Creating the Los Alamos Postdoctoral Association (LAPA)

Official New LAPA Website!!!

2006-06-01T13:43:00.000-06:00

You can find the official new LAPA website here!!!

On the website you can find more details concerning the committees and LAPA in general. The site is in its early stages so look for new information that I will put up as I find time!!!

The rest of the pictures!

2006-06-01T10:41:00.000-06:00

Here are the rest of the pictures:

The First Postdoc Night was a great success!!!

2006-06-01T10:06:00.000-06:00

Last night was the first of what will be many Postdoc Nights at the Central Avenue Grill (Every 3rd Wednesday of the Month). There was a good turnout and a lot of socializing.

In addition to people making new friends while having some discounted drinks, there were 10 new sign-ups for the Policy, Communication, Social and Conversion Committees!!! All of which will be having meetings in the next couple of weeks before the next General Assembly meeting which will be at the Canyon School Rm. 160 at 4 PM.

It will be some exciting times as we get our Los Alamos Postdoctoral Association started and we hope that you can all keep coming out and contributing!!!

If you have any suggestions as to how to make the Postdoc Night better, please email Michael Demkowicz, the acting Social Committee Chairperson, and let him know how!

Here are some pictures from the first Postdoc Night:

First Postdoc Night at the Grill!!!!

2006-05-22T11:52:00.000-06:00

The first Postdoc Night will be held Wednesday, May 31st at the Central Avenue Grill. The event will be held in the back room of the Grill where discounted drinks will be served from 5:30-8:30.

The Postdoc Night will be a regular event. After the first Postdoc Night on May 31st, the event will be held on the 3rd Wednesday of every month!!!!

So come join us on Wednseday, May 31st for the first Postdoc Night and bring a Postdoc friend!!!!

LAPA Meeting Summary, 05/18/06

2006-05-22T11:32:00.000-06:00

LANL-PDA Meeting Agenda (May 18, 2006)

Opening

Attendance Sheet (name and email)
Introduction

Old Business: History

March 2006: 15 Postdocs invited to meet w/ Anastasio
4 Postdocs continued meeting/planning
Formation of LANL-PDA announced in April 2006

New Business: Draft Structure of LANL-PDA

General Assembly

Membership: All Postdocs

members in “good standing” (voting)

Committees: Chairpersons (Acting)

Executive Committee

Social Committee

Conversion Committee

Communications Committee

Policy Committee

Sign-up for Committees after meeting

Chair (acting) will organize meetings within a week

Description of Committee Plans by Chairpersons (acting)
Questions and Comments

Adjournment

Meeting Summary

Introduction: Jason Stairs (C-PCS) opened the meeting by giving an overview of the recent events leading to the formation of a postdoc association at LANL. He introduced Mary Anne With (Postdoctoral Program Leader), Mike Demkowicz (MST-8), Nate Mara (MST-CINT), and Fran Stephens (C-SIC). These five have had several small brainstorming sessions where preliminary ideas were generated for a postdoc association (PDA).

Tentative PDA structure: A PDA structure was proposed, but may be amended by the Policy Committee (see below).

Executive Committee --> General Assembly (all LANL postdocs)
General Assembly --> 4 committees

Discussion of committees: Four committees were proposed: Social, Conversion (Careers), Communications, and Policy. The topics discussed for each committee are listed below. Each acting committee chair will convene a meeting of their committee during the next few weeks to discuss relevant topics and to form a plan.

Social Committee: contact Mike Demkowicz (mailto:demkowicz@lanl.gov)

Goals:

- Improve postdoc-to-postdoc “face time”

- Foster a postdoc community

Tasks:

- Division representatives pass info on “community events” (e.g. MSTea; C division postdoc seminar series) to Social Committee chair. Committee chair will forward info to Mary Anne With (MAW), who will then forward to postdoc@lanl.gov.

- Social events scheduled for 3^rd Wednesday of each month. Los Alamos events will be at Central Avenue Grill (5:30 – 8 pm) and will feature Happy Hour prices on beverages. Santa Fe events TBD.

- Committee will eventually take charge for other social events that MAW had previously planned (e.g. pizza at Fuller lodge, postdoc picnic).

Suggestions from meeting attendees:

- We must find a way to better advertise events. Postdoc attendance is low at recent events.

- Pizza/refreshments at ALL meetings to help attendance.

