The Structure of CSE Committees and How to Get Involved

Introduction Council of Science Editors (CSE) is lucky to have a large group of volunteers who contribute their time and expertise to make the organization successful. Over time, as CSE has grown and increased the scope of work, 28 committees were established. With so many active volunteers and ongoing programs, it was becoming difficult to clearly delineate the responsibilities of each committee as work began to overlap and change over time. In 2023, the CSE Board of Directors formed a task force to review all CSE volunteer groups and make recommendations regarding the overall structure, individual committee missions and charters, and committee activities. Findings Compared to other societies of similar size, CSE has an unusually large number of committees and various programs and offerings. While this underscores the value and importance of the work the organization does, the Committee Task Force realized that realigning the committees to clarify responsibility for each program would make committee work easier for volunteers and allow CSE to make better informed decisions regarding programs and offerings. Recommendations for Committee Structure Ultimately, the task force realized a need to reduce the number of committees through consolidation and pause some programs. The task force suggested the following changes regarding committee structure and responsibility: Align the Program, Fall Symposium, Webinars, Short Courses, and Podcasts under the Education Committee. These groups all oversee the production of educational content in one format or another, so it made sense to keep them together to streamline gathering and accessing ideas for the …