Report of the Executive Director
for the Year ending June 30, 2010

In my report last year I challenged the membership to consider the seven characteristics of successful associations. I suggested that we emulate what successful associations do that others do not. This year as I reflect back on fiscal year 2010, I suggest that we need to make what we have go further. We have intangible assets that could, if converted to tangible outcomes, add to the value of active membership in Sigma Xi. Many members in the past derived their value of membership and impressions of Sigma Xi from the local chapters. Some chapters continue to serve the members with excellent programs that help achieve the mission of the Society, but too many chapters have failed to deliver value. Repeatedly I have heard this past year that Sigma Xi is not relevant. John Lubbock, a British statesman, is quoted as saying "what we see depends mainly on what we look for." I believe that standing up for high ethical standards, encouraging the earlier career scientist and networking with colleagues of diverse disciplines is still very relevant to our professional lives. Membership in Sigma Xi still represents recognition for scientific achievements but the value comes from sharing with companions in zealous research.

The accomplishments and the challenges of the past year can be summarized into three categories: membership, fiscal health and programs. There is obviously overlap but each will be reviewed below.

Membership

In 1996 there were 1,850 new Members and 3,655 new Associate Members initiated, and in 2009 there were 1,859 new Members and 2,889 new Associate Members initiated. In FY1996, 57% of new Members elected to Sigma Xi renewed at least two years and 35% of Associate Members renewed at least two years. In FY2009 the third year retention rate had dropped to less than 30% for Members and less than 16% for Associate Members. While it is not the only membership issue, stronger retention of members through better local programs would benefit the society in many ways. It appears that we have continued to initiate new members in numbers similar to 1996 but the retention has declined significantly. Another factor that should be recognized is the change in the source of the new members. In 1996 most of the new members (both Members and Associate Members) were from Research/Doctoral chapters (3,032). This compares to 459 elected from the At-large category in 1996. In 2009 the number elected from the Research/Doctoral had dropped to 1,465 and the number from At-large had increased to 1,520.

Sigma Xi states that the units of the Society are chapters (see Constitution Article III, Section 1) but only 54% of the "active" members in FY10 were affiliated with chapters in good standing. The requirements for a chapter to remain in good standing are minimal. Even if every chartered chapter performed the minimum, Sigma Xi could still face challenges. There are currently 523 chartered chapters recognized by the Society. There are 287 chapters that we have a contact officer identified and we (Headquarters) denote as active, but only 255 (at the time this report was written) were in good standing. If chapters are to remain a focal point for programs, we must identify methods to revitalize and share the responsibilities locally.

Fiscal Health

The fiscal health of Sigma Xi at the end of FY2010 is much improved as compared to the end of FY2009. There are still challenges, but the audited financial results for FY2010 showed an increase in net assets ($1.4 million) from operations as compared to FY2009. Some of the improvement can be attributed to the increase in the value of the endowment. However, the professional staff members have worked very hard to control expenses over the past few years and this contributed to the positive results. There was a decrease in expenses of $0.3 million in FY2010 as compared to FY2009; this is the second year in a row that expenses were significantly reduced. The auditors issued an "Unqualified" opinion again this year. An unqualified opinion means that they did not identify any material weaknesses, any deficiencies or any noncompliance material.

While the Society has done a good job in controlling costs on the expense side of the ledger, clearly we need to do more on the revenue side as we look to the future. The fluctuations of financial markets over the past few years put a strain on many non-profits, the lesson being that we cannot rely solely on "growing the endowment" as a strategy for our fiscal health. We have reached the point, along with many other organizations, where further cost reductions run the risk of impacting services. For the long term, we must begin to grow revenue to provide the programs and services our members have come to expect—which leads us back to the membership issue.

Programs

This past year has seen several new efforts and continuation of other important programs at Sigma Xi. There are many programs that involve a large number of members at the local and international levels. This report will focus only on the programs administered at headquarters, but there are numerous chapter activities that also generate a lot of attention.

• Public Radio International and Sigma Xi continued their collaboration made possible by a National Science Foundation grant. The program has been successful in launching a weekly science podcast, associated website and interactive online science discussions with expert hosts.
• The Board of Directors initiated the launch of new networking opportunity with a Sigma Xi community on the ResearchGATE platform. ResearchGATE is a rapidly growing community of scientists and engineers in over 200 countries. The value of the network lies in the potential to encourage greater communication and research collaboration among Sigma Xi members in North America and around the world.
• The National Academy of Sciences has once again renewed its contract with Sigma Xi to distribute a special pool of NAS funds through our Grants-in-Aid of Research program. It marks the 26th year of this collaboration. Since 1922, the Society has awarded small grants to more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate student researchers.
• The Science in the News newsletter has proven to be a popular free subscription for members and non-members. Subscribers tell us that the electronic newsletter is a valuable time-saver that helps them keep up with developments in science and technology reported in the mainstream media.
• A special group of advisors met in June to discuss ethical issues related to peer review and authorship. Insights shared at the summit, as well as the attendees' ongoing advice, will help shape Sigma Xi's proposed new ethics training initiatives. In particular we are interested in developing a companion publication to the Honor in Science (1984) and The Responsible Researcher: Paths and Pitfalls (1999) booklets. In anticipation of celebrating our 125th anniversary at the 2011 annual conference, we have selected ethics as a theme for the year.

  Summary

  How should we measure return on investment in membership in a scientific society? To answer this question it would be useful to ask a related question: what would science and engineering look like today without professional engineering and scientific societies? The training programs for engineering and science focus on methodology, theory, integrity, creativity, discovery and the scientific method. The return on the investment benefits the member as well as the society as a whole. Members of Sigma Xi are committed to the purpose of improving the human condition through their positions as engineers and scientists. The value of membership in Sigma Xi should never be equated with the "fast-food value" where the value of a membership lasts about as long as it takes to consume a hamburger or burrito (paraphrased from blog post of Erik Schonher, March 16, 2010). Let's make what we have go further by fostering integrity in research, enhancing the health of the research enterprise and promoting the public's understanding of science. Let's move forward in 2011 with vigor and enthusiasm for our society.

  Jerome F. Baker, Ph.D., Executive Director

   

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