Reconstituting the MRS Leadership
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Letter from the President
Reconstituting the MRS Leadership The Materials Research Society was founded in May 1973 and has undergone many changes in the 29 years of its existence. It has grown from a small group, holding a then-radical commitment to interdisciplinary research, to a large organization with numerous programs, still very committed to now nearly mainstream interdisciplinary research. The Society has grown in complexity, in its membership, and in its impact, all in an environment of change. The many successes that MRS has seen over the years have been the result of the work of individual volunteers and dedicated staff members who have taken on projects and driven them to completion. The leadership, or governance, of MRS has also changed over the years in response to the changing nature of the organization. In the early days, almost every member of the Society was engaged in volunteer leadership work, simply because the organization was so small. Now, only a small fraction of the membership is directly involved, although the efforts of the various MRS committees certainly have an impact on all members. The highest level of governance within MRS is the Council, which includes the officers and 15 elected Councillors. This group has responsibility to oversee the MRS budget and programs, determine what new projects the Society will pursue, and what old ones it will terminate. In recent years, the Council and its Executive Committee have (like those of many other organizations) become increasingly focused on short-term issues and smallscale decisions, having been forced to respond to short-term exigencies. With the help of expert advice on nonprofit organizations, we have now decided to make some deliberate changes in the operation of the Council in order to allow it to focus on more strategic, or longrange, issues while ensuring that our standing committees are appropriately empowered to act on behalf of the Society without waiting for the Council to meet. The proposed changes call for revisions to the MRS Constitution, and this requires the approval of the entire membership via a paper ballot. You will be receiving the ballot in the mail, early in June. I urge you to consider the issues carefully, and vote accordingly, by the deadline of July 12.
For more info on MRS BULLETIN/MAY 2002
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“MRS will continue to be strategic, responsive, and world-leading in all of its ventures.”
The major changes are as follows: The Council will be converted to a Board of Directors, in name and operation, reflecting a focus on long-range strategic issues rather than “advise and consent” on matters that the committees are fully competent to handle. ■ The operating committees, such as the Program and Membership Committees, will be empowered to a greater degree than before and will be encouraged to take initiative in realizing the goals set by the Board of Directors. ■ The Executive Committee will no longer exist, so there will be no single, small group of individuals burdened with (or having the ability to control) short-te
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