President's Message
Patrick M. Markey
Patrick M. Markey
What a great year for SITAR! In May, Debbie Moskowitz hosted our 15th annual conference in Montreal. This was easily one of the largest meetings for our society with 24 talks, 27 posters, and two wonderful keynote presentations from Jennifer Bartz and Mark Baldwin. Topics covered were broad and ranged from interpersonal styles of bullying to the neuroscience of affiliation. I always feel excited after hearing these talks (and even a bit jealous at the great ideas my colleagues come up with). With these yearly meetings allowing me to socialize with so many interpersonal researchers, I am reminded how important SITAR is to me both personally and professionally. On a related note, I would like to thank Emily Ansell (our new President) for serving as program chair. With the high number of presentations this year, her job was especially difficult and I appreciate all of her hard work.
During our meeting, Chris Hopwood and Nicole Cain were nominated to run for the position of Vice President. You should be receiving their candidate statements and have a chance to vote for one of these candidates within the next month. Additionally, Johannes Zimmermann has agreed to fill the vacant Member-at-Large position on the Executive Council once Chris or Nicole assumes the position of Vice President.
This past year also brought an update to the SITAR webpage (www.sitarsociety.org). I suggest you stop by and check it out! The new webmaster, Johannes Zimmermann , will soon be adding an online store and updating the site with new content. Aidan Wright and Gentiana Sadikaj have restarted the Membership Subcommittee in order to help further increase our growing membership. The Executive Committee, consistent with the rules outlined in SITAR’s Constitution, modified SITAR’s mission statement in order to better define the society's mission and scope with an eye toward assuring a broad membership base in the years to come. Our newsletter editors, Chris Hopwood and Nicole Cain, have consistently produced outstanding publications and will be altering the newsletter format in the coming year in order to make it more “internet friendly.” Finally, the Graduate Student Advisory Committee helped raise funds (thanks to many of your generous donations) to continue supporting student travel grants and the Wiggins Award. In short – it has been a busy and productive year!
Unfortunately, all of our news this year isn’t good news. After 15 years of service, Steve Strack will be retiring from this position as Executive Officer, effective June 30, 2012. In this newsletter you can read about his impact on SITAR and its members through some of the stories of other SITAR members. Steve has been responsible for organizing much (if not all) of SITAR’s daily business issues and has served as a stabilizing element for the ever evolving Executive Committee. He will be greatly missed in this important role, but we do look forward to spending more time with him at our annual meetings.
Thanks to all of you for contributing to SITAR and making my year as president a memorable year!
What a great year for SITAR! In May, Debbie Moskowitz hosted our 15th annual conference in Montreal. This was easily one of the largest meetings for our society with 24 talks, 27 posters, and two wonderful keynote presentations from Jennifer Bartz and Mark Baldwin. Topics covered were broad and ranged from interpersonal styles of bullying to the neuroscience of affiliation. I always feel excited after hearing these talks (and even a bit jealous at the great ideas my colleagues come up with). With these yearly meetings allowing me to socialize with so many interpersonal researchers, I am reminded how important SITAR is to me both personally and professionally. On a related note, I would like to thank Emily Ansell (our new President) for serving as program chair. With the high number of presentations this year, her job was especially difficult and I appreciate all of her hard work.
During our meeting, Chris Hopwood and Nicole Cain were nominated to run for the position of Vice President. You should be receiving their candidate statements and have a chance to vote for one of these candidates within the next month. Additionally, Johannes Zimmermann has agreed to fill the vacant Member-at-Large position on the Executive Council once Chris or Nicole assumes the position of Vice President.
This past year also brought an update to the SITAR webpage (www.sitarsociety.org). I suggest you stop by and check it out! The new webmaster, Johannes Zimmermann , will soon be adding an online store and updating the site with new content. Aidan Wright and Gentiana Sadikaj have restarted the Membership Subcommittee in order to help further increase our growing membership. The Executive Committee, consistent with the rules outlined in SITAR’s Constitution, modified SITAR’s mission statement in order to better define the society's mission and scope with an eye toward assuring a broad membership base in the years to come. Our newsletter editors, Chris Hopwood and Nicole Cain, have consistently produced outstanding publications and will be altering the newsletter format in the coming year in order to make it more “internet friendly.” Finally, the Graduate Student Advisory Committee helped raise funds (thanks to many of your generous donations) to continue supporting student travel grants and the Wiggins Award. In short – it has been a busy and productive year!
Unfortunately, all of our news this year isn’t good news. After 15 years of service, Steve Strack will be retiring from this position as Executive Officer, effective June 30, 2012. In this newsletter you can read about his impact on SITAR and its members through some of the stories of other SITAR members. Steve has been responsible for organizing much (if not all) of SITAR’s daily business issues and has served as a stabilizing element for the ever evolving Executive Committee. He will be greatly missed in this important role, but we do look forward to spending more time with him at our annual meetings.
Thanks to all of you for contributing to SITAR and making my year as president a memorable year!