PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Membership: The Foundation of a Successful Professional Society and a Key to a Successful Career

An engaged and dedicated membership is the cornerstone of a successful scientific society. ASPB provides many valuable services to plant science — such as our journals and books, including The Arabidopsis Book, which ASPB in partnership with BioOne is making freely available via the Internet; our educational film, History’s Harvest: Where Food Comes From; the annual meeting; the Society’s first specialist conference, “Plant Genetics 2003: Mechanisms of Genetic Variation”; and public outreach — that would not be possible without the enthusiastic participation of leading plant biologists who are members of the Society. In return, ASPB provides many tangible and intangible benefits to its members throughout their scientific careers. Although the ASPB Membership Committee has mounted a very successful campaign to attract new members, and its current recruiting drive increased membership by more than 1,200 (wow!), young scientists are still underrepresented in ASPB. Since young plant biologists are the next generation of leaders that will keep ASPB at the leading edge of plant science, I challenge my colleagues to get directly involved in recruiting young scientists for membership in our Society. Of course, to be successful, we need to be armed with sound arguments in favor of joining and participating in this Society. Below, I enumerate some of the more compelling reasons for joining ASPB.

Quantifiable Benefits of ASPB Membership

• FREE electronic access to Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell
• Access to the searchable ASPB Job Bank
• Discounted page charges for papers published in Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell
• Discounts on all ASPB publications, including Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants, by Buchanan, Gruissem, and Jones
• Discounts on additional plant science journals and Annual Reviews
• Discount on Plants, Genes, and Crop Biotechnology, by Chrispeels and Sadava (published by Jones and Bartlett), and free access to the images from the book at http://www.aspb.org/education/foundation/pgcb
• Lower registration fees for all ASPB meetings
• Minority and Student Travel grants to the annual meeting
• Awards for Young Scientist’s Best Paper of the Year
• Opportunities for symposium presentations and peer recognition
• Bimonthly newsletter
• Opportunities to network with colleagues at ASPB meetings

Intangible Benefits of ASPB Membership

• Opportunities for leadership and service
• Opportunities for serving on editorial boards
• Recognition for membership in one of the largest and most visible plant science societies
• The power of numbers: ASPB speaks with authority in the public domain because of its size and diversity
• Good works: Your dues help support “good works” funded by the Society, including
  1. Minority and Student Travel grants to the annual meeting
  2. Career workshops held at the annual meeting
  3. ASPB-funded workshops in underdeveloped countries
  4. Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
  In addition to organizing meetings, publishing journals and books, and maintaining an informative web site, ASPB is a powerful voice in plant science heard by government leaders, funding agencies, and the general public. Tell your students and postdocs about the benefits of membership in ASPB and get them involved in this dynamic and proactive association of plant biologists.

For more information about the benefits of joining ASPB, please visit us at http://www.aspb.org/memberjoin/.

Daniel R. Bush
USDA–ARS and University of Illinois
dbush@uiuc.edu