What GNSI Conference Planning Is About
by Britt Griswold

It all starts with an urge to give your GNSI friends a place to gather. Then you remember all the cool things you could show them. Then you remember the connections you have to your local institutions and suddenly you think “my friends and I could do this!” Fortunately, the Guild has developed a sophisticated set of tools to help you plan and organize talks, workshops and field trips, along with the celebration of the Guild family gathering each year.

With the holidays fast approaching many of us will be shopping online for the perfect gifts for family and friends.  Did you know you can support the mission of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators when you shop using Amazon Smile?

If you have never used Amazon Smile, when you go to https://smile.amazon.com, you will be directed to select a charity. Search for "Guild of Natural Science Illustrators". If you have used Smile before, you can choose a new organization to support (see the image below).

I studied art in the 70s and 80s. We learned art history, participated in exhibits and group critiques, experimented with materials, and worked to develop a “style” or point of view for expression. Computers and the “world wide web” were barely in the mainstream. Classes about the business end of making art and being a professional were nonexistent, at least for me it seemed so. Most artists I knew that were successful moved to a large urban area and made cold calls and knocked on doors while waiting tables and other “day” jobs, or already knew professionals in the business. 

When I joined GNSI in 1991, summer conferences gave me the inspiration and networking I desired. I learn best by doing, and helping run a national conference appealed to me. But I did not have a GNSI chapter or local members to team with, and taking on conference planning seemed daunting without local help to rely on. As internet communication and business practices advanced, so did the possibilities of working with teams in various locations across the country. Online project management applications, in this case, Basecamp, appeared as a way for GNSI members to work collaboratively. I was skeptical at first, but as I participated in this tool, I began to appreciate the organic and fluid ways that I could contribute with a large team of GNSI members located across the country to do something phenomenal such as run a professional international organization and annual conference.

The Nominating Committee is honored to present the nomination of Sara Taliaferro for President-elect of GNSI. The Committee is also pleased and grateful to report that Scott Rawlins has agreed to become interim Education Director in the event of Sara becoming President-elect. (Scott preceded Sara as Education Director.)

All GNSI members are invited to learn more about Sara and vote online. Online voting will close on June 9, 2017, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.  Paper balloting will continue at the Annual Conference in Asheville, NC.

From time to time, it’s a good exercise for us all to sit back and “take stock”: who we are, where we are, where are we going, where do we want to go? It’s a good exercise for organizations and businesses as well; it gets the fancy (but apt) title of Strategic Planning. The goal is to map the status and health of the organization, and to plan, as much as possible, what needs to be done to keep the group healthy and progressing in our fast-changing world.

To this end, the Board of the GNSI, along with several members-at-large who have recently shared their thoughts and ideas about the future of the GNSI and our profession, has launched a Strategic Planning Initiative. Our goal is to take a good, hard, honest look at where we are, and where we want to be to best support our members and our profession.

Drs. John and Dorothy (Casto) Cody, Hays, will celebrate their 60th anniversary March 19th, 2015. They were married in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dorothy attended Duke University Medical School in North Carolina. From 1977 to 1990 she was the college physician at the F.H.S.U. Student Health Center.

Some of you may know that GNSI has a Closed Group on Facebook (only members can see content). The GNSI Portugal chapter has one as well, as do several of the USA chapters such as GNSI Northern California. And GNSI Carolinas and GNSI Great Plains have Facebook public pages.

Finally, GNSI, Inc. has started a Facebook page too. Founded on May 21st, within seven days we have almost 350 likes!  We will be featuring current news, events, and our member's artwork. If you would like to sign up to be featured on the GNSI Facebook page, fill out this short Jot form and we will put you on the list of possible postings.

All members in good standing are eligible to vote on the next President of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. The newly-elected President of the GNSI will serve as President-Elect for one year, President for two years, and Immediate Past President for one year. The nominee for this position is Amelia Janes.

To vote please go to http://www.gnsi.org/forum/business/gnsi-presidents-election-link
(You must be a logged in GNSI member in good standing to see this page. For login instructions go to this FAQ: http://www.gnsi.org/forum/faqs/check-membership-expiration-date)

How many of these people do you recognize? A surprising number of them are still GNSI members. This group photo was taken at the National Zoo in Washington DC, in July of 1996. Over 200 people attended the Washington DC conference, our largest gathering ever. This was the year my youngest daughter was born, during the conference, so I was not in the group that day (I am local to DC).

One of the standout faces in this image is Elaine Hodges, one of my mentors, and now unfortunately removed from our lives too early.