You can participate in the FlyBase Drosophila research community in several ways. Subscribe to our newsletter, join the FlyBase Community Advisory Group (FCAG), add your contact information to our database of fly researchers (or look up your colleagues there), or browse and post to the FlyBase Forum. There's even a FlyBase Twitter feed.

The Fly Board maintains an email list for occasional communication with active fly Principal Investigators/Group Leaders. If you want to be included in the Fly Board’s email list please sign up for the FlyBase newsletter. (See the FlyBase Newsletter section below.)

Each year the Fly Board has important information to share with the Drosophila community. This communication is important, not only so that members can stay abreast of important resource developments and community elections, but also in unusual cases where the community needs to be mobilized for advocacy purposes. The current email list depends on self-enrollment for the FlyBase newsletter or attendance at a recent ADRC, and reaches only a fraction of the community; it also contains many individuals who no longer work with Drosophila.

The Fly Board has decided to add a new element that may increase the reach and sustainability of communication. In addition to maintaining current arrangements, the Board will solicit an email list of PIs or their equivalents, who maintain accounts at the Bloomington stock center (other stock centers will follow). Each PI/Equivalent will be asked by Bloomington to ‘opt-in’ to receive a handful of important emails from the Board annually. Every effort will be made to limit emails, but these will include information about:

• annual FlyBoard election announcement
• annual FlyNews from FlyBoard President
• time-sensitive critical advocacy information (e.g. Model Organism Database support letter)
• major changes to widely-used Drosophila resources (e.g. Flybase, stock centers)

PIs/Equivalents will be asked to distribute this information to their trainees/employees, through simple email forwarding. The Board recognizes that some fly workers may prefer to receive information directly, and also that some fly community PIs/Equivalents do not maintain Bloomington stock center accounts. Those individuals can sign up directly for FlyBase newsletter; Fly Board communications will be sent to these addresses as well.

Stay up to date with the latest news from FlyBase including release announcements, web site updates, and important Drosophila community news. This is a low-volume newsletter. [View the archive of recent newsletters.]

Sign up for the FlyBase newsletter

This mailing list is distinct from the FlyBase People database. You can join either or both, but entering your information in the mailing list does not automatically place any contact information in the People database.

The FlyBase Community Advisory Group (FCAG) was launched in September 2014 with the aim of gaining greater feedback from the community about changes in FlyBase.

The group consists of representatives from any lab worldwide that uses FlyBase as part of its research. The representative can be the lab head, a postdoc, student, technician or anyone else who uses FlyBase and feels that they could contribute. FlyBase attracts users from a variety of different backgrounds and our members range from frequent FlyBase users to those who use FlyBase only occasionally or who work primarily with another organism.

Members of the group are sent up to 6 surveys a year on a variety of different subjects.

Sign Up For FCAG

FlyBase maintains a discussion group for Drosophila enthusiasts. Users can post questions, browse discussions, and share their expertise. There is also an area for posting position announcements.

Visit the FlyBase Forum

A convenient and lightweight way to get FlyBase announcements and news items of interest to the Drosophila community. Subscribers will receive approximately a dozen tweets each week.

Visit The FlyBase Twitter Page