Interested members:

Michael Demkowicz demkowicz@lanl.gov MST-8

Nathan Mara namara@lanl.gov MST-CINT

Laura Stonehill lauracs@lanl.gov P-23

Nenad Velisavljeviz nenad@lanl.gov DX-2

Conversion Committee: contact Nate Mara (mailto:namara@lanl.gov)

Goals:

- Clarify postdoc-to-TSM conversion process for postdocs career prep and for LANL admins hiring purposes

Tasks:

- Identify recently converted TSMs who would provide a 1 or 2 page description of their experience

- Roundtable or panel discussions of recently converted TSMs

- Prepare pamphlet describing the “roadmap” to conversion at LANL

Suggestions:

- Put pamphlet in new postdoc info package

- Identify new TSMs who would volunteer for 1-on-1 mtgs, mentoring

- Determine how transition from UC to LANS will effect postdocs

- Rename committee “Careers Committee”

- This committee may become an avenue to interface with the division and directorate administration

- Get input from division and group leaders to “hear their side of the story” on conversion process

- Compile statistics on conversion. Put info on PDA web page.

- Sell a book of postdoc resumes to companies.

Interested members:

Nathan Maranamara@lanl.govMST-CINT

Michael Demkowiczdemkowicz@lanl.govMST-8

Alicia Garcia-Lopezacgl@lanl.govB-3

Joseph Hickey jhickey@lanl.govB-3

Communications Committee: contact Jason Stairs (mailto:jstairs@lanl.gov)

Goals:

- Advertise social events, professional events

- Maintain PDA website, blog

Tasks:

- Design and maintain website

- Publicity

- Develop calendar of events (including upcoming PDA and non-PDA events)

Suggestions:

- Develop a monthly(?) postdoc orientation meeting. Or piggyback on other existing orientation meetings by sending a PDA ambassador.

- Develop info to include in postdoc offer package

- Task division representatives to meet new hires in their division (e.g. bring the new hire to the next social)

Interested members:

Jason Stairjstairs@lanl.govC-PCS

Alicia Garcia-Lopez acgl@lanl.govB-3

Fran Stephens fhs@lanl.govC-SIC

Policy Committee: contact Fran Stephens (mailto:fhs@lanl.gov)

Goals:

- Give structure to PDA, thereby giving PDA strength and focus to deal with administration

- Define internal PDA structure, thereby making PDA an efficient, effective, and fair representative of the postdoc community at large

Tasks:

- Define executive board or other PDA “management”

- Define by-laws

- Write mission statement

- Create a public image for the PDA (e.g. logo w/ help of Communications Committee)

- Draft a preliminary budget

Suggestions:

- After structure is defined, meet less frequently (i.e. 1x/year) to amend by-laws as needed

- Get administrative “blessing” from Anastasio for PDA. Some postdocs are reluctant to get involved in new PDA because they’re afraid their PIs will view it as “skipping work.” MAW will send now to all PIs. Policy committee will send mission statement to Anastasio to get his endorsement.

- Change name of PDA to LAPA (Los Alamos Postdoc Association) or PAL (Postdoc Association of LANL).

Interested members:

Fran Stephens fhs@lanl.gov C-SIC

Jackie Veauthier veauthier@lanl.gov C-SIC

Rod Fry rfry@lanl.gov C-SIC

Joseph Hickey jhickey@lanl.gov B-3

Jason Stairs jstairs@lanl.gov C-PCS

Laura Stonehill lauracs@lanl.gov P-23

Nenad Velisavljeviz nenad@lanl.gov DX-2

General Meeting

2006-05-16T08:05:00.000-06:00

There will be a meeting this Thursday, May 18th at 3 PM in Canyon School - Room 160.

The formation of a LANL-PDA will be discussed along with some of our first initiatives. So please come to share your thoughts and bring other PostDocs that might be interested.

Welcome Postdocs New to this Site

2006-05-02T16:27:00.000-06:00

Mary Anne will be emailing a link to this page to the list of postdocs interested in starting a PDA at LANL. So, if this is your first time to this site, welcome!

My hopes are that we can use this as a forum to share ideas concerning the formation of a PDA and then eventually as a forum to help us operate our PDA once it is formed.

In order to join this site (free of course), so that you may be able to make posts to the site, email me about your interest. Then I can send an invitation to you. Once you sign up through the invitation, you will be able to share your ideas with other postdocs interested in creating a LANL PDA. In addition you can make comments to other people's posts by clicking on the word "comments" at the bottom of individual posts.

