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This is the Hart / Cadet letter I was tweeting about yesterday https://twitter.com/npp_journal/status/1331219033329381379
I dunno. Yesterday’s thread didn’t get a lot of chatter. But this NPP editor action suggests maybe some elements at ACNP maybe do want to hear some reaction?
And yeah, I grasp why some may be reluctant to criticize the ACNP, for exactly the issues you would imagine related to pissing off the powerful people who are members.
But here’s the deal. My man Carl put himself out there in the firing zone. And he doesn’t need to be out there alone.
My history with the ACNP is long and checkered. And I have asked myself *numerous* times the question asked by Carl and Dr. Cadet. Why would I even want to be a member?
I have had the good fortune to attend the meeting numerous times without being a member. I was awarded a travel award at the end of postdocing. As it turned out I was appointed faculty juuuust before that first meeting. And that travel award was good for 5 y of invites.
I forget how long the gap was but I was subsequently sponsored onto the editorial board of the ACNP journal by a very kind colleague. Woman mentor, for those keeping track of this stuff this week. And this came with annual invitations.
I was appointed on the EB by an outgoing EIC so the current one kinda inherited me. He eventually uninvited me a couple of years ago.
This is all by way of saying I had many opportunities to sample the wares without having to try to become a member. But all along I would consider whether I should make a try for member ship.
I have never done so.
Scientifically the meeting has always been a good fit for what I am interested in. Admittedly it varied in excitement. Some years it felt like “I just saw all these talks at CPDD or SFN!” Other years it was simply amazingly good and educational.
In my first few years the meeting alternated from Kona to San Juan. Ayfkm? That would have been a no brainer right?
...yes....but my kids were young and I have a academic career spouse. And ACNP hammered really hard about attending every year. Hilariously I had a colleague ask me to pick up his badge one year to fake being there. So...cautious about committing.
Then some scandals related to industry connections put an end to the tropical paradise thing and landed the meeting in Hollywood FL.
I’m shallow enough to admit that is a meaningful change in motivation.
Anyway, back to business. There are many absolutely LOVELY ACNP members who were super welcoming to me in my first years. I had local mentors all up in the ACNP as well. Decent networking, etc and making me feel....not unwelcome.
But I also had the worst experience ever with a greybeard challenging me over and over at poster session about who’s lab was I really in. Would NOT believe I headed my own lab. Points at my techs name on the posters and wants to know if that’s the “real lab head”.
This was after a few years so it wasn't like when I was under cover of a postdoc travel award in my first year. and, let's face it, I was not famous and I was relatively younger than expected value, particularly at that meeting (they famously call 50+ year olds new up and comers)
so, you know, I was making allowances. :-)
but it was most assuredly the kind of micro (actually mini) aggression that puts people off. and these experiences talk loudly, even against a whole host of other people who are super nice. that's the deal, majoritarians who are still wringing your hands about DEI. sorry.
so why even entertain the notion of joining? well, prestige matters. membership in this specific academic society has capital in a lot of places, including the department I just joined. It has cachet with many, many, members of my field
attending affords elbow rubbing with a lot of important people in my fields of interest. Including, most importantly, Directors of NIH ICs. Who at the very LEAST start to recognize your face as one of the elite gang even if you never ever talk to them. But...your chances of
chatting up an IC director are pretty good. Much better than at SFN, for example. Ditto some dept chairs which might be looking to hire someone just like your postdoc.
I had a very memorable and very LONG chat with the then-CSR director about something or other grant review related. When would one ever get that chance, eh? well, at an elite meeting, that's when.
None of this means you are going to get any specific advantage. none of this can be proven to have direct benefit to you. but you get the *chance*. A chance that is not afforded to other colleagues that do not have an "in" with this meeting and society.
Science is a good fit, check. Networking is excellent, check. Carries value in local career evaluation, check. check, check, check. So why not apply for membership?
the 'tude? partially. The sea of silver hair in the opening plenary? partially. The pointed whiteness and maleness (recently improved, per the Hart/Cadet letter)? likely.
It is almost the only place in my academic world that consistently makes me viscerally uncomfortable.
and for those who know me, that is really saying something.
