This message is posted on behalf of the SIM Membership Committee. It contains the committee's report regarding their 2021-2022 initiatives.
Dear SIM community,
We would like to share our report on the Membership Committee's activities over the past academic year (2021/2022). Supported by the SIM governance team, we were able to bring the community together via organising several virtual events and initiatives, as follows:
- Coffee & Cocktails: We organised four C&Cs (hosted by the Division Chair Katherina Pattit, Programme Chair Cristina Neesham, and PDW Chair Michelle Westermann-Behaylo) that aimed at building a sense of community and enhancing networking opportunities. One of the C&Cs featured a special keynote by Sandra Waddock. These events attracted SIM members (past and present), but also new members, members from other divisions, and potential future members.
- SIM NETworking: In collaboration with the Research Committee, we organised the second year of SIM NETworking and the "Reconnection", a mentoring initiative linking PhD students, junior faculty, and mid-career faculty with senior faculty mentors.
- Panel discussion on navigating the academic job market: In collaboration with the Doctoral Consortium and Junior Faculty Consortium committees, we once again organised a well-attended panel discussion with faculty representatives who were recently hiring and those who were recently hired.
- SIM Speed Networking: Working with Division Representative-at-Large Pushpika Vishwanathan (and on behalf of the Research Committee), Sarah Stephen co-organised the return of the famed Annual Meeting PDW, albeit in hybrid mode.
We also catalysed the creation of
SIM Sandbox Initiative, the innovation of Kevin Chuah, Bram van der Kroft, & David Skandera. This initiative offers paper development workshops and paper presentation workshops for early career researchers.
For the AoM annual meeting week, we encouraged the community organising off-programme events and circulated the events eventually submitted to us (e.g., Socialise, Smile and Support organised by Prem Menghwar).
Contributions: We believe that these online and onsite events contribute to the division becoming more accessible and inclusive. Our events have generally been open to everyone – current members, members of other divisions, and non-members. It has brought together scholars from around the world and has offered an opportunity to meet (in most cases, virtually) other scholars and develop networks and collaborations.
We also hope that through these events, the academic community has gained a clearer understanding of the division - notably, it's values, sense of community, and availability of a fertile ground for growing as a scholar.
Moreover, we are encouraging and facilitating the SIMians in organising more professional development and networking events for the community.
Next steps: On the whole, we have received encouraging feedback from the SIM community and participants of our events. For instance, participants of NETworking and attendees at the job market panel discussion have overwhelmingly indicated that they would like more such events.
Our events are also generally well-attended. Our statistics indicate that at least 50% of those who RSVP-ed to these events eventually attended, which seems above average (the average attendance rate apparently is lower).
Overall, the feedback, both formal and informal, and the attendance statistics suggests that the academic community likes to experience more of the SIM division – that they would appreciate a presence of the SIM division not only in January and July/August, but also throughout the year. This observation comes with a caveat - we have been observing that online meetings are on the decline as many are simply "Zoom fatigued". In consequence, our aim is to continue organising events and initiatives, keeping in mind the tensions generated by "Zoom fatigue" and the need to maintain (and, hopefully, increase) the inclusivity, accessibility, and cohesivity of the division. We are looking forward to collaborating with other committees, as well as with the SIMian community. We would particularly love to see more off-programme events and those of relevance to the academic life – such as those organised via SIM Sandbox. If you have ideas or if you would like to assist, please reach out to us!
We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the SIM governance team and committees for all the support. We are also grateful to the many scholars who dedicated precious hours - either by serving or by attending these events and initiatives.
We hope we can all continue contributing towards making the division a supportive and unparalleled home for the community!
Best regards,
Frank de Bakker (IESEG Lille), Sebastian Hafenbrädl (IESE Barcelona), & Sarah Stephen (U. St.Gallen)
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David Skandera
University of Central Florida
Orlando FL
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