ASPB Annual Meeting Child Care Reimbursement Program Is Reinvigorated and Expanded

The Women in Plant Biology Committee (WIPB) is delighted to announce that ASPB’s child care reimbursement program not only will be in place for Plant Biology 2008, but also will be expanded. Jo Handelsman, the speaker at the 2007 WIPB luncheon in Chicago—and a member of National Academy of Sciences panel that wrote the recent report Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering (http://www.aspb.org/committees/women/reading.cfm)—recommended that professional societies support child care at meetings to encourage women’s participation. Over the past decade, ASPB has been able to provide child care support funded by a generous donation from John Radin who, sadly, recently passed away (http://www.aspb.org/newsletter/marapr07/23radin.cfm). Although Radin’s donation has now been exhausted, the child care reimbursement program will be funded—to up to $4,000 per annual meeting—from income earned on a sizable bequest to ASPB from the estate of Eli Romanoff.

Child care reimbursement will be available for children ages 12 and younger on a sliding scale, with up to $400 per family available for ASPB member graduate students, up to $300 per family for ASPB member postdocs, and up to $200 per family for ASPB member faculty.

Here is how the reinvigorated and expanded child care reimbursement program will work: The Plant Biology 2008 meeting website will provide contact information for prospective child care providers at the meeting site. (Watch for e-mails announcing the opening of registration for Plant Biology 2008 in early December.) Families will then make their own arrangements for child care and provide an estimate of their anticipated costs to the WIPB committee via an online form. After the annual meeting, child care costs will be reimbursed up to the total amount available. WIPB strongly encourages all meeting participants to present a poster or give a talk so that they may get the most out of their participation in the meeting; however, presenting is not a requirement for child care reimbursement.

ASPB is tremendously grateful to Romanoff for remembering the Society in his will. And WIPB appreciates the ASPB Executive Committee’s decision to use these funds to continue and expand the child care program initially funded by Radin. Like Radin, Romanoff was no stranger to ASPB or plant biology. He received the ASPB Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant physiology in 1995. He was a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) advisory panel for regulatory biology in 1968 while employed at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. Romanoff remained at NSF and became the program officer for regulatory biology, where he was instrumental in ensuring research funding for plant science research.

Judy Brusslan
Chair, Women in Plant Biology Committee