OR/MS Today - October 2000 - President's Desk

October 2000

President's Desk

What's In It For You?

By John Birge
jrbirge@nwu.edu

Whether you have been an INFORMS member for just a few months or several decades, when you receive a renewal notice, you probably wonder, "What advantage does INFORMS really give me? What is INFORMS doing differently to give me extra value for my dues?" The INFORMS Board and professional staff have been addressing these important questions and want to make sure you are aware of the added value that comes from your membership. The INFORMS Board is particularly interested in your thoughts on how we can improve our value proposition. Board members (or other INFORMS staff members) welcome those thoughts in person at the national meeting in San Antonio or through any other media (http://www.informs.org/General/Contacts.html).

One of INFORMS' primary goals has been to be the information resource in OR/MS. With the INFORMS On-Line (IOL) site (www.informs.org) and PubsOnLine, you now have anytime-anywhere access to all INFORMS journals through your membership. You can also now find continuing education opportunities on IOL, as well as professional openings and the Job Placement Service.

Information also adds value to your ability to communicate and interact with colleagues with similar interests and backgrounds. Membership in our subdivisions enables you to join in the development of virtual communities for discussion and information exchange. Several of our subdivisions also offer meetings that give you additional opportunities to establish networks with others that are so important to your career.

Our national meetings offer yet another opportunity to share information with others and to learn from their experience. In fact, this area is one where INFORMS is substantially changing its offerings and giving you new opportunities with your membership. The San Antonio Annual Meeting marks the first of INFORMS' annual fall meetings without a spring national meeting to follow. As in San Antonio, the annual meetings will feature an expanded track of sessions, additional meeting events and greater opportunities for network building over our previous semi-annual national meeting structure.

To supplement the single annual meeting, INFORMS expects many subdivisions to arrange separate meetings at different times during the year that will focus on specific themes and give conference attendees opportunities for more concentrated dialogue than at our annual meetings. These meetings might occur in tandem with other INFORMS subdivision meetings or possibly with the new INFORMS Conference on Practice to debut in spring 2001 in San Diego.

The INFORMS Conference on Practice offers a new opportunity for information exchange and learning that is focused on providing additional value to practicing OR/MS professionals. This meeting will not follow the standard of national meetings and many subdivision meetings with multiple simultaneous sessions and numerous presentations. Instead, the Conference on Practice will provide a limited number of speakers of direct interest to the practice community. The conference will provide take-away material such as session notes and software demos. The goal will be to attract a group of professionals who do not generally attend INFORMS meetings but who have substantial interest in the uses of the methods and tools of OR/MS.

The INFORMS Conference on Practice fits a general strategy of enhancing value to practitioners. Whether you are a practicing professional or academic, the INFORMS Board feels that the Conference on Practice will give help expand the range and use of your OR/MS skills.

Other ways in which INFORMS has helped you as a practitioner and/or academic is in our strategy of reaching out to corporate executives with our recent OR/MS Today issue. We anticipate that this form of outreach will become a regular activity within INFORMS and that company executives will increasingly become aware of the power and value of OR/MS. We have some evidence that even this first issue had that effect; a senior executive was quoted in one major corporate newsletter, for example, in citing our article on the importance of OR/MS and in referring to the talented OR/MS group being assembled at that company. Such high-level endorsements bring value to all members.

Beyond our executive-level targets, INFORMS has reached out to the public to increase the awareness of OR/MS and to help attract more gifted students to OR/MS work. INFORMS activity in providing the public with information about our field appears at http://www.informs.org/Press/ and, among the national media, at http://www.informs.org/Press/ORInThePress.html.

INFORMS has also been active in promoting OR/MS among high school students through our high school modules (http://mie.eng.wayne.edu/faculty/chelst/informs/) and teacher workshops (http://www.informs.org/Edu/Teachers/workshop.html). By giving high school students early experience in the value of OR/MS, we expect to increase our overall visibility.

These activities are just a few of the additional products and services that INFORMS has provided for members. In the coming year, we will expand our online membership capabilities and the ability to obtain specific items from our publications. I invite your suggestions about other ways to provide more value for your membership and for your career.

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