WISJ General Meetings
Written by Negin Eslamibidgoli
“Good evening to our senior leadership group and student representatives, and welcome to new members who have joined us for the first time tonight!”, is how our Sunday meetings start at 8 pm JST twice a month.
If you’re reading this blog post, you might already be familiar with our organization. But if you’re just discovering us, Women in Science Japan (or as we call it, WISJ) is a network of women pursuing their careers in STEM in Japan. We aim to be a space where members can share their experiences and expertise and to provide a space for professional growth and development.
To achieve our mission, we regularly hold a General Meeting to discuss our initiatives, progress, and new ideas. The meetings are held online and in English. They start with taking attendance and a brief self-introduction of the leadership team if we have any new members joining in. Then, for the next 20 to 30 minutes, we go through items on the agenda, which includes an overview of the ongoing projects and their progress, future initiatives, and areas that require more assistance from WISJ members. To have more effective discussions throughout the meeting, the written agenda is shared with all of our members in advance, allowing everyone to prepare and make meaningful contributions. At the end of each section, as well as the last 10 to 15 minutes of the meeting, we hold an open discussion for any questions, concerns, ideas, or any contributions from the people present at the meeting.
A great example of the significant role of these general meetings in WISJ’s ability to move forward with its projects is how we were able to prepare our upcoming initiative, the Flagship Event 2024. Since our members come from all walks of life, our general meetings make it possible to incorporate and leverage members’ expertise when structuring and upscaling this year’s Flagship event. Through the discussions during our recent general meetings, we have been able to find volunteers to assist with the venue preparations, tech support for the Zoom attendees on the day of the event, brainstorming ideas for workshop themes, for instance.
Moreover, the Sunday meetings are also a great space for suggesting and developing new ideas from members who are passionate about contributing to the community of women in the STEM fields! For instance, the idea of a new and upcoming project of WISJ called “Day in the Life” has been suggested, shaped, and come to life as a result of the efforts of our student representatives Lianne, Eunseo, and Adiya, through discussions in multiple general meetings. Stay tuned for more information on this project!
The perks of being a part of these meetings are that there is no limit to who can bring new ideas to the table, leadership member or not!, and even if you don’t have ideas to share, you can still participate in existing projects or just connect with women in STEM from all over Japan. If you are keen to be a part of our network of women in science in Japan, or if you are interested in learning more about WISJ, join our Slack community and gain access to the next general meeting!
