Greetings,

We hope that everyone had enjoyable and productive summers and that you are all primed for a new academic year. We have a few exciting items to share with you.

Student membership renewal – As noted in our last email, we are offering a great program for you to renew your student memberships in 2008. If you renew between now and December 31, 2007, your individual membership will only cost $15 (family rate $20). That is half of the normal student membership rate. In our next email, we'll provide you with an opportunity to share membership in the BSA with your colleagues.

Why the special offer for student members you ask? As a Society, we have a long history of supporting student development. We're about promoting science and expanding our potential opportunities as members of the scientific community. Over the past few years student membership in our Society has nearly doubled from 347 to 655. We now make up roughly 23% of the membership, and our opportunities to make real and lasting differences have never been greater. Remember, we are the future of science and of the BSA - let's keep the growth trend and our involvement moving forward!

Please take a few minutes and renew at https://secure.botany.org/secure/default.asp?lType=2.

Botany 2008, CALL for SYMPOSIUM - http://www.2008.botanyconference.org/2008Calls/2008CallForSymposia.php

Student web interface – A new interactive student webpages will be coming soon. It will be an excellent place for students to connect with each other, discuss research, and ask for advice from fellow students. The new student website will also make it even easier to communicate with the BSA about what kind of services students would like to be offered.

Public outreach and the BSA supporting a better understanding of science - Are you interested in providing opportunities for future students to obtain a better understanding of science? How about showcasing your own area of scientific study? Share some of those great images you have sitting on your computer? If the answer is yes, we really want your help.

The BSA continues to enthusiastically respond to requests from teachers seeking better ways to encourage students to explore science as a career opportunity. The Society has had great feedback from teachers in regards to the professional members profiles placed on line last year. Teachers feel we’d do an even better “sharing science” by adding pages what we do as university students. In response, we have developed student profile/blog pages highlighting our experiences as a student in the plant sciences.

Sharing what we do and the places we visit is evolving as an important and effective way of showcasing science to younger students. It is also a great opportunity to highlight your work to the wider botanical community, including links back to other web pages you may already have in place. A few profiles have already been posted and you can view them at: http://www.botany.org/students_corner/profiles/. Please take a some time to submit a profile via email to Andrew (aschwend@ku.edu) or Bill (wdahl@botany.org). The sky is the limit on what you can submit - video clips, images, sound..... and it can be updated at any time to keep your page current.

Cheers,

Mackenzie Taylor            Andrew Schwendemann
mackenzie@utk.edu         aschwend@ku.edu

Student Representatives
Botanical Society of America
www.botany.org
www.BotanyConference.org
www.PlantingScience.org

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.