Page 9 - 2016Summer

From the Executive Director | Susan E. Fox
I am writing this column on a crisp, bright blue spring day. There is just a hint of red and green in the trees and purple and yellow early bloomers line our paths. Although T. S. Eliot may claim April as the cruel-
est month, it’s my favorite for all the promises it holds. It is the perfect backdrop for this latest update on what we have achieved so far in these early days of our Strategic Leader- ship for the Future Plan.
One of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) signal strengths is the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment of our members and the grassroots nature of our work together. In the spring column, President Christy K. Holland and I reported on the four goals in the plan and an initial set of achievements. These very early achievements demonstrated how effective a focused and coordinated set of actions can be in situating ASA to build on our strengths and, importantly, use them to rise to the challenge of thinking and acting strategically.
In just the past few months, through the collective hard work of four task forces assigned to move the goals forward, there is now even more to report. The successes to date, in addition to those iterated in the spring issue, are impressive.
Along with those successes, there are additional, important transitions taking place within ASA. One significant one is the retirement of our Standards Manager Susan Blaeser following the Salt Lake City meeting and after 16 years of excellent dedication to the Society. A Search Committee consisting of Susan Blaeser, myself, Robert Hellweg, Wil- liam Murphy and Standards Director Christopher Struck conducted a search for Susan’s replacement. The position at- tracted close to 20 applicants in a highly competitive field. The committee selected Neil Stremmel, who is now working full time with Christopher and Susan in transitioning du- ties. He brings a wealth of experience from the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) where he served for 16 years as Technical Director, Director of Research, and Managing Di- rector.
What follows is a report on initiatives and accomplishments in each of the four goal areas of the Strategic Leadership for the Future Plan.
Goal 1: Awareness of Acoustics
(Michael Stinson, Chief Champion)
In a project that crosses the scope of three goals (Awareness of Acoustics, Member Engagement and Diversity, and Dis- semination of Knowledge), the ASA Standards Program is also embarking on a project with ASA Web Office Manager Dan Farrell to make the S1.1 and S3.20 Terminology Stan- dards available on the ASA Standards Web site as a search- able index. This tool will enable users to search terminol- ogy standards for individual terms and will be available to all ASA members. It is expected to be launched on the ASA Web site by July 1, 2016.
A long-time aspiration for the Society is fulfilling the need for an Education and Outreach Coordinator. A search for a full-time coordinator is currently underway under the aus- pices of a Search Committee consisting of Fredericka Bell- Bertie, David T. Bradley, Tracianne Nielsen, Victor Sparrow, and myself. The position announcement drew more than 40 responses. The committee is currently in the process of vet- ting resumes and scheduling the first round of interviews. We hope to have someone on board in the very near future.
Last fall, the ASA Web Office migrated the entirety of the ExploreSound.org site, from the Optical Society of America to ASA servers. Recently, the ASA launched a contest (http://exploresound.org/explore-sound-logo-competition/) to develop a new logo for the site, a vehicle that initially fo- cused strictly on K-12 outreach activities but will now evolve into an outreach mechanism for the entire field of acoustics. The new logo will be used to brand not just the Explore- Sound site but other ASA outreach activities as well.
Goal 2: Member Engagement and Diversity
(Lily Wang, Chief Champion)
Because not all ASA members have the capacity to attend Society meetings, ASA initiated an effort to broadcast over the Web seven special sessions and one Technical Commit- tee meeting at the Fall 2015 meeting. This initial effort was such a success that ASA expanded broadcasts at the spring meeting to 19 sessions. All Hot Topic sessions were recorded or broadcast live.
This year, we offered for the first time an Early Career Ac- ousticians Retreat (EAR) (http://acousticalsociety.org/early- career-acousticians-retreat-2016) in Salt Lake City on Friday
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Summer 2016 | Acoustics Today | 7