If you have any questions concerning any of this, feel free to email me.

PDA formation update...

2006-05-02T15:41:00.000-06:00

Recently, Mary Anne With met with a handful of postdocs for ideas to move forward with the formation of a PDA. It was decided that rather than be overly concerned at this time with the details of the organization, ie., bylaws, constitution, etc., it would be better to bring postdocs together in more social environments in order to plant the seeds of a community. Once a group of interested people begin to come together, then we can work on the details of organization.

Along those lines, three ideas for the start of a community were presented and steps for the path forward were initiated:

1) It seems that a number of divisions, if not each division, each have their own postdoc events, for example, the "Tea and Cookies" seminar of MST and the Postdoc Seminar Series of C-division. In order to facilitate postdoctoral interdivisional communication through the LANL infrastructure, it would be beneficial if all LANL postdocs were informed of the divisional postdoc events. This would not only increase communication and knowledge of diverse postdoc activities at the lab, but also help increase the attendance at these too often poorly attended events.

After the pizza party social at Fuller Lodge, a list of interested postdocs contacted Mary Anne to inform her of their interest in forming a PDA. From this list, Mary Anne will choose representatives from the different divisions to email her when a postdoc event is scheduled to occur. Mary Anne will then distribute the information to the LANL postdoc listserv.

2) Conversion to TSM is an issue that most postdocs think about at some point during their postdoctoral time at LANL. It is also an issue that has the potential to be a huge mystery. In order to alleviate some of that mystery, our (as of now) loosely affiliated PDA will gather information from recently converted postdocs (RCPs) as well as postdocs presently going through the experience. We will ask each of these RCPs to write a short summary of their experience which we will collect into booklet form and make available in electronic format on the web. In addition, we will invite some of the RCPs to sit in at a Roundtable discussion where interested postdocs can come ask questions about the conversion process. We may also institute a RCP seminar series where RCPs can share their stories with a live audience.

In order to move forward with this item, we need RCPs who are willing to work with us. Therefore, if you know of anyone that has been recently converted, or is in the process of conversion, ask them if they would provide us with a short 1 or 2 page summary of their experience, and whether or not they would be willing to participate in the Roundtable Discussion and/or seminar series. As you find people willing to participate, forward their names and information onto Mary Anne, for now, until we have our own organized infrastructure (PDA) for dealing with such details.

3) The final idea is one that has been mentioned here previously. Postdoc night at the Central Avenue Grill. Mary Anne will be talking to the owner of the grill who has expressed interest in the past of "reviving our scientific community" with a monthly postdoc night (possibly offering reduced prices on wine and beer). We are considering the third Thursday of every month, but are open to suggestions.

Mary Anne is contacting the owner of the Grill to begin working out the details.

If you were not present at the meeting where these ideas were discussed, please use this forum to share with everyone your thoughts about these three ideas, or to present any additional ideas you might have by making a comment to this post.

We are planning on having another meeting next week where the entire list of postdocs interested in starting a PDA will be invited. The list presently contains the names of 21 postdocs. If you know of other postdocs that would be interested in becoming involved through the formation of a PDA so that we can move forward with ideas like the ones above as well any you might have, then bring them with you to the meeting and we can start to make being a postdoc at LANL about more than just work.

The meeting will cover the first steps to forming a PDA. If you plan on bringing additional postdocs email Mary Anne so that she will be able to schedule a room to accommodate everyone. The time and place of the meeting will be posted here (as well as emailed) so check back.

UPDATE: The general meeting concerning the formation of the PDA will be held toward the end of next week, instead of this week. When a date, time and place are set, you will most likely receive emails, if you are on Mary Anne's list, and I will post the information here in a new post.

AAAS Meeting, Feb 07

2006-04-28T08:51:00.000-06:00

I mentioned to a few of you yesterday...

The 2007 AAAS meeting will be in San Francisco and will focus on sustainability. They're now soliciting abstracts, and those selected will present to a general audience.

AAAS Annual Meeting

Grill Update

2006-04-15T11:06:00.000-06:00

The other day I was hosting a speaker, Prof. Steve George from U. of Colorado, as part of the C-Division Postdoc Seminar Series (which I must point out, no postdocs showed up for) so I took him to lunch at the Central Avenue Gril (next to Starbucks). I realized at that point that I may have confused people in a previous post where I called it the Canyon Street Grill (which is a very different place next to Pizza Hut) and said we should have a postdoc night there.

