The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) has inaugurated a new category of Charter Membership in the Science Media Centre of Canada (SMCC) – one reserved for Canadian scientific societies.
Suzanne Corbeil, SMCC steering committee chair, said the special category was created to reinforce the many collaborations that the Centre expects with scientists.
“Essential to operations of the Science Media Centre are links between journalists and experts in the various scientific fields. So we wanted to extend a special invitation to scientific societies to join as Charter Members,” Corbeil said.
The Centre’s steering committee decided Nov. 30 to create the new category after inquiries from several scientific societies which wanted to support the media centre concept. CAP signed up within a week.
Scientific societies which enrol by July 1 will enjoy the same benefits in perpetuity as existing Charter Members – logo displayed on the SMCC website and in SMCC presentations, voting rights at Centre annual meetings, advance notice of SMCC events and preferred invitations to special functions.
All Charter Members will also be regularly consulted as the SMCC moves towards full operations in the summer of 2010.
The steering committee directed that the category be limited to societies based in Canada whose members are predominately scientists active in a particular field or discipline. The $1,000 Charter Member fee is intended to benefit societies financed mostly by membership fees and conference registrations. Societies or associations that are licensing bodies or where membership is a professional requirement will not be eligible.
Representatives of interested societies may obtain more information by emailing yves.melanson@sciencemediacentre.ca .
For more information on the SMCC, please visit their website at: http://www.sciencemediacentre.ca
(This news item was obtained from the SMCC website.