"Time to Look to The Future of ABLE..."

Maggie Haag, President

The publication of the conference proceedings and the development of the ABLE web site has expanded the reach of ABLE beyond its membership into the broader biology community. The influence of the "ABLE model" and the importance of biology laboratory education can be seen within many professional societies (Ecological Society of America, American Society of Microbiology Association, etc.). More and more annual meetings of these professional societies are providing their members with access to educational materials for labs, demonstrations of protocols and equipment, and strategies for teaching the specific discipline. The founding members should be acknowledged, thanked and praised for their foresight and leadership in this regard. Thank you from all of us.

Much has changed in the delivery of undergraduate biology since the first meeting of ABLE. Technology has crept into the lab, the web has become an integral part of our courses/teaching, investigative labs are becoming more prevalent while at the same time our resources (people and money) have often diminished. While the number of individuals attending the annual conference has remained healthy, it has been increasingly difficult to get proposals for major workshops. At the time of this posting, only 17 major workshop proposals have been submitted for the conference at LSU. On the flip side, there has been a record number of mini workshop proposals submitted (28).

At the Board Meeting last June, a number of strategies were discussed to increase the number of major workshop proposals. Some of these strategies were attempted this year but not all. We did not seem to have much success given the current number of proposals received. There are probably a number of reasons for the decline in number of proposals. There are also probably a number of things that we should be doing to turn things around.

I thought that this might be a good time to look to the future of ABLE…the next 25 years…and have a discussion on what we need to do to ensure a vibrant and healthy organization for future biologists (and some current members!). How do we attract more submissions of major workshop proposals? How do we incorporate the huge number of mini workshops that have become such an important component of the annual meetings? Where does the influx of technology fit in with our mission of promoting hands on activities? Do we continue to compete with other professional societies on the discussion and delivery of biology laboratory education or do we move toward more partnerships? Are there issues that we have yet to embrace that might also define the organization in the next 25 years? How do maintain a dynamic and active membership? I am sure there are many, many more questions to ask.

I would like to have an open discussion on our direction for the next twenty-five years. I am hoping this article will jump-start this discussion. We will use this as a focus of discussion for our Annual General Meeting that will be held over the noon hour on Friday, June 14^th (note day and time change) at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Since many members will not be able to join us at LSU, I would invite you to e-mail me your thoughts, ideas, comments, etc. (mag.haag@ualberta.ca). I will share these thoughts with the membership and, hopefully, through a posting on the ABLE web site.

This next 25 years are very important. Please ponder some of the questions, perhaps even "think outside the box." We have a strong tradition to maintain and there are many biologists, many educators, who will continue to need an organization like ABLE for professional development, for their sanity and for just plain fun.