GENERAL INFORMATION FOR STETTEN FELLOWS

IV. DAY-TO-DAY RESPONSIBILITIES

Once you have your ID, email, and insurance, you can begin the business of being a Fellow.

Fellow Tip: "It can take substantial time to identify and organize meetings with people at NIH and to access archival collections, so it is important to start on these things right away."

1. The Office of NIH History

Your Stetten Fellowship is an opportunity for you to perform your own unique research. However, you also have some responsibilities to the Office of NIH History. The Office is short-staffed and Fellows are expected to assist with events like the Research Festival . Duties may include staffing tables, handing out programs, and otherwise working with the Office staff.

It's also a responsibility of Fellows to help the Office of NIH History build the archives, collections and resources. Scientific instruments, documents, photographs and other historical records could be useful acquisitions. Keep an eye out for materials that your Institute and other contacts might be willing to donate.

2. Administering BRHIG

The Biomedical Research History Interest Group (BRHIG) is a seminar series sponsored by the Office of NIH History. Stetten Fellows provide organizational support for the meetings. These organizational responsibilities include: booking the meeting room, publicizing the meetings, and more generally administering the electronic Listserv associated with the group. (For larger lectures and conference events, including the annual Stetten Fellow lecture, certain additional logistical arrangements are necessary, and are traditionally handled by the Stetten Fellow delivering the lecture, if necessary with the help of ONH staff. See below for details.)

Currently the announcements, scheduling, and membership in the BRHIG are governed by 2 separate web-based systems, and the Stetten Fellow(s) responsible for meetings should be made administrators or list co-owners on both systems in order to facilitate their organizational work. Ask Office of NIH History staff for help with this. You will be given an ID and password for each system – the BRHIG website in the NIH Scientific Interest Group cluster of websites, and the BRHIG electronic mailing list – in order to update the schedule and distribute regular announcements.

A. BRHIG Scientific Interest Group website

NIH Scientific Interest Groups are given server space for a website that can include a description of the group's mission and core topics of interest, a schedule of upcoming events, an archive of past events, and a list of members. The site also includes a method for site visitors to join the group. Please note that joining the BRHIG via the SIG website is not the same as becoming a subscriber to the BRHIG Listserv mailing list. Ideally, the Stetten Fellow responsible for BRHIG organization will edit the SIG membership list to match the Listserv subscriber list.

Your most important organizational duty related to this SIG website is to maintain a current schedule of upcoming meetings. This is done by logging in with the administrator login and password at the BRHIG Administrator login page and using the links for altering posted information.

B. BRHIG Listserv Mailing List (“BRHIG-L”)

In addition to the SIG website and the events schedule and other information posted there for perusal by those who visit the site, BRHIG also encompasses a Listserv mailing list through which announcements are actively sent out to subscribers. This electronic mailing list is managed through the NIH Listserv site. ONH staff or the Fellow who previously managed the Listserv should add you as a co-owner of the mailing list, which is done by adding a line to the “List Header” of the Listserv, found in the Configuration menu accessible to a Listserv co-owner. As of July 2006, the BRHIG-L List Header has 3 owners configured: walkerli@od.nih.gov (Lisa Walker), slaterl@od.nih.gov (Leo Slater), and parkb@od.nih.gov (Buhm Soon Park). Once a list owner adds you to the List Header, you should be able to access the Listserv management system using your e-mail address as a Login (make sure you are using precisely the same domain name as listed in the List Header) and a unique password of your choosing. If you are unfamiliar with this system, you may want to ask for help in locating an on-campus Center for Information Technology (CIT) training course on the NIH Listserv management system.

The primary reason for you to access the Listserv management site will be to alter subscriber or ownership information; most of your use of the electronic mailing list will consist of sending e-mail announcements directly from Outlook (or whatever email software you use) to the mailing list to publicize upcoming BRHIG meetings. Traditionally meetings have been announced to the BRHIG as well as to 2 off-campus mailing lists – H-Net's H-Sci-Med-Tech and U. Maryland-based “Caduceus-L” – twice, with an initial mailing about a month before the event, and a reminder mailing a week prior. (For more on publicizing BRHIG events via electronic announcements, see below.)

C. Logistical Arrangements

Official reservation of NIH conference facilities is done through NIH Events Management. Once you know what your needs are, you can reserve the room online. You will need to get a CAN account number from the Office of NIH History Administrative Officer.

