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Extending the Tent

ESA’s Extending the Tent Initiative

In fall 2017, ESA President Rich Pouyat charged a task force of ESA members to explore strategies for expanding and stabilizing the Society’s membership. We are committed to increasing membership numbers, and to better serving the full array of professional ecologists and those working in related fields. We are equally committed to ensuring that the Society becomes more visibly inclusive and supportive of all ecologists, fully reflecting demographic and cultural diversity as well as the full spectrum of career stages and employment settings. As chaired by ESA’s current president, Laura Huenneke, the task force assembled scores of possible steps aimed at attracting and retaining additional members from several possible “target” populations: Ecologists working in academia, those working in non-academic settings, those moving into or through transitions in career or in educational programs, and those from diverse demographic or cultural backgrounds. Past President Rich Pouyat will chair the task force for the remainder of fiscal year 2019. Please help us develop our best strategies for expanding and sustaining membership for the ESA! You can help in three ways:

  1. On the form below, please consider intersections where populations of ecologists connect with core areas of the Society’s work. If you see an opportunity for ESA to reach out, develop programs or benefits, or otherwise extend the tent toward one of the populations in an area of work, check that box. You may check as many boxes as you like. If you have a specific example/s, please add it to the text box.
  2. You can describe one or more specific actions you would like to see the Society take (even if it were to take some investment of dues from members or additional costs for the Annual Meeting) to address the goal of Extending the Tent; tell us which audience(s) you think would be served by this action.
  3. You can get involved and provide feedback on a preliminary report of feedback gathered at the 2018 Annual Meeting.

For examples, see:

ESA Webinar Registration: The Value of Being a Certified Ecologist with ESA

  • You can look up your membership status at http://eservices.esa.org/Eservices/CheckMemberStatus.aspx