Mentor Match Initiative, 2022

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To foster diversity, equity and inclusion in the C. elegans research community, we propose a “mentor match” program to facilitate mentoring relationships for career development.

Rationale: Mentoring within the larger C. elegans community, in contrast to intra-institutional mentoring, provides an opportunity for mentees to gain from the collective experience of the community. The community already does this on an ad hoc basis, but a more open and accessible mentoring program is needed, especially for people who are members of underrepresented groups in our community.

(1) If you are willing to act as a MENTOR, please fill out this short (5 min) prospective MENTOR survey form by December 1.

·         The survey collects information that will help prospective mentees identify potential mentors and will help the mentor match committee make informed matches.

·         The survey includes a place for you to indicate your desired level of involvement.

·         Prospective mentor lists will be made public for prospective mentees to browse.

(2) If you or someone you know is NOT currently in academia and may be interested in acting as a mentor for worm people considering non-academic career paths, please add  their name and contact info here so that we can send them the prospective MENTOR survey.

(3) If you or someone you know is a retired lab head who may wish to act as a mentor, please put their name and contact info here so that we can send them the prospective MENTOR survey.

(4) Please forward this message to anyone you think may be interested in the program as a mentor or mentee. 

A MENTEE survey will be announced via Wormbase in December, as soon as the prospective mentors are in place.

For general logistics, instructions, and timeline for both prospective mentors and mentees( but please ignore out of date links on the wiki page and use the ones above).

With best wishes,

-The C. elegans community mentor match committee for 2022

WormBoard Election

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Dear Lab Heads, 

Please forward this email to everyone in your lab! 

Election of WormBoard members is occurring this year as described here: https://wiki.wormbase.org/index.php/WormBoard

Please go to this website:  https://forms.gle/BLGz9mhTmtxLD1vW6 and follow instructions to cast your ballot for the indicated representative slots. 

Each member of the worm community may cast one vote. 

Please forward this message to everyone in your group. 

Voting will close June 7 2021.  

Best wishes, 
Jane Hubbard (for the election committee)

Call for nominations for WormBoard

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To all in the C. elegans community (please forward to your lab members!),

This is a call for nominations to fill vacancies and turnover on Wormboard. Nominations must be received by March 1, 2021. The entire election procedure and the responsibilities of WormBoard can be found on the WormBase wiki.

Self-nominations are allowed. All nominations shall be accompanied by a short statement (200 words max) explaining why the nominator thinks the nominee would be a good choice to become a WormBoard representative. Please highlight relevant background, experience and qualifications, particularly as they relate to diversity efforts.

For the US representatives, nominations of faculty from HSIs (Hispanic serving institutions) and HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) are specifically encouraged. For the 2021 election, the USA nominee MUST be a faculty member at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution.

Please note that each and every nominee will be considered. The number of people who nominate a candidate will not improve their chances of being selected for the final election slate.

Please indicate your nomination(s) on this Google Form.

Many thanks, 

WormBoard election committee

——

Timeline for election: Elections will be held the first week of June in odd years starting 2021, before the International Worm meeting. 

  • February 1: call for nominations shall be sent out by the out-going president [this email]
  • March 1: deadline to return nominations 
  • March, April: slates for election to be drawn up
  • May 1: the slates shall be announced 
  • June 1-7: 1-week election period open to all community members 

Announcing the Mentor-Mentee matches for 2021

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With gratitude to all those who agreed to be mentors, and with thanks to the C. elegans Community Mentor Match program committee for 2020-2021, we announce the mentor-mentee matches for 2021. 

Read more about the program rollout.

Here’s a complete list of all 2021 Mentor-Mentee matches.

To those of you who offered to mentor but were not selected for a match this year, undoubtedly there will be opportunities in the future!! In the meantime, please stay tuned for these and other opportunities to serve the community. 

For those of you who did match, the committee plans to contact mentors and mentees mid-year to see how it is going. We will also solicit additional feedback to improve the program for the future. 

Best wishes, 

Jane

Mentor Match Program: Mentee Application Phase

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Thanks to the 88 people (!) who signed up as prospective mentors for the C. elegans Community Mentor Match Program for 2021. Here we announce the mentee phase of the program. For the 2021 match year, eligible mentees are postdocs or early career investigators. Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested. 

Consistent with the impetus for this program, prospective mentees who are members of historically underrepresented or marginalized groups will be prioritized for mentor matches. 

To be considered in the match, please fill out the survey before December 31.

The survey is designed to determine what is most important to you, the mentee, and to help the committee identify a good mentor match. Do not feel obligated to provide answers to questions that you are not comfortable providing. There is a “prefer not to say” option for many questions, as well as a specific question about the level of personal information sharing. 

The last page of the survey offers the option to indicate possible mentor choices and exclusions. Postdocs are encouraged to discuss mentor options with their advisors. If you opt not to suggest potential mentors, please skip to the bottom of that page of the survey to submit your survey response. Please refer to this list of the prospective mentors and their relevant career information.

The committee has collected additional information from prospective mentors that we will use, where necessary, to find a good match. While the committee will do its best to accommodate prospective mentor choices, we will work within the limits (time commitment, number of mentees, etc.) indicated by prospective mentors. 

The committee hopes to reach out to prospective mentors and confirm matches by the end of January. Once confirmed, all mentor-mentee matches will be posted on WormBase.

Please see the Mentor Match Program Description for additional details about the program including the mentor match committee members. All prospective mentors on our list have agreed to the guidelines stated on this link. 

Best wishes, 

Jane (for the mentor match committee)