Once the logistics are in place, publicize the meeting by:

• Sending a notice to the BRHIG Listserv (compose an e-mail as usual and with “BRHIG-L” in the “To:” line). Note that BRHIG-L is currently configured to require a confirmation from the sender before the message is distributed to the entire list.
• Sending the same notice to Caduceus (“caduceus-l@list.umaryland.edu“ in the “To:” line) and to H-Sci-Med-Tech (“H-SCI-MED-TECH@h-net.msu.edu” in the “To:” line)
  NOTE: You may need to join these lists in order to be able to post messages to them. To join Caduceus-L, send a message to < listproc@list.maryland.edu > with the following text in the body of the message: “sub caduceus-l Your_first_name Your_last_name .” To join H-Sci-Med-Tech, visit http://www.h-net.org/~smt/ and follow subscription instructions.
• Adding the event information to the BRHIG Scientific Interest Group website (see section 2A above)
• Posting the event to the NIH-wide calendar , also called the "Yellow Sheet"
• If appropriate, forwarding the message to individual NIH scientists or to Scientific Interest Groups whose members are likely to have an overlapping interest in the content of the presentation

Small seminars can be handled with just the above steps. The occasional large lectures may also require considerable audio-visual and events management support as well, such as:

• Arranging through Office of Research Services for the event to be videocast and for the separate service of making a DVD recording of the presentation that will reside in the ONH archives
• Arranging with the NIH photographers to record the event [currently done through the Branson brothers, bransone@mail.nih.gov and billb@mail.nih.gov]
• Working with Medical Arts and Photography on the design and distribution of posters and other publicity materials [in 2006 ONH worked primarily with Bryan Ewsichek on poster design; Sharon Greenwell in OCPL was contacted to reserve space for the poster around campus]
• Arranging for a light catered reception (check with ONH staff for current preferences; in 2006 on-campus Eurest Services (301-402-9701) was contracted for one reception)
• Arranging for payment of services with the help of either the ONH Administrative Officer or the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (check with ONH staff to confirm whom specifically to contact)

Most of these additional services require at least two weeks' lead time to arrange, and it is best to begin consulting on audio-visual and poster design services with the appropriate entities two months before the event.

3. Monthly updates

Each month, you need to report the progress in your Fellowship research. Copies of your report must be e-mailed to your scientific mentor, the Scientific Director of your institute, and the Director of the Office of NIH History. Anyone else appropriate should be cc'd. All these people oversee multiple post-doctoral students, so your reports should be concise and clearly identify who you are. Some guidelines:

• Limit report to one page
• Use Microsoft Word (required for all internal documents at NIH)
• Use a clear filename such as LASTNAME SUBJECT REPORT DATE.
• Format for a clear and professional appearance
• Center and bold the title
• Include your full name, degrees, and title
• Bullet the points for easy reading.

Click here to view a sample report: Slater malaria history report 09-2005

4. Ethics

As a Fellow at NIH, you are a representative of the U.S. Government, and your behavior is governed by certain rules designed to prevent the appearance of conflict of interest. For example:

• You cannot accept gifts or favors that might make others question your impartiality toward people or organizations affected by NIH or your research.
• You cannot give gifts or favors that might make others think you are trying to influence the impartiality of a supervisor or person of authority.
• You cannot use NIH offices, computers, photocopiers, or other resources, or your time in the office, to do outside work.
• You may not engage in political activities via the NIH computers. Send politically related emails from your home email. For more information see the NIH Ethics Program Political Activity page .
• You may not download music files to an NIH server.
• You may not visit pornographic websites.
• Any outside work during your fellowship must be approved.

For a general discussion, see the NIH Training Ethics Handbook. There are some very slight variations for Fellows as opposed to employees.

You can see many specific ethical topics addressed in the Intramural Sourcebook Ethics Pages and the pages of the NIH Ethics Program.

The complete Standard of Ethical Behavior that governs your actions is US 5 CFR 2635, updated May 2002.

If you have any questions about an action, ask your AO.

Telephone and faxes to numbers outside the United States must go through the NIH operator. They will be billed to the main office number you provide and tracked, so don't talk a long time to friends and family.

5. Travel

In a large organization such as NIH, there are set procedures for almost everything. It's especially important to follow proper procedure whenever expenditure of funds is involved.

• Travel (government sponsored):
• Permission for travel must be gained in writing from the Director of the Office of NIH History. Go to the NIH Travel site and compile an itinerary and cost summary to submit to the Director.
• You can make your transportation arrangements through the NIH travel contractor, currently Omega World Travel.
• Make your own hotel arrangements but keep in mind the current per diem lodging rate. This is the most you can be reimbursed for lodging expenses. See list of all current per diem rates .
• The Office of NIH History will issue your official Travel Orders . Be sure to carry these orders and your NIH ID while traveling.
• For more information, see NIHtravel.com and the GSA Travel Policy Site .
• Sponsored Travel (outside institution paying): To prevent conflicts of interest, NIH has a complex procedure for authorizing outside payment of travel expenses. Consult with your AO for help.
• Allow six weeks to complete paperwork and obtain permission.
• Sponsoring organization must send a written invitation (e-mail is OK) specifying:
• What expenses they will cover
• Exactly who will pay (letterhead is not sufficient)
• That no federal funds will be used
• That no honorarium will be awarded
• Fill out permission forms at the NIH Business System site including the HHS348
• Get permission in writing from the Director of the Office of NIH History.

Fellow Tip: "Never spend your own money first and seek reimbursement later, for travel or anything else. Always get authorization before spending any money."

Fellow Tip: "I was able to get some travel money both from my Institute and the Office of NIH History. If there's something you want to attend, ask."

Fellow Tip: "Get your travel plans approved well in advance. No last minute travel at NIH."

ON TO DAY-TO-DAY RESOURCES

BACK TO GENERAL INFORMATION FOR STETTEN FELLOWS