WISC: Women and Inclusion in Supramolecular Chemistry
Our Aims and Objectives
We aim to work with the community for the community in order to:
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Promote the retention and progression of women and other marginalised groups in supramolecular chemistry, with a focus on post-graduate levels and above
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Promote the interests of women and other marginalised groups in supramolecular chemistry
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Organise and deliver accessible events to the community and its allies
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Base our decision making on what we have learnt from the community, through engagement, surveys and other research
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Support and undertake relevant research projects, contribute to policies and guidance for staff, managers, higher education institutions (HEIs), further education institutions (FEIs), funders and Government agencies
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Undertake original, ethically approved research in support of the national and international community
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Publish our findings in order to raise awareness of the experiences of and challenges faced by women and other marginalised groups in supramolecular chemistry
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Provide opportunities for the personal and professional development of women and other marginalised groups in supramolecular chemistry
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Create and maintain an internet site with information, resources, documents, blogs, and useful links
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Attract sponsors and hosts for conferences and special-interest meetings open to all
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To provide the WISC framework and associated materials as a support to other like-minded organisations
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To align ourselves with like-minded organisations, as appropriate
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Our Structure
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WISC has a core leadership team of a Chair and Vice Chairs drawn from the membership to be known as the Board.
Role: Agree and oversee the overarching themes of work in WISC
Tasks:
- Approval of WISC-led projects and long-term commitment projects (> 1 year)
- Financial decisions (e.g. allocation of funding, participation in and approval of grant proposals) > £250
- Election of the Board, Advisory and Early Career Advisory Board
- Changes to the terms of reference and operation of WISC
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The Executive Committee of the Board consists of: the Chair and a sub-committee of Vice Chairs elected by the Board every 3-6 months
Role: Day-to-day operation of WISC
Tasks:
- Liaising with Vice Chairs for day-to-day operations (e.g. dissemination of WISC outputs, overview of mentoring network/Community Clusters)
- Approval of WISC-associated projects (e.g. conference talks/workshops/panel discussions, outputs)
- Preparing and taking forward proposals for projects/funding allocations/WISC operational changes to the Board for approval
- Regular progress reports to the Board, Advisory Board and Early Career Advisory Board
- Preparing calls for the election of new Board, Advisory and Early Career Advisory Board members
- Approval of payments up to £250 (e.g. regular payments such as website renewals), provided there is at least £500 of the funding remaining after the payment
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WISC has an Advisory Board that includes representatives from the academic supramolecular chemistry community and an Early Career Advisory Board that includes representatives from the postgraduate, postdoctoral and early career independent PI communities.
Role: Agree and oversee the WISC strategy/goals and receive regular progress reports from the Board.
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WISC runs a mentoring network and Community Clusters to support the community. WISC will create and support new Community Clusters to support those within the community who are further marginalised. For new Community Clusters, a leader will be appointed and this leader could be sourced from the Board, Advisory Board, Early Career Advisory Board or externally. In the event of Community Cluster leaders appointed from outside the Board, a Community Cluster/Mentoring Network sub-committee will be created and led by Vice Chair (Clusters). This sub-committee will meet regularly to discuss Community Cluster/Mentoring Network issues and the Vice Chair (Clusters) will report back to the Board.
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Sub-committees led by at least one Board member but involving members outside of the core Board can be created in response to the needs of WISC’s activities.
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WISC members can be co-opted into working groups based on their expertise and experience
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Our Mode of Operation
WISC Projects
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Any project that wants to associate itself with WISC should gain Executive Committee and where necessary, Board approval
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Proposals for projects should include: time commitment and resources needed from WISC; where relevant, a list of potential co-authors for this work, although this is subject to change based on the progress of the project.
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The Executive Committee/Board will define each approved project as WISC-led or WISC-supported.
- WISC-led projects should have a majority of WISC members (e.g. from the Board and/or the Early Career Advisory Board and/or Advisory Board) and outputs (e.g. publications) require final approval from the Board.
