The EARA Student and Early Career Network (formerly: student union) Meeting in Torino, Italy, May 2008


Minutes of the meeting
by Irene de Goede

1. Welcome
Peter Titzmann (student representative) opens the meeting and welcomes members, other interested students, (former) student representatives of EARA and SRA, Peter Noack (EARA president), and Inge Seiffge-Krenke (forthcoming EARA president).

2. The EARA student union: Aims and membership
Several students mention that the procedure of becoming a member is currently unclear. The advantages and the disadvantages of the current system are discussed and the current procedure is explained. The membership procedure is as follows: first you become a student member of EARA, and then you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to join the student union and whether or not you want your research description on the website. It is necessary to register twice, once with EARA and once with the EARA student union, because the student union is an independent organization founded by students and is not an official organ of the mother organization of EARA. Also, with this procedure we ensure that all members of the EARA student union are also official student members of EARA. This is practical, because otherwise we would have two lists of student members (the EARA student union members and the EARA student members), which would make it confusing when organizing activities or addressing students. It is mentioned that the link on the website to e-mail the application form sometimes does not work. This issue will be checked by the webmaster. Furthermore, Peter Titzmann and Irene de Goede (deputy student representative) tell about the activities they organized for this conference and their plans for the next two years, which involves a more interactive website and trying to reach more students, especially from Eastern Europe.

3. EARA Summer school 2008
Inge Seiffge-Krenke (senior researcher at summer school) and several student participants of the summer school tell about their experiences at the summer school. They feel this was a very interesting opportunity and the students are very enthusiastic about the summer school. However, the students would like to have had more time to discuss with the senior researchers and they suggest that next time the tutor sessions could be scheduled differently, with more students in one group and more time to discuss.

4. EARA and SRA cooperation on the level of students
Laura Wray-Lake (deputy student representative SRA) tells about her experiences in the SRA student union and the importance of exchange between students of SRA and EARA.

5. EARA student union website
Suggestions for the future website are discussed. It is mentioned that it would be nice to have a more interactive website in which students could add news messages and other information themselves.

6. Introduction of the new candidates
The new candidates for deputy student representative and webmaster introduce themselves. Jenny Symonds from Cambridge University is candidate for deputy student representative. Jenny tells that she would like to be involved in the student union and that she would like to support Irene for the next two years in running the activities of the student union and conducting new plans regarding the website and new members. Tina Kretschmer from Sussex University is the new candidate for the position of webmaster. Tina tells that she heard from Poldi Kuhl about the webmaster post and that she would like to work on the website and continue Poldi’s work.
The next EARA conference will take place in Lithuania and Vilmante Pakalniskiene will be the new student conference organizer. If she will not be able to be student organizer until the conference in 2010, she will by then look for someone else from Lithuania.

7. Elections
We have a vote by hand. Both Jenny and Tina are elected and will be the next deputy student representative (2008-2012) and webmaster. 

8. Suggestions, questions and discussion on our future developments
In this part of the meeting a discussion takes place about where to go with the EARA student union. It is mentioned that there should be more visibility of the student union at the website, at the EARA conference, and at other conferences. Other issues mentioned are to improve the website, to maintain better communication with EARA, and to write a newsletter (by e-mail) and send it also to non-members in order to keep reaching them and to encourage them to become a member. It is also suggested to open the student union to young scholars and form some kind of EARA student and young scholars union. It should be clearer who is included in the union and what the identity of the union is.
Next, we discuss what our organization could provide for its members. The first suggestion is to install a mentor award as student union activity to acknowledge the importance of mentors for students. Others suggest activities like workshops for students and young scholars on topics like early career, academic writing, the publication process, feedback of editors to young scholars, and grant writing. With respect to communication between students and young scholars, suggestions are a social event for European and American students to interact, an EARA/SRA group on for example facebook, and some wiki application at the student union website. Other possibilities resulting from this discussion are a searchable database or directory with keywords on our website, a meet the scientist lunch for students and young scholars to meet senior scholars, and “student stay with student” during the conference to spare money. It is suggested that we could organize activities to support students from low-income countries and inform them about funding possibilities. With respect to the format for elections, it is suggested to have online elections, to ensure that everyone in the union is represented in the voting process.

9. Miscellaneous