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)

With thanks to Oliver Hobert, Judy Yanowitz, Brent Derry, and Barbara Conradt who generated a new proposal, and to the members of Wormboard who discussed and approved it, we propose changes to the Board (docx) as indicated here. These changes are now captured in the updated Wormboard Charter that includes a list of the responsibilities of WormBoard for serving the community.

The new board format allows for additional representation. A call for nominations will be sent out in the usual ways (LabHeads list, WormBase news/blog, social media).

In addition to these changes, WormBoard discussed the possibility of additional advisory groups made up of both C. elegans and non-C. elegans community members that could advise the board on  issues of relevance to particular career stages, diversity concerns, etc. Additional input on these ideas is welcome. Please email comments to me directly jane.hubbard@med.nyu.edu with “wormboard” in the subject line.

Many thanks,

Jane
(acting president of WormBoard)

PS: you can always find the latest WormBoard info on the WormBoard Home Page, in the WormBase News section, links from the WormBase Community tab, by following WormBase on Twitter, or simply by searching the web for “wormboard elegans”.

I am very happy to announce roll out of the C. elegans Community Mentor Match Program v1.0! Many thanks to the other members of the first year mentor match committee (Meera Sundaram, Bruce Wightman, Heather Bennett, Adelita Mendoza, Brent Derry, Sander van den Heuvel) and to WormBoard. 

Please see the Program Plan for updated logistics, instructions, and timeline for both prospective mentors and mentees.

Please also take 5 minutes now and do the following:

(1) If you are willing to act as a mentor, please fill out this short prospective MENTOR survey form. We would like to post the list of prospective mentors by Dec 1 for the January 2021 match.

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

Prospective mentor lists will be updated and made public on WormBase annually.

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

(2) If you or someone you know is NOT in academia and may be interested in acting as a mentor for worm people considering non-academic career paths, please put 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. Mentees should watch wormbase announcements. A MENTEE form will be announced in December, as soon as the prospective mentors are in place.

With best wishes,

Jane

(acting president of WormBoard)

PS: you can always find the latest WormBoard info on the WormBoard Home Page, in the WormBase News section, links from the WormBase Community tab, by following WormBase on Twitter, or simply by searching the web for “wormboard elegans”.

A new report from WormBoard to the C. elegans community is now available. Following up on WormBoard’s July 2020 message, the August 31, 2020 report addresses the recent community climate survey, details plans for a C. elegans community Mentor Match program, lists opportunities for undergraduate research, and more. You can read the full report on the WormBase Wiki.