So I have made the correction and think we could/should have a postdoc night at the Central Avenue Grill.

While my guest and I were at lunch, I met the owner of the Grill, Min (sp?), and he said he would be very excited to work with us in setting up postdoc social nights at the Central Avenue Grill and that we need to "revitalize this scientific community!"

So, now I ask you, what are your thoughts about it? What nights should we do it...for example, the third Wednesday of the month...? Do you think people would come? Is it worth it? Should we do it now, or in a little while from now?

Once we start to get a plan together we can talk to Min and set it up so share your thoughts on the subject.

Accepting the Offer Letters???

2006-04-13T10:19:00.000-06:00

I know there has been a lot of back and forth about this whenever we have gotten together, but does someone out there have a clear idea of what the best deal is for postdocs?

TCP1 or TCP2????

1 page LANL description

2006-04-12T14:08:00.000-06:00

I had my 18-month meeting with the Chemistry deputy division leader yesterday. Kim Thomas and I got talking about general PD concerns, and she made what I think is an interesting suggestion.

We should, with admin help, put together a 1 page description of LANL. This should include a description of how things work at LANL. It could be given to incoming PDs or interviewees. And, IMPORTANTLY, it could go along to potential employers with the letters of recommendation that our current advisors write.

This is similar to form letters that high schools may send to colleges describing their GPA system or that 80% of students there have scored 1550 on their SATs. It puts accomplishments in context.

Post-doc night at the Grill???

2006-04-10T09:35:00.000-06:00

In talking to Mary Anne at the end of the social at Fuller Lodge, I asked her about the possibility of having a social where we "take over" a place like the TBC or Central Avenue Grill (next to Starbucks). She told me that the person that owns the Grill is a scientist who has had post-docs in the past and is very willing to work with us. Actually, he has already told Mary Anne that he would be willing to do something where, for example, every 3rd Wednesday of the month could be "Post-Doc Night" with discounts on Wine and Beer.

I thought that something like this would start to bring post-docs together in a social situation that would help us get to know each other and create relationships that could help in the formation of a PDA. And it could be fun as well.

Let me know what you think about this idea and we could start talking to Mary Anne about it. Along with the "conversion seminars" that Mike thought of (described in the post below) this would be something that we could do in order to get the ball rolling.

If anyone else has any ideas of things that we could start now to make the post-doc experience at LANL better, you can post it here by emailing me so that I can send you the link to enable you to post your ideas here on this site (in addition to commenting on other people's posts).

I thought this could be useful

2006-04-06T20:10:00.000-06:00

Since meeting other post-docs at LANL my experience has been that much more interesting. Upon meeting other post-docs, it seemed to be a general consensus that it would be helpful to have a stronger central organization where post-docs could find information, meet others, network, be better represented at the lab during this time of transition and make their post-doc experience at LANL an overall greater experience.

A post-doctoral associtation would fill the role of this central organization and enable us as a group to do more than would be possible as individuals.

I had the idea of starting this web-site to help us share ideas for this effort. It may or may not work for such a project. It may or may not turn into something useful and only time will tell. However, the way I figured it would work is this:

If you are a post-doc at LANL and would like to be able to post your thoughts on this site concerning the formation of a Post-Doctoral Association, email me with your name and a working email address so that I can send you an invitation to join this page. Once you have accepted the invitation and signed up (for free) at www.blogger.com, you will be able to post on this site. In addition to posting, it is possible for others to give feedback by reading your post and making a comment. Presently, anyone (including anonymous) can comment on this page. We will see how that works. If people abuse it, then I will change it so that you must first sign up at blogger.com and therefore have your name attached to the comment.

In addition to being able to post and comment on the site, there are other features such as profiles that can be filled out and linked to on the site so that people can get to know each other better, as well as email alerts that you can sign up for so that whenever a post or comment is made on this page, it will be sent to your email inbox of you choice. However, to get started, let's just begin with the posting and commenting and see where it goes from there.

So again, if you would like to be enabled to post your thoughts and/or ideas on this site, email me letting me know where to send your invitation and we will see where it goes from there.

To start, comment to this post and let me know if you think this will be helpful or not and let me know if you have any other ideas of how to make this site better serve our needs.