- WISC-supported projects are ones WISC supports but does not have a controlling influence in their activities. They should involve at least one Board member and the Board will be updated of project progress at Board meetings. The output of WISC-supported projects will be approved by the involved Board members and the Executive Committee prior to submission.
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Projects requiring Executive Committee approval:
- Events (e.g. conference talks/workshops/panel discussions)
- Outputs from WISC-associated projects
- Payments’ authorisation up to £250
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Projects requiring Board approval:
- Participation in long-term projects (> 1 year)
- Participation in grant proposals
- Allocation of funding > £250
- WISC-led projects and their outputs
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Individual WISC members will be acknowledged for their role in any group project or funding applications or publications as would be expected to be appropriate for any academic research programme. This may change should WISC gain the ability to hold grants and employ individuals independently.
WISC Board
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Core Leadership Team roles will include: Chair, Communications, Organisation, Research, Mentoring, Community Support Clusters, Industry and other roles to be agreed by the Board.
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The Board retains the right to reallocate any WISC positions in accordance with current WISC commitments and workload pressures that maybe placed onto an individual. Board members may take leaves of absences (e.g. in cases of illness, parental leave) by contacting the Chair.
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Chair:
- Only an active Supramolecular Chemist may hold the role of Chair within WISC.
- The WISC Chair position will be a fixed term of 3 years, after which time the current Chair will move to the Advisory Board for a further 3 years to support ongoing WISC activities should they wish to do so.
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Board member terms:
- Each position on the WISC Board will last for 3 years, at this point board members can express their interest to stay on the board, retaining their current position for another 3 years, or to move to a different position within the Board (unless they are the WISC Chair).
- There will be a maximum of 6 years that any one person can be a WISC board member, unless the Board approves a term longer than 6 years.
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The WISC Vice-Chairs of Communication alongside the WISC Chair should retain control of the WISC social media profiles.
- WISC social media profiles should not be used for self-promotion of Board, Advisory and Early Career Advisory Board members beyond what would be afforded to any other member of the community.
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Treasurer:
- The WISC treasurer is not considered a Core Leadership Role at present, however, this is subject to change upon WISC board agreement.
- The treasurer role may continue for a period of time > 6 years in total as this role has no current feed-in to WISC activities, should this change the treasurer role will be considered on an equal footing with other Board member roles (excluding that of the Chair).
Executive Committee
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The Executive Committee will consist of: the WISC Chair and at least 2 Vice Chairs elected by the Board
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The Vice Chairs serving on the Executive Committee will be elected by the Board every 3-6 months with the term on the Executive Committee agreed by the Board depending on current WISC commitments and workload pressures of the Vice Chairs
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For a project requiring Executive Committee approval: the Chair and a minimum of 50% of the other Executive Committee members must agree to the project for it to gain approval. For cases where quorum is not reached for the approval (e.g. abstention due to a conflict of interest), Board approval is required for the project to be associated to WISC.
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For a project requiring Board approval: the Executive Committee will liaise with the appropriate parties to prepare a proposal that will be taken to the Board for discussion and approval (where relevant, following amendments after Board discussions).
Advisory Board
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Advisory Board members will hold their position for an initial three year period. If the Advisory board members have ceased their support of WISC activities for a period of 18 months, they will be removed from the Advisory Board without further consultation, upon approval from the WISC Board.
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Participation on the WISC Advisory Board has no time limit.
Early Career Advisory Board
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Early Career Advisory Board members will hold their position for a minimum one year and maximum three year period. If Early Career Advisory board members have ceased their support of WISC activities for a period of 12 months, they will be removed from the Early Career Advisory Board without further consultation, upon approval from the WISC Board.
