Dear FOEP Members,

Now more than ever it is vital that we redouble our commitment towards outreach and engaging the public. In an era where distrust of science seems to be growing, effective communication and illustrating why we are so excited about our science will be crucial. Luckily we have many terrific examples of such outreach to draw on both within the APS community and from the broader public itself. With these ideas in mind I would like to draw your attention to a number of exciting events, from the recent past and the near future, that FOEP has organized.

The invited Session at the APS April Meeting went well. We had a terrific line up of speakers at our April Meeting including David Kaplan (JHU), Rachel Wolf (UPenn), and Marjorie Bardeen (Fermilab). For more about the April Meeting events, please see the FOEP at the April in January Meeting 2017 article.

FOEP is sponsoring the APS March Meeting workshop: Finding your Scientific Voice. Two workshops will be given on Sunday March 12. Please see the FOEP at the March Meeting article for more about this workshop.

FOEP Invited Session at the APS March Meeting: From Physics Girl to the Physics Bus, Creating an Effective Voice for Physics in a Diverse Society. Please see FOEP at the March Meeting article for more information about what FOEP has planned.

The Physics Bus will be in New Orleans for March Meeting! See the March Meeting article for more information about their weeklong outreach activities.

Welcome to our new members
I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new FOEP Members from the entire Executive Committee. We are looking forward to hearing from you about the kind of events you would like to see more of at our meetings and events.

Give a non-technical talk in addition to your technical talk at APS meetings
I would like to remind the community and the FOEP members in particular that they can give a non-technical talk in addition to their technical science presentation at the APS meetings. I encourage you to do so since we need to have a thoughtful and creative exchange of ideas moving forward.

Thanks to the FOEP executive committee for working tirelessly on our behalf
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the FOEP Executive Committee for their efforts and commitment to improving FOEP and APS more broadly. It has been a pleasure serving with all of them as we have set out to represent you not only through the meeting programs but also through engagement with APS.

The current FOEP Executive Committee members are:
Past Chair: Yvan Bruynseraede
Chair: Itai Cohen
Chair-Elect: Larry Gladney
Vice Chair: Don Lincoln
Secretary/Treasurer: E. Dan Dahlberg
Members at Large: Alice Bean, Amber Stuver, Heide Doss, Rachel Henderson
APS Staff member: Rebecca Thompson
Assigned Council Representative: Gay Stewart
Editor of Newsletter: Heide Doss

Itai Cohen, Chair