IPS Vision 2020. Goal Greater Recognition for IPS Members
IPS Vision 2020. Goal «Greater recognition for IPS Members»
Marc Moutin, October 21st 2014
IPS Values:
Sharing, exchange of ideas, knowledge, culture
Respect of cultural differences and use of them to enrich the community and practices
Scientific knowledge as a way of better understanding the world
Education as a way to involve Citizen in the Society
IPS Missions
Support planetariums to achieve their educational mission about science, and more specially space and astronomy, by
Contributing to members meetings, as conference, workshops, trainings, debates, events,
Giving communication tools for distance exchange between Members: IPS Magazine, Website, Newsletter,
Fostering links with science professionals: scientists, engineers, researchers, building strong contacts with laboratories, Universities, Space agencies
Being a showcase of the up to date planetarium technical developments
Hosting an international database of planetarium shows, dome sequences and planetarium resources
Helping new planetarium development all around the word
Developing international projects with financial support
IPS Vision
A governance with a professional team, with projects managers dedicated to different topics: communication tools, conference, relationships with manufacturers, relationships with scientific community, database updates, fundraising and development of international projects.
A more dynamic conference with a real theme, better prepared in advance, more bottom up, with real planetarium workshops in theatres, a preconference presenting new shows from companies or planetariums, and technical demos.
More communication tools, improving the existing one for a more international public (for example shortening the articles of the Planetarium to make them more efficient and less literary for non-English reader), and proposing new ones like a newsletter
More international projects with associated funds for joint collaborations from different countries (show development, educational projects, science and society projects, arts and science projects)
A greater implication of the national regional/representatives, by extra-sessions or meetings, helping to know each other better and why not some duties linked to the mission?
Some first thoughts about “Greater recognition for members”
The IPS recognition of its members is done through the Awards Committee, who proposes 3 opportunities of being recognized:
· The IPS service Award, for members who did a special action, that needs to be emphasized
· The IPS Fellow Award, for the recognition of an important involvement of the member, through years or long dedication in committees or actions
· The IPS Technology and Innovation Award
As my knowledge of the past awards selections is very limited, it is important to work with Manos in Athens, who recently accepted the position of Award Committee Chair. A number of questions can be asked concerning the interest of these honorific recognitions, which seem very important for US people, and perhaps less important for others, in Europe for example if I consider my own position. So the first questions coming concerning the Awards recognitions are:
· Are these honorific recognitions important for members who receive them?
· If yes, are the categories pertinent? Are there new possible categories, linked to education for example?
· What are the selection processes and criteria, how can they be improved?
· How do IPS communicate about those people and their actions? How this communication could be improved?
· How to feel more part of the IPS Fellows group?
· Isn’t it delicate to give awards to manufacturers for technical development without introducing an inconvenient trouble with others manufacturers (the last award given in Beijing was not really understandable from my point of view)
What else than awards?
An important way of recognition could consist in communicating more about good projects and experiences that could benefit to others. When we succeed with some work with our publics, some productions, some original projects, that could be useful to other to know the project, to learn about how it has been undertaken, then developed, what is the context of this development ( cultural and national differences make often the difference and can open the eyes on new practices)
Could IPS highlight regularly some exemplary experiences, actions, with the objective of sharing ideas and practices.There could be some themes or categories like live actions in the theatre, educational projects, exemplary partnerships etc… The idea behind is not just recognizing the person, but more the project, the experience, the idea, and of course a real communication on the project will be an important highlight on the person/team who build it.
Other ideas?
Thanks for your comments, suggestions…