The ZDMS Strategic Review

ZDMS was established in 2014 and has grown from strength to strength. One of our goals was to ensure financial stability, which was reached in 2019, at ZDM12 (Boston).This has allowed us to keep ZDMS healthy during the pandemic, and set up free membership and webinars for over a year. A Strategic Review was envisaged since 2019 to ensure that our Society’s goals meet our members' needs through delivering quality science and crucial networks.

 

About:

The Strategic Review process was announced by a letter from our President to the Board of Directors in Feb 2021, and soon after a message to all members called for volunteers to work on 7 main topics. Workgroups formed (see below for a list of participating members) and by the end of 2021, reports from the workgroups were returned to the Executive Committee, who decided how to address the several points raised by the workgroups.

Main topics:

  1. Frequency of meetings and interactions with other zebrafish societies

  2. ZDMS and mentorship: Career development

  3. ZDMS and diversity: Defining ZDMS goals for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

  4. Advocacy and Brand/Identity: How to promote zebrafish as a disease model. What do we stand for, and how can we communicate this effectively

  5. RIGS: Overall Aims for the RIGs and RIG leaders

  6. Membership: How do we engage with members, how many are we aiming for, member benefits

  7. Governance: Frequency of Board meeting, engagement from Board, and governance structure

Addressed points (till July 2023):

  1. Formal interactions with other zebrafish societies were established by ZDMS presidents. Started in 2022 by Rich White, and continued by Marina Mione in 2023. The main topics of the interactions are the planning of future zebrafish meetings and the establishment of new initiatives and guidelines for sustainability in zebrafish research.

  2. A mentorship program was developed by Rich White and attracted more than 100 registrants between mentors and mentees. Most of them met in person at ZDM15, a new edition of the program is planned for ZDM16, this year. In 2023, we established the Early Career Investigator committee, coordinated by Teresa Bowman.

  3. The ZDMS DEI committee was established in 2021, and their activities and contacts are listed here.

  4. Advocacy and brand identity not yet addressed.

  5. The re-organization of the RIGs was guided by the “Best Practice for RIGs”, an important document crafted by Genevieve Kendall and David Tobin, which is available here (link to the pdf document). This led to the creation of a RIG Committee for coordination of the RIG activities and interactions.

  6. Membership not yet addressed.

  7. Governance not yet addressed.

Credits:

Structure of the Strategic Review: E. Patton, then M. Mione with inputs from J. Berman and the Executive Board.
Workgroup participation: C. Mosimann, K. Frazer, A. Laird, H. Feng, S. de Oliveira, M. Ignatius, C. Donaldson, K. Edepli, J. Rawls, R. Montero, R. White, D. Langenau, E. Hoffman, K. Barthelson, S. Bergeron, R. Fior, J. Yoder, P. Moura Alves, M. Estrada, J. Berman, G. Lieschke.
Mentorship program: T. Bowman, K. Frazer, E. Trompouki, R. White.