SIGMA XI NEWSLETTER
APRIL, 1997 ISSUE
Edited by gji
Annual Banquet to be Held May 22
Sigma Xi will hold its Annual Banquet at the Naval Officer’s Club in Bethesda on Thursday, May 22, 1997. We will hold a joint banquet with the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine,
and we will be honoring the winners of the Regional High School Science Fairs from Fairfax, Northern Virginia, District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties. Science Fair Coordinator
Dr. Nate Appel was able to get together a large group of judges this year, so you can be sure the winners who were selected had to be really good. They will be at the Banquet with their exhibits, so
all of us will have the opportunity to meet these budding scientists and view their winning entries. Dr. Candace Pert of Georgetown Medical School will speak on "Molecules in Motion."
Make plans to come to the Banquet. Attached to this Newsletter are the menu and a reservation form; please return your reservation form with payment by May 16th.
FDA Chapter Members are Asked to Vote on By-Law Changes
Attached to this Newsletter is a form which describes proposed changes to the By-Laws of the FDA Sigma Xi Chapter. Your Council has reviewed these changes, and recommend your approval of these change
s. The changes have to do with the terms of office for the officers; they will serve two year terms instead of one year terms, if the changes are approved by the membership. Please take a few minute
s to review the proposed changes, vote your approval or disapproval, then return it to one of the people designated on the form by May 10th. You can return the form together with your banquet reservat
ion, if you wish.
SIGMA XI to Sponsor a Town Meeting
On Thursday, May 8, 1997, Sigma Xi will sponsor an Interactive Video Conference titled, "Undergraduate Education to Meet Societal Needs in the 21st Century."
The Video Conference will be from 2:00-3:30 p.m., EDT, and will feature a discussion of NSF’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources’ report, "Shaping the Future: New Expectations for
Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology." The telecast will be live from the studios of North Carolina State University, and will feature Dr. Robert Watson,
Director, NSF Division of Undergraduate Education, Dr. Melvin George, Chairperson, NSF Advisory Committee to Review Undergraduate Education for EHR, Dr. Carolyn Meyers, Professor of Engineering at
NCA&T State University, Congressman David Price, D-NC, and Dr. Luther Williams, Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources, NSF. The program will be moderated by Dr. Peter Blair,
Executive Director of Sigma Xi, and Dr. Janet Poley, President of A*DEC. FDA’s Chapter hopes to have a downlink site; if it can be worked out, we will have it on e-mail. Further information on the
program, as well as the ability to leave a comment in advance of the Video Conference, may be found on the Society’s home page = http://www.sigmaxi.org/news&events/news.htm.
E-Mail Addresses Requested
If you have an e-mail address, will you please let us know? E-mail is proving to be a quick, efficient and low-cost way to communicate with our members, and we would like to use it whenever possible.
Please send your e-mail addresses to: Dr. Fred Fry, FDA, HFS-717, 200 C Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20204. His e-mail address is: frf@cfsan.fda.gov.
Alternatively, you can jot down your e-mail address on your Banquet Reservation form or your Ballot and return it to one of the persons on the list. We will forward your e-mail address to Fred.
Thank you!
The National Sigma Xi Meeting
W. Howard Cyr, President-Elect, FDA Chapter
I attended the Annual Meeting of Sigma Xi held in New Orleans on March 6-9. The meeting was held in the old, but still somewhat elegant Fairmont Hotel, and the weather outside was splendid, just righ
t for Springtime. A little less than 300 delegates from chapters across the country, Canada, and a few from overseas attended the sessions. This year’s meeting focused on workshops and national, reg
ional, and local business. Unlike previous meetings, no Forum was held. The Sigma Xi Forum will be held this Fall, November 20-21, in D.C., and will focus on "The Future of Innovation and Research i
n Industries."
I attended several interesting workshops. The first and most important was one designed for new club officers. I’ve been a member of Sigma Xi for 30+ years, and associated with the FDA Chapter
management for some 10 years, and this was my first opportunity to actually meet the people at Headquarters who manage the national organization. We learned about the Speaker’s programs, the Sigma Xi
Web Site, the functioning of American Scientist (our Sigma Xi magazine), and the ever-controversial establishment of annual dues. The biggest problem facing Sigma Xi is membership. Nationally, Sigma
Xi has decreased from 130,000 members in the early 80's to about 90,000 now. This problem, however, is not unique to Sigma Xi. I learned that other similar groups have suffered the same fate,
including Phi Beta Kappa. We spent a fair amount of time discussing possible new and exciting ways to get new members and to keep old members. It’s a particularly difficult task in the age of
so many competing interests. Our seminars have to compete with professionally produced programs such as PBS’s NOVA. The officers of the FDA Chapter need to spend some important worktime on the
issue (or problem) of attracting and retaining members.
One of the plenary speakers was David Greenberg, founding editor and publisher of Science and Government Report, a "watchdog" journal. He gave an exciting and very interesting speech on the
various presidential administrations and their science policies. Some of his points seem obvious, in retrospect, but he said them so well and offered such good personal insights that it was a
pleasure to hear him. He mentioned that the Defense Department and NIH have relatively little trouble getting research monies. Defense is facing their first small problems now that the Cold War has
ended. NIH, however, has always had the very best method for ensuring a good budget. It offers health advice and even health care to Congressmen. Greenberg says that there is certainly no better
way to win votes than to help cure a congressman’s/congresswoman’s medical problem. I would heartily recommend that we try to get Greenberg to address us at a local meeting, possibly with other local
chapters. It would not be a dull evening.
Three workshops were held on the use of the Sigma Xi Website. As somewhat of a novice, I appreciated these sessions. We have been fortunate that Fred Fry has developed our site and has offered to
continue his work on the Website. Thanks, Fred! For those of you who haven’t surfed to our site, give it a try at
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/sxfda.html. You can also reach it by going to the National site at http://www.sigma
xi.org. There are additional summaries of specific events from the National Annual Meeting on the latter site. You can find the new national officers and other hot debates such as making more
Sigma Xi regions in Canada. Seriously, there are some excellent scientific discussions, and many very good links to other sites.
See you all at the Annual Banquet!
Last updated on 04/28/97 by frf.