Editorial | Stempra test

Our spring AGM seems a distant memory, but as summer turns to autumn we are pleased to mail out the first Stempra newsletter from your new(ish) committee. Thank you for bearing with us as we got going, I hope you enjoy this update.

After, slightly belatedly, introducing the new committee, we’ve included a round up of the events Stempra has organised since March. From basic press officer training in the UK and the Middle-East to sharpening your social media skills, we’ve hosted a lively and educational series of events which we hope you enjoyed if you attended. If you have ideas for future events, please do contact us and we’ll see what we can do.

Our session at the British Science Association Science Communication Conference proved so successful we’ve included a longer write up with tips, and a link to the speakers’ presentations online. We are hoping to run a similar session in the future so do keep your eyes peeled for emails from our events team.

Talking of future events, we’ve included a couple of upcoming highlights to whet your appetite. And, if you’re mourning the end of summer our silly season focused Last Word should give you a lift!

And finally… You’ve heard the rumours, you’ve seen past emails, you may have even fed into our discussions; work is starting on revamping the Stempra website, so if you have requests, thoughts, advice, do get in touch with me or any of the committee.

Ruth Francis
Chair, Stempra
chair@stempra.org.uk

From the Chair

Happy new year to all Stempra members.

Well – 2009 was an interesting year as ever for science.

Highlights included the hugely successful World Conference of Science Journalists hosted in London with science journalists from around the globe descending on the capital. Stempra ran a sell-out event on how best to generate quality international coverage. (Thank you Elspeth Bartlet and Claire Bithell!)

In a time of general gloom and uncertainty within the general media and many cutbacks and redundancies, a few outlets stand out for their commitment to science. The BBC put science back into the mainstream with the launch of Bang Goes The Theory on BBC One and The Times launched a new monthly magazine, Eureka. The mood looks set to continue in 2010 with the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary and the BBC’s Year of Science.

The end of 2009 also left us with Nutt-gate and Climate-gate. In 2010, Stempra will certainly be hoping to get to the bottom of some of the issues raised with the people involved.

Following Stempra’s AGM in April, we also decided to review our constitution to ensure it is still relevant for the Stempra membership and will serve the organisation well in the future. We went back and consulted with the founding members of Stempra, many of whom are still active members of the organisation today. We didn’t want to lose any of their valuable experience and insight. In our feature article, you can compare for yourselves the committee members who got us started and the current committee members who have taken up the mantle and we hope to circulate the moderately revised constitution to all Stempra members for their consideration in the new year.

As ever, I’d like to thank the committee for all their efforts in putting together 2009′s fantastic programme of informative and fun events.

I look forward to seeing you at an event soon and hearing from you in 2010.

Katrina Nevin-Ridley
Chair of Stempra
chair@stempra.org.uk