Dear FOEP Folks,

Do you receive encouragement or discouragement for your outreach work from your department/institution? This is one of the issues addressed by a short (but essential) survey, which you can complete online. We will soon send this survey to you, and we urge you to take five minutes to respond to the survey to help us do our job as best we can. The Forum on Outreach cannot succeed without knowing what you want.

The APS feels that Outreach is essential to the success of our field, now and in the future. In order to best serve you and a broader audience, the FOEP Executive Committee would like to know what types of activities you are engaged in, who you think your audience is, and related information. For the future support of physics, it is essential that physicists reach out to the broader communities, but such activities may or may not always be welcome by one’s local department, hence the question about encouragement or discouragement.

FOEP members are the most important ingredient in the FOEP activities. We are a relatively new forum at APS, and are actively seeking new members. Please encourage your younger and more senior colleagues to join FOEP. They can join FOEP at no cost prior to renewing their APS membership by sending an email to membership@aps.org with their request to add FOEP to their membership.

In the news, a science documentary company has an NSF grant to produce an IMAX/Giant Screen film titled “Secrets of the Universe” with an accompanying educational outreach program. They say they wish to:  “Inspire a society dedicated to solving the Secrets of the Universe and the challenges of tomorrow.” They have a website named Explore the Secrets of the Universe at the LHC.

Your participation in any of the activities listed below is extremely welcome, as is your proposing new activities. These are excellent contributions to our efforts. Please consider participating in any form you feel is appropriate.

FOEP has a number of ongoing activities, including:

1. Sessions at the March and April meetings.
2. A Physics Slam, which we hope to have at the next March meeting. We hope it will attract new ideas on how to explain Physics to non-expert audiences. Please watch out for notices and calls for participation.
3. We are sponsoring the Nicholson Medal. Soon you will receive a call for nominations. Your active contribution to this is important and would be greatly appreciated.
4. We are able to support nominations for new APS Fellows, and hope you will send us your nominations. More information will follow.

The current FOEP Executive Committee members are:
Past Chair: Ivan Schuller
Chair: Michael Barnett
Chair-Elect: Yvan Bruynseraede
Secretary/Treasurer: E. Dan Dahlberg
Members at large: Philip (Bo) Hammer, Sidney Perkowitz, Jennifer Ross, Brian Schwartz, plus APS staff member Becky Thompson.
Assigned Council Representative: Gay Stewart
Editor of Newsletter: Heide Doss

Michael Barnett, Chair