Dear Colleagues, 

As the new president of AERC, I am excited about working with you and enabling AERC to become more effective in supporting your mission. Over the last 6 years, we have increased membership, developed new engagement opportunities, enabled learning opportunities for new staff, and developed a new website. I am hoping we can continue to grow and take advantage of new opportunities. I plan to reach out to all of you in the next several months to learn more about your individual challenges and hear your ideas on how AERC can further improve. 

I applaud your efforts over the last year to sustain your missions over the course of the pandemic. I am sure that we all are dealing with similar challenges with personnel and scarce resources, but I am optimistic that the future will reveal promising results. The board is looking for unique ways to support and engage in the face of travel restrictions and budgetary challenges. Looking forward, we are considering increasing virtual engagement to reduce costs while maintaining value of programmatic offerings. In addition, strengthening the relationships among members may provide additional opportunities of support. 

I extend my sincere gratitude to the AERC Board for their support of the AERC mission and their achievements over the past several years, especially the leadership of Todd as President, Lucinda as Secretary, and Amy as Treasurer. In addition, I would like to recognize the continued service of Candice Allouch and Jessie Guevara, who work behind the scenes to make things run. Fortunately, we have only minor changes to Board moving forward and all have recommitted themselves to continuing their service to AERC. Gene is moving from past president to Member at Large and Todd will continue his service as Past President. I would like to welcome our new Graduate Student Representative, Marbelys Garriga.

During the past year, the AERC Board decided to suspend the invoicing for annual dues because we could not host an annual meeting and we wanted to alleviate potential financial hardship for members. AERC is a very lean organization and your dues primarily support the annual meeting, workshops, and congressional briefings. Your continued support is vital to offering these programs and opportunities. We are planning an annual meeting this fall so we will resume invoicing. The details of the upcoming annual meeting will be provided this spring. 

Your continued efforts to support ecosystem science and AERC especially during the challenges of this past year are inspiring. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to serve as your President. 

Will Pitt

• Monday, March 8, 2021 | Global Water Security Forum: Water Governance - Challenges from a Gender Perspective | FIU Institute of Environment | Virtual - register here

• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is seeking thought leaders to fill approximately 10 vacancies on the Committee to Advise U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The link to submit a nomination to the National Academies can be found here. Apply by: Friday, February 12, 2021. 

• The Florida International University's Institute of Environment is currently seeking a Temporary Lab Technician to join their team of professionals with the Water Quality Monitoring Network. For more information and to apply, visit https://hr.fiu.edu/careers/ and search for Job ID #522870. Apply by: Wednesday, February 24, 2021.

• Global Council for Science and the Environment is seeking to hire a Membership and Strategic Partnerships Manager. Please find the full position description and learn more here. Apply by: Friday, March 5, 2021.

• The Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University currently has several funded Coastal Resilience research projects for which they are seeking new graduate students. Please contact Colin Polansky, Director of the Center for Environmental Studies, about what graduate studies at FAU, and with the Center, might look like for you.