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Hello members! Thank you for renewing and signing up for membership this year, and also for engaging with the Society. We’re currently at 912 members and had 434 members vote in elections, 102 sign up as volunteers, and countless others sponsor new members. If I could, I’d sing you all a song about how “you’re simply the best” and “better than all the rest.” In my first year as Secretary, I’m learning that biomechanics history is not exempt from repetition. Thanks to these Newsletters, I could (and did!) read all the past articles from Secretaries, Secretary/Treasurers, and Membership Chairs (yes, those used to be different roles!). Many made me laugh, none made me cry, and all made me feel deeply grateful to serve in this role. A few findings:

  1. Transition to a new membership database. From an Excel sheet to Membership Toolkit, nearly every Secretary before me has worked in a different database, each making improvements to better serve our members. I will fulfill this “rite of passage” in 2023 when we transition to a database run by Podium, our Society’s management company. This database will hold BOTH your membership and annual conference registrations (and new features too! Anyone want auto-renewals? Oh, everyone? Ok, we’ll try!). Like my predecessors, I will do my best to make this a smooth transition.
  2. Stellar Membership Committee. The Membership Committee has historically been a group of amazing ASB volunteers working to approve memberships. This year, the Committee’s goals are specifically to improve member recruitment & retention. For example, we recently executed an “Exit Survey” to better understand why we lose ~250 members each year. Huge thanks to the 2022 Membership Committee: Feng Yang, Gurpreet Singh, Jean McCrory, JJ Wallace, Lisa MacFadden, Maria Pasquale, Noah Rosenblatt, Shima Jalalian, Stephen Suydam, and Tim Burkhart.
  3. Our membership in each discipline is unequal. Since at least 1988, we have had members categorize themselves in one of five primary disciplines: Engineering/Applied Physics, Exercise/Sport Science, Biological Science, Ergonomics/Human Factors, and Health Science. And over the course of these 30+ years that saw a doubling of our membership, one thing remained the same – Engineering makes up ~40-47% of the Society, while Bio Sci and Ergonomics/Human Factors make up ~4-8%.

Why does this matter? What are these disciplines used for? Well, our ASB founders believed in fostering interdisciplinary cooperation in the Society, and towards that end, our bylaws state that the President and President‑Elect must be from different disciplines, as do the three members of the Nominating committee (which includes the Past President). Knowing our membership in the current disciplines is unequal, how should we move forward? Here are a few ideas the ASB board discussed:

  1. Remove the categories. Our field is inherently interdisciplinary, and we are all biomechanists!
  2. Make new categories, perhaps by area of interest (e.g. motor control, orthopedics)
  3. Better define the existing disciplines for clarity (e.g., what does “Health Science” include?)

Imagine my surprise when I read similar ideas in an 1990 article entitled “Who are we?” by our then president, Dr. Roger Enoka! Dr. Enoka ended that article with a wish to hear the members’ thoughts “over the telephone or by mail.” In a bit of repeated history, I would also greatly appreciate your thoughts, but maybe over Zoom or e-mail this time. 😊 Please contact me with your suggestions & ideas regarding the ASB disciplines at asbsecretary@asbweb.org (or come say hi at NACOB)!