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This is the time of the semester where students and faculty
alike are frequently seen walking around college campuses with expressions
ranging from mild panic to steely-eyed determination (and maybe even some
nervous tics). Projects need to be
assigned and completed; exams are to be written, and taken, and graded. There is so much to be done, and not much
time before Thanksgiving to do it… and of course, barely any time passes after
Thanksgiving before it’s final exam time.
With those thoughts in mind, and a few facial expressions of
my own, I am extremely glad and pleased for the two teleconferences we’ve had
this week with our Affiliate Directors and Advisory Board members. (Incidentally, I am pleased to welcome Kelly
Orr, and Angela Diaz, to the INSGC Advisory Board. Kelly works at Catepillar; Angela is at
Purdue’s Global Policy Research Institute.
Some of you may recognize Angela’s name from her time at NASA
Headquarters, including a stint in the Office of Education. She has an intimate knowledge of, and
longstanding history with, Space Grant.)
Even with the increasing intensity of the semester, we had nearly all of
our 18 Academic Affiliates deeply engaged in the Friday teleconference. This is in addition to the Wednesday
conference, focused on the 10 Outreach Affiliates. (Though a couple of Outreach folks missed
Wednesday due to conflicts, they did call in on Friday.) In itself, this is fairly remarkable. Over 80% of our affiliates were dialed in to
participate in the work of the Consortium, and made sure that Angie, Dawn and I
were busy with notepads from all the great comments brought to the
discussion. I am also highly encouraged
by the collaborative and generative style of the discussions as we did
something that, like laws and sausage, usually should not really be seen up
close. We were organizing strategies for
our INSGC proposal submissions.
Near the end of October, NASA announced a Cooperative
Agreement Notice (“CAN”) for Space Grant Consortia to propose projects in two
areas: Undergraduate STEM Education, and Effective K-12 STEM Teacher Education. Each
Consortium is allowed to submit at most two proposals, and the proposals must
be kept strictly separate. This is not
why we had two teleconferences—we moved to that model several years ago, when
we realized that too large a group, with too disparate a set of interests and
challenges, was not a recipe for an effective meeting. But it just so happens that the two project
areas linked well to both segments of our Affiliate interests—INSGC mission
emphases on Engage, and Educate, based on Inspiration, and working towards
Employment (as STEM workforce, or STEM educators). Both teleconference sessions worked well,
bringing together people who had very valuable suggestions and insights based
on their varied experience. I never
heard “my way or the highway” or “not invented here” statements; not only was
there clear synergy between the comments, but also a recognition that the
different affiliates have a diversity of capability and focus that is one of
our strengths.
It was especially helpful when it was suggested that we
incorporate… hold on. I may be tired, but I’m not that
foolish. We’re not going to discuss the
proposal details in the blog. But I will
brag on the quality of the Affiliate Directors and the strong involvement that
is supporting these proposals. Yes, it’s
crunch time, with two large proposals due in mid-December. (Wow.
Could it be true that I actually have three additional grant proposals
due before the Space Grant CAN deadline? ) Well, maybe just a little bit of sleep might
be a good thing…
