Biophysical Society Bulletin | July/August 2021

President’s Message

Report FromCouncil Historically, the Spring Council meeting has been held at the in- stitution of the current Biophysical Society (BPS) President. Due to the pandemic, our meeting in May of 2020 was the first of many virtual governance meetings for BPS. One year later, from June 1–3, 2021, Spring Council took place virtually once again, although if in person

With respect to Subgroups, all Subgroup officers and BPS members were invited to participate in surveys about Sub- groups in May. Council reviewed the results of the surveys and decided to temporarily suspend applications for any new Subgroups while a task force convenes to explore the best path for supporting Subgroups in the future given the ever-evolving nature of science and, therefore, Subgroup research areas and their alignment with Society resources. The second day of Spring Council was devoted entirely to discussions of BPS meetings. Due to the pandemic, all 2020 and 2021 BPS Thematic Meetings and BPS Conferences were postponed. However, we are in the process of reschedul- ing these meetings and look forward to resuming our small meeting series with the “Biophysics at the Dawn of Exascale Computers” Thematic Meeting in Hamburg, Germany, in May 2022. Council then reviewed statistics and survey data from the BPS 2021 Annual Meeting, which was held virtually. With this information as a backdrop, we shifted focus to the BPS 2022 Annual Meeting, which will take place in San Francis- co, California, from February 19–23, 2022. Council explored numerous options for providing content to those who will not be able to travel to San Francisco in February. After much deliberation, we decided to record all the symposia on Sub- group Saturday, more than 70 hours of content, and make it available as part of meeting registration or for a separate fee via the BPS website following the Annual Meeting. We will provide updates about this as we work out the details, but we still look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in San Francisco. The third day of Spring Council had a very strategic focus. The first item we covered was the President’s Task Force on Policies, where Council reviewed and approved an amend- ment to the BPS bylaws that will be coming to members for a vote very soon. The revision allows Council to develop and enforce policies, including those which may address eligibility for awards, volunteer leader positions, and membership. The genesis for this change is BPS’s desire to establish an ethics policy that supports the BPS values of scientific excellence; integrity and transparency; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and community building, while demonstrating respect for one other and holding ourselves responsible for the trust the public places in us. This was followed by a discussion, led by Past-President Catherine Royer , on BPS’s next steps in our journey to build a more inclusive Biophysical Society, which was based on recommendations from our panelists at the BPS 2021 President’s Symposium. Council reviewed options for member focus groups and surveys and discussed efforts

Frances Separovic

it more likely would have been held at the BPS offices in Bethesda rather than at The University of Melbourne! Although BPS Council, and indeed most BPS members, are well-versed in virtual meetings, the truly international composition of Council had some members missing bedtimes to participate in three consecutive days of meetings from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, while other members were logging on pre-coffee from 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM each day. Current Council members are located across nine different time zones spanning 17 hours in time differences. Nonetheless, everyone was highly engaged, and we had three full sessions of opera- tional and strategic discussions about the Society. The first day of the Council meeting focused on BPS Com- mittees and Subgroups. Council approved new and renewing committee member appointments for terms beginningJuly 1, 2021. Secretary Erin Sheets presented committee evaluations from the Publications and Public Affairs Committees. Both committees meet monthly and support multiple strategic goals of the Society. Within the past two years, the Publica- tions Committee has been involved in the launch of BPS’s two new journals, The Biophysicist and Biophysical Reports , as well as being responsible for leading the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) searches for both journals and, most recently, a search for the next EiC of Biophysical Journal . The Public Affairs Committee supported more than four dozen coalition, Dear Colleague, and action letters in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 and is actively working on opportunities to engage more interna- tionally by working with our BPS Ambassadors. Council also entertained and approved a proposal from the Professional Opportunities for Women Committee to change the requirements for BPS Award and Fellow nominations such that only one letter of support, instead of two, must be from a BPS member. The rationale for the change is that biophysics is a diverse discipline which interacts with many other disciplines, and the best person to speak to a nominee’s qualifications might be a researcher who is not a biophysicist. Nominees, nominators, and one supporter still must be BPS members.

July/August 2021

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