Starting an Interest Group

The purpose of this document is to give a basic rundown of the steps you need to take to establish an NIH Interest Group. The document covers the key personnel, IG structure, organizational meeting, and electronic resources. In other words, the basic infrastructure that is available to you, the IG Head, as you move forward. Further resources covering such topics as conference room scheduling, obtaining funding for speakers, and other issues, are available on this website.

Key Personnel:

Dr. Celia Hooper:

• “Csarina of the Interest Groups”
• Keeps official list of IGs and publishes in July/August Catalyst
• Maintains LISTSERV list of IG heads
• Science Editor of Catalyst
• Schedules Wednesday Afternoon lecturers
• Author of DDIR Bulletin Board

Dr. Michael Gottesman:

• NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research
• Meets with umbrella group heads occasionally
• Meets with all IG heads once a year in September

Sandy Desautels:

• Manages the CIT-provided IG template websites

NIH Interest Group Structure:

There are seven main umbrella interest groups and over six dozen specific focus groups. The focus groups may choose to affiliate with one of the umbrella groups. A complete list of all groups (umbrella and others) is available in the July/August issue of the Catalyst and online at http://www.nih.gov/sigs

Getting Started (Organizational Meeting Preparation):

If possible, send the organizational meeting announcement to Celia Hooper at least two months in advance of the meeting (or as soon as it is scheduled). This will get the meeting published on the DDIR’s Bulletin Board.

At the organizational meeting you will need to decide the following:

• Meeting time and schedule
• Meeting location
• Membership group is seeking
• Type of meeting (Outside speakers? Journal club? Internal speakers? Annual workshops? Etc, etc)
• Affiliation with umbrella group?

Once you have decided on this information, you should supply it to Celia Hooper. Celia will publicize the group on the DDIR bulletin board and the Catalyst.

Electronic Resources (Websites and LISTSERV Lists)

We encourage groups to use NIH's electronic resources--to develop Web pages and establish listserv lists. The Interest Group home pages can be seen at this URL:

http://www.nih.gov/sigs

We have contracted with CIT staff to get a standard web-page setup for the interest groups, with technical assistance when the pages are first created. Groups maintain their own pages through a user-friendly interface. Groups may also create and maintain their self-designed web pages if they prefer, but all pages should be listed and accessible through the IG web page above. Please contact Sandy Desautels in CIT to list your existing web pages and/or to set up a CIT template page for your group.

For more information about other web resources that may be useful to your interest group, see the handbook web page about publicizing your SIG.

Listserv lists facilitate and simplify communications within interest groups. Listserv is a special set of computer routines that distribute mail to all members of a mailing list with a single command. It is fairly easy to set up and maintain a list, and the group can choose whether it is a one-way list--with an editor sending out all the messages--or an interactive list with any member allowed to post to everyone on the list.

There are an abundance of LISTSERV lists on the NIH LISTSERV. New SIGs may do well to look over the list of available lists for their may be existing lists with members who might be interested in hearing about your new SIG. Before sending an announcement to any list, you should probably contact the list owner first.

For more information about LISTSERV and how it may be useful to your interest group, see the handbook web page about publicizing your SIG.

Speakers, Rooms, Refreshments, Publicity, etc

Details and assistance with all these topics are available from this website.