Megan Damico – PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

As a co-founder of Spartans for Science and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, my group faced numerous challenges when we first began and continue to face as the group moves forward including:

1. Membership retention and participation
2. University support (financial and morale)
3. Lack of resources to understand science policy topics 

NSPN played a critical role in helping my group become more established by alerting us of new ways to become more involved. I found that the best way to overcome issues with university support or even support from your academic advisor is to show the results of your involvement. So far, my group has teamed up with other North Carolina science policy groups to organize events and become more active on Twitter to  grab more attention from administration and faculty as to what we do. The simple act of tagging our university on social media to brag about the fun activities we’ve been doing has helped promote our work and grow support for our group’s mission. 

To spark interest at your university, hosting events with outcomes that would be helpful for student’s careers could be a way to draw more members into your science policy group. Take for example, a workshop on how-to write an op-ed with a guest speaker who could guide the group through the writing process. The workshop would not only benefit members of your group, but also allow for other students to learn a new communication style for their CV and have the opportunity to publish something in their community.

Membership participation might be a struggle for some groups, but not all. Advertising at your university is key and finding the best platform for this will be specific to your group. It’s also worth mentioning that smaller groups can grow their network by reaching out to nearby science policy groups in your NSPN region to collaborate on projects! 

In addition to having membership retention problems, many of my group’s members, including myself, were new to science policy all together and lacked the foundational information to understand science policy as a whole field. This resource guide will be an essential piece to helping new members in my group become familiar with the language barriers in science policy. As many of us graduates students are in STEM, we already have to worry about the jargon that comes with our respective fields, but this guide can provide new science policy advocates with the tools to understand the basics of science policy and use it as a launchpad to pursue different topics of interest.

• This resource would not be complete without discussing the innovative and creative ways science policy groups have overcome their challenges. Here are some solutions science policy groups have used to tackle these problems:

Membership retention and growth

• Smaller meetings surrounding specific topics might help wrangle in straggling group members who cannot always make it to the large group meetings
•  Create leadership roles or subcommittee positions for members to stay involved in topics they’re directly interested in
• Craft a survey to give new members at the first meeting of the year to learn what topics, events, and skills group members want to learn more about

• To ensure that new group leaders and committee heads are well prepared, consider making a handbook of “how-tos”. Ranging from, “how-to create an event on the group website” to “how-to reserve a room for our meeting”. This handbook can serve as a living document that is easily passed down to new leadership as the group continues to grow
• If there are members of your group who are unfamiliar with the basics of science policy, host an event on SciPol 101. Breaking down the learning curve to science policy in small webinars/seminars allows for continued attendance and increased group morale!
• Host a science policy skill workshops (virtually or in-person) on topics like writing an op-ed, policy memo, white papers, or how-to communicate with a lawmaker on science topics

• Consider collaborating with science policy groups at different universities to craft an event
• Here’s a few ideas of events done by NSPN groups:
  • Virtual webinars on writing op-eds with workshop for participants to craft their own piece
  • Webinar lunch series on science policy topics 
  • Attend or plan virtual summits or conferences together with your group 
  • Host a happy hour!
  • Plan a virtual advocacy day with your local and state lawmakers
• If your group needs more resources to learn about science policy, 1) continue to use these modules to dive into the topic, and 2) check out NSPN’s comprehensive list of books, articles, conferences, and more!

If you are new to science policy and don’t know where to begin, start by exploring the National Science Policy Network Website to see the variety of ways you can become involved. The best way to get your group involved in new science policy activities is by working together with NSPN to write chapter microgrants or professional development funds. This will allow your group to explore events and activities specific to your region that can build your professional science policy repertoire. In addition to working remotely with NSPN on science policy projects, the NSPN National Conference is an excellent way to meet scipol enthusiasts from around the country. At these conferences, attendees are able to engage in critical thinking and professional development exercises with other science policy groups to tackle science policy related issues and solutions for them.