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​Administration
Meetings
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The Board will meet virtually a minimum of ten times per year at average 4-6 week intervals
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A quorum of the Board will be formed with the attendance of a minimum of 51% of board members at meetings
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Meeting agendas will be circulated to the Board, and notes made available to the Board after every meeting
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Any complaints or issues raised to WISC will be discussed at the next WISC board meeting, and any response will be agreed by quorum consensus
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The core activities will be agreed by the WISC board 1 year in advance.
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The Advisory Board and Early Career Advisory Boards will each meet virtually a minimum of two times per year. Combined Advisory and Early Career Advisory Board meetings may be held to facilitate communication between the boards. Meeting agendas will be circulated to each Board and notes made available after each meeting.
Board Approval Process
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The Chair and Vice Chair (Organisation) will oversee the online voting process and notify the Board of the outcome at Board meetings (or if necessary, by email)
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For any WISC activity or change to an existing WISC activity to gain approval, that activity must be agreed by the Chair and a minimum of 51% of the other WISC Board members (see below for rules regarding vote counting in the case of abstentions)
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Abstentions: Board members may abstain from voting (e.g. in the case of a conflict of interest, period of leave from Board activities) and when relevant, give a reason for the abstention.
- In cases where the Chair declares a conflict of interest, the Vice Chair (Organisation) or another Vice-Chair approved by the Board will substitute the Chair in the approval vote.
- Abstention votes are subtracted from the count of Board members used to determine 51% needed for approval provided: a) the number of abstentions does not exceed 25% of the number of Board members and b) at least 50% of the Board (including Chair) voted yes.
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Election of Board, Advisory Board and Early Career Advisory Board
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Initially, the replacement of vacant Board member positions will be sourced from within the current Board:
- Board members can self-nominate for that position through email, to the current Chair, within a timeframe ≤ 4-weeks. If no nominations are received for a position and that position remains vacant then the current serving member will be asked to continue in that role until a replacement member can be found (see below for sourcing individuals from outside the current Board).
- If there is only one individual who self-nominates for this position then this individual will be awarded the position unless >50 % of the WISC board do not support this individual’s position.
- If there is more than 1 individual who self-nominates for a position then an anonymous vote will be held, and the candidate who obtains a majority will be awarded the position.
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For the election of Board (when a position cannot be filled from the Current Board), Advisory Board and Early Career Advisory Board positions:
- There will be an open call for applications with clear criteria for judging the applications and the aim to ensure diverse representation. The Board, however, reserves the right to invite individuals to join the Board, Advisory Board and Early Career Advisory Board when their expertise and/or lived experiences are sought for guidance on WISC activities.
- The call will be advertised on social media and through our website.
- The Executive Committee or a sub-committee of the Board will shortlist applications using the criteria and this shortlist will be approved by the Board through a vote.
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Safe Space
We want WISC to be a SAFE SPACE. What do we mean? Racism, ageism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, ableism or prejudice based on ethnicity, disability, nationality, class, gender, gender presentation, language ability, asylum status or religious affiliation will not be tolerated.
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We also understand that those of us benefiting from privilege may have unconscious biases, which we may express without understanding their contribution to oppression and microaggression. This means we have a wider understanding of safe space: as in a place in which all of us are safe to make a mistake without being shamed or attacked, for instance if we use wrong terminology reflecting an unconscious bias or a lack of understanding. We therefore encourage ‘calling in’ (as previously defined), so that we can use these occasions as learning opportunities.
We recognise that the ‘heavy lifting’ is not the responsibility of those who are oppressed, and all of us, and perhaps particularly the privileged, have a responsibility to ‘call in’ group members where we see oppression expressed or perpetuated through their words; we encourage group members to do this. On occasion, this will include difficult conversations around privilege. We urge members to remain engaged with learning and not to admonish those who are learning, nor those who are sharing their experience in order to help others learn; to accept that when/if challenged we will reflect rather than be offended; and that we are willing to accept that we may need to make changes in our language/tone/vocabulary, and not become defensive or rude if offence is pointed out.
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Ultimately though, freedom of speech, and our wish to learn and encourage learning, does not extend to the oppression or triggering of others.