Announcement for ISMC co-Chair
Background: Nominations are now being accepted for the co-Chair position of the International Soil Modeling Consortium (ISMC), an organization dedicated to integrating and advancing soil systems modeling, data gathering, and observational capabilities. ISMC is composed of more than 500 (as of Nov 2018) active members who are leading experts in modelling soil processes within all major soil disciplines. The members seek to address major scientific gaps in describing key processes and their long term impacts to different soil functions and ecosystem services. This is done by promoting integration of soil modelling expertise in neighboring disciplines (climate, land surface, ecology, hydrology, and other models).
Expectations and Responsibilities of the co-Chair: As part of the ISMC leadership team, the co-Chair is expected to provide ideas and approaches for expanding the use of soil models by other disciplines involved in biospheric processes and to create collaborative opportunities with other scholarly institutions involved in related research. The co-Chair will also preside at bi-annual ISMC meetings and those of the Executive Board (usually quarterly), complete an annual reporting to the Executive Board of ISMC activities, and plan for future activities, as necessary. ISMC co-Chairs also are responsible for communicating and recommending actions to the Advisory Board. Level of effort is usually low to moderate, depending on pending activities. The co-Chair position is for a three-year term. Only one of the two co-Chairs will be replaced in 2019, with the other co-Chair scheduled to be replaced in 2020.
Process for Election and Succession: Nominations for the position can be submitted by self or other nominators via e-mail to the co-ordination office (r.baatz@fz-juelich.de), until December 31, 2018. Please include a current CV and a letter of interest in the position. The slate of nominations for new Chairs will be approved by a simple majority of the Executive Board by January 31, 2019, and will then be made available to the Executive Board for voting beginning on February 15, 2019, and ending on March 15, 2019. The Executive Board will tally the votes for the new ISMC co-Chair, who will be announced at the EGU meetings in 2019. Co-Chair begins her/his duties on June 30, 2019.
See ISMC webpage for specific requirements of the nomination and the ISMC by-laws.