Subject: Please send suggestions for candidates for Drosophila Board President and Regional Representatives

Dear Colleagues

It is once again time to choose candidates who will serve on the Fly Board and your input is needed to ensure we have a diverse and engaged slate of candidates!

This is a group of your peers who carry out a number of important functions for the Drosophila Research Community. These functions include (1) advocating for the Drosophila research community by representing your best interests to funding agencies, other scientific organizations, and the general public; (2) facilitating an open and productive relationship between the research community and resources such as FlyBase, the Drosophila Genome Resource Center, groups heading efforts to develop better tools and information resources, and the directors of the stock centers; (3) insuring a successful annual North American Drosophila Research Conference; (4) administrating our meeting funds; and (5) administrating awards, such as the Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture Award, undergraduate travel awards, and the Image Award.

The Fly Board has made a strong commitment to truly represent the diverse community of researchers who work on Drosophila. To that end, we are encouraging suggestions from the community for all elected positions on the Fly Board. We invite you to suggest people who you think would do a great job representing the fly community — feel free to suggest yourself or a colleague who fits this description. We especially encourage suggestions of individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented on the Fly Board, and faculty at any career stage are eligible. Although you must live and work in or near the region you represent, you can nominate individuals for any region and you can vote for representatives from all regions in the final elections. Please send any of us names and a brief description (just a few lines, but this part is optional) of why the person you suggested would be good for the job by October 10, 2021.

Every year, we elect a future President of the Fly Board. The President serves for one year as President elect and for one year as President. To ensure long-term memory of the Board, the President will serve in an advisory role to the Fly Board for three additional years after their term ends. (See Responsibilities of the Drosophila Board Presidents for complete job details). Every year, we also elect other representatives, including Regional Representatives and a representative from Primarily Undergraduate Institutions in the US. This is a three-year commitment to Fly Board, with a subset of representatives turning over every year. (See Responsibilities of the Regional Representatives for complete job details).

This year, we will be electing representatives who will serve from 2022 through 2024 for the following regions:

Mid-Atlantic (Downstate New York, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia) - Current Erika Bach

California (California, Hawaii) - Current Leanne Jones

Asia - Current Tatsushi Igaki

Europe - Current Nic Tapon

Latin America – Current Helena Araujo

We look forward to engaging each member of the fly community in electing a Fly Board that will be truly representative of all of us and will help advance the shared goals of our community.

Thanks,

The 2021 Elections Board

Mark Peifer (peifer@unc.edu), Iswar Hariharan (ikh@berkeley.edu), Tina Tootle (tina-tootle@uiowa.edu), Erika Geisbrecht (geisbrechte@ksu.edu), Alissa Armstrong (ARMSTRAR@mailbox.sc.edu)