clauses together, and to combine sentences. In many ways the ANA has been working hard to create opportunities for our members to interact and link together ~ “conjunction” ~ especially during the constraints of the pandemic. A shining example of this occurred during our first-ever virtual ANA Annual Meeting when three members of the Junior and Early Career Membership Committee (Bhooma Aravamuthan and Eric Landsness at Washington University in St. Louis and Elizabeth Silbermann at Oregon Health & Science University) organized a fantastic online mentoring session attended by over 100 members, and 20+ senior faculty. Designed to maximize interaction, the event turned out to be even more successful than anticipated. For example, 88/89 respondents who had been to a conference before felt this session was at least comparable to in-person networking at conferences. 53/89 felt that the virtual networking session was better than in-person networking! 102/103 respondents would attend the session again and recommend it to a peer. We have decided that ANA2021 will also have to be a virtual event, returning to in-person meetings in 2022. As disappointing this is, we now have had the experience of hosting a very successful virtual meeting, with these kind of interactive sessions and we will build on these successes. We also plan to have more offerings from the Education committee and SIGs during the year to continue the sharing of advancements and discovery, and to build community. We need to consider the future of professional meetings in the context of the dramatic restrictions imposed by the pandemic. I believe that many more of our professional activities will stay online even after restrictions on travel are lifted. For our department, I predict that Grand rounds, seminars, and most lectures will probably remain Zoom events. There is also a growing pressure for scientists to reflect on the necessity of professional travel as we face climate change. One such initiative is represented by Judith P. Klinman, Michael A. Marletta, and Jeremy W. Turner, Department of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkely (https://www.sciencestepsup.com/letter). They write: “In the short term, we ask all US scientific organizations to continue to cease in-person gatherings and to move to all-remote (i.e. electronic online) formats for research conferences, scientific symposia, local seminar series, meetings of your advisory boards, editorial committees, etc.” Apart from climate change, there are other reasons to consider reducing professional travel and shifting to virtual meetings, where possible, including the impact on work-life balance of time away from home, and the need to permit attendance at meetings for those who might not have financial resources to travel and pay registration fees. So, I urge members to be creative in designing online activities, and to “up-skill” in the technical elements of how to make these successful. It is very likely that they will remain an important part of ANA activities in the future. Let me conclude by wishing you and your families the very best for the New Year, and thanking all engaged with the ANA leadership, including our partners at our management company AH, for their outstanding efforts this year. Warm regards, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH |