Treasurer (Elayne Fivenson and Emily LaVerriere)
The SITN Treasurers write grant proposals for funding, maintain an organized and thorough budget, and communicate with all the initiatives about their funding needs each year. This is a great position for someone interested in coordination and keeping things running smoothly, as well as getting to know all the different aspects of SITN.
Treasurers should: be interested in grant-writing, organization, and coordinating between different aspects of an organization
Treasurers don’t need to: prior budget experience. You’ll be trained on how to write for the grants we apply for and how we organize the budget.
Interested? We’re currently looking for a new co-treasurer to work with a current treasurer. Please email emilylav@g.harvard.edu if interested.
Twitter (director: Simge Topaloglu)
We use Twitter (@sitnboston) to make SITN blog posts available to a larger audience interested in science and science communication. Additionally, our Twitter account is used to advertise SITN events and to promote events and content from our collaborators (e.g., Harvard Museums) and other student groups (e.g., Student Taskforce Against COVID-19).
Twitter director should: have a general interest in sharing science with laypeople, some familiarity with the basics of Twitter (through a personal account), and an intuition for how content should be framed to reach a wider audience would help. Additionally, some familiarity with Harvard organizations relevant to our content is helpful in order to enlist their help in promotion/re-tweeting.
Twitter director doesn’t need to: any prior experience managing a professional social media account. You do not need to be in a STEM field, even though most of our content is STEM-related. (The current director has a background in humanities and social sciences, for example.) You will receive guidance from the current director and learn as you gain experience with our account.
Interested? Email us at sitnboston@gmail.com
Instagram and Art Gallery (directors: Eileen Ablondi and Georgia Stirtz)
The SITN Instagram account (@sitnboston) shares images associated with our blog articles, events, and standalone graphics features (e.g., infocomics). The SITN Art Gallery showcases beautiful images, drawings, videos, and other pieces created by scientist-artists. The gallery aims to improve scientific understanding by engaging the public with captivating art paired with accessible descriptions of the science behind the work. Every few months, a featured artist showcases a series of pieces they’ve created and a bit about their individual story.
Instagram/Art Gallery director should: have an interest in art and visual science communication. It also helps if you’re a self-starter and unafraid to contact people and ask if they’d like to have their work featured in the gallery.
Instagram/Art Gallery director doesn’t need to: have any prior social media management or curation experience. For the Instagram account, you’ll receive guidance from current directors and work alongside other communication directors (Twitter and Facebook). For the art gallery, you’ll be trained to curate and post the art to the online gallery—it’s super easy to do, so just minimal computer skills required!
Interested? Email us at sitnboston@gmail.com
Webmaster (Aparna Nathan)
The webmaster keeps our website updated and organized so that we can effectively share articles and events with an even broader audience. Our website is hosted on WordPress so it is easy to maintain, and the webmaster is responsible for adding new lectures, updating initiative pages with new events/photos, and adding new features as necessary.
Webmaster should: be prompt at responding to emails, think creatively to solve problems with the website, and take initiative to identify ways to improve the website.
Webmaster doesn’t need to: have prior WordPress or website management experience. You’ll be trained by the current director on the key functions, there is website support available from HMS, and because WordPress is so popular, there are many resources online.
Interested? Email sitnboston@gmail.com