Friday, May 6, 2011

Goals for 2011


We would like to share with you guys what our goals our for the year: 


1.      Hold our annual SIG meeting at the annual conference in Denver.


2.     Increased communication and involvement with the conference planning committee.  We would like to ensure that events developed for students and new investigators are advertised and promoted effectively to this group of people.  We have been in communication with Cindy Gross and Karen Sousa and have volunteered to be on the conference planning committee.


Update - Roxanne and Bellinda are on the Local Arrangements sub-committee for Denver


3.      Submit a workshop proposal focusing on career development.  Based on the feedback we received from SIG members at the London ISOQOL conference we are developing a workshop submission for Denver that will focus on professional development.  The workshop will address basic skills that every good academic needs to get a job--putting together a CV, giving a good job talk (or, more generically, a good presentation), and interviewing well.  Carolyn Gotay has offered to lead this workshop; Representatives from academia, industry and consulting have also offered to provide additional information on job opportunities.  We have put together a group of SIG volunteers to draft our proposal and are on track to submit it by the end of February.
           
Update - Workshop proposal was submitted and we are waiting to hear if it has been accepted.


4.      Submit a proposal for a symposium panel at this years conference, highlighting career paths and opportunities in quality-of-life research. The panel will consist of 4 ISOQOL leaders to talk about how they first got involved in QOL research, what the future holds for QOL research, and advice they have for people getting into the field today. We are submitting a proposal that the panel be included as part of the conference schedule, rather than hosting it during our SIG meeting, because we think that it would appeal to a broader group than just new investigators.  We currently have a group of SIG volunteers helping to develop our proposal, and Albert Wu, Mirjam Sprangers, Cindy Lam and Madeline King have agreed to be panel members.


Update - we're almost ready to submit and will keep you posted on it's success


5.      Hold SIG Elections.  We will work with Rebecca Brandt to run our first online election of a new Co-Chair this summer. (Roxanne Jensen’s 2-year term is up at the end of this year.)


6.      Hold a meet-and-great for new investigators.  This will be done outside the hotel at a local, nearby location.  We will hold it the same day as the SIG meeting, and will use this type of event to encourage people to get to know each other and talk about their research and quality-of-life research in general. ISOQOL has been gracious enough to earmark funds toward this event.


If you have suggestions for goals for 2012 we'd love to hear them!