SAS is Moving!

Great news! The citizen scientist universe is about to have a new center.

On June 1, the Society for Amateur Scientists will move to Aurora, Illinois—a suburb of Chicago. That's when I will take over as the new Executive Director of the SciTech Hands-On Science Museum. That's right. SAS is combining forces with a major science and technology center in the greater Chicago area to advance citizen science and science education for everyone.

This is the next logical step in the evolution of the citizen scientist movement.

Forrest Mims once proposed that everyone who enters a science and technology center should have the opportunity to do real science. In other words, Forrest argued that everyone who enters a science and technology center should have the opportunity to become a citizen scientist. I think he's absolutely right. And I am very happy to tell you that Forrest's vision is about to become the new mission at SciTech. This new focus on citizen science means great new opportunities for citizen science outreach.

My taking this position means lots of great things. First, the move will give the citizen scientist community a new brick-and-mortar structure to serve as its base of operations. From now on we'll have a great central location for our members to gather each year for our annual conferences. It will also give many of you a place to teach and to share your expertise with the next generation. If you've got your own books or science kits to sell, or if you want to get young people involved in an appropriate research project that you are working on, the SciTech Hands-On Science Museum could become a great resource for you. And there will be more benefits besides!

But much more than that, my new position will greatly expand our educational outreach. Labrats had always been envisioned as a program that would be delivered through science and technology centers into the surrounding communities. With that in mind, Labrats could not have been developed completely outside of these centers. The original plan was to develop Labrats in close collaboration with an S&T center. But that would leave the program vulnerable. After all, the science center could decide to reallocate its resources at any time. So if Labrats proved to be more difficult to develop than we anticipated, we could suddenly find ourselves out in the cold. However, if I am the Executive Director of a science center and I have a mandate from the Board to make that center the springboard for the new program, nothing can stop us.

So this is a very logical step. Now, we'll be able to develop Labrats from inside the science and technology center community. We'll be able to expand our initial pilot program almost immediately upon my arrival there. Aurora has roughly equal numbers of African Americans, Latinos and Caucasians. This summer we'll be able to get kids involved in Labrats from all of these different communities. This will enable us to develop the program so that it fits the needs of all Americans.

Moreover, when we're ready, we'll be able to implement the full vision of the program—in which the science and technology center acts as the central nexus by supporting Labrats groups in community centers near where the kids live. From that experience, we'll learn how to replicate the program in science and technology centers all over the world. Ultimately, this opportunity could lead to the realization of the complete vision of the program—with many thousands of Labrats kids around major science and technology centers all over the country.

And now the bad news. With all these changes happening this summer, I have decided to cancel this year's annual Citizen Scientist Conference. There really is no choice here. I have to sell my house and move my family to Chicago, take the reigns of this new organization and work to win the confidence of the staff there. I am not going to risk losing your confidence by taking on more work than I can do well. But we will most definitely have our conference next summer at the SciTech Hands-On Science Museum in Aurora, Illinois!

As always, I appreciate your continued support as we move forwards in our mission to advance citizen science for all ages.

Yours for great science,

Shawn Carlson, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Society for Amateur Scientists

PPS: It's time to get involved! Participate in the SAS Citizen Scientist Community Network . This exclusive service is FREE to SAS members. Need to sign up? Do so now at http://community.sas.org/new_member.php