AGU Board of Directors Meeting, April 2025

“For all its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future.” – Barbara Jordan

As board members, staff partners, council members and Fellows, our jobs in governance for AGU are defined by that thought. We cannot flee and we must lead.

On 9-11 April, the AGU Board of Directors met in the conference center of our net-zero headquarters building in Washington, DC. We missed the cherry blossoms, but we arrived just in time to learn of the heroic accomplishments of our staff partners, to be inspired by our collective effort to convene and communicate science and to be humbled by the world in which we find ourselves. After two and a half full days of planning and decision making, we left ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

AGU President Brandon Jones opened the meeting with the observation that “rest is resistance” (Trisha Hersey). I invite you to experience the brief but intense relief when we take a moment for ourselves to open up the time and space to think and strategize. Stop reading — close your eyes — count to 60. Open your eyes and read some more.

More than two-thirds of the board is newly elected, so we took the time to get to know each other and work on ways we can engage collectively. We discovered that AGU’s leadership framework of structure, process and culture creates a space for us to practice the norms we hold dear — all voices are heard, we are curious, we assume positive intent, we say “the thing” that many may not want to hear, we stay at a high level and we stay out of the business of day-to-day operations. Each director has an affinity for one or more of these skills, and we rely on each other as colleagues to fill the gaps that exist.

We briefly looked at AGU by the numbers. Our global community of over half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences contains some very impressive subsets. More than 30,000 attended AGU24, and the poster hall extended for an area equivalent to two square blocks in downtown DC – for FIVE full days. At any point in time, more than 20,000 reviewers and as many volunteers are busy working in partnership with staff to complete our core tasks of communicating science — be it in publications, legislative advocacy, or social media — and convening scientists to celebrate, inform, and advocate.

External to AGU, the uncertainty around our future is growing at an ever-accelerating clip. We have been inspired by the work of the AGU team supporting science and scientists in an increasingly hostile environment. We embrace the advocacy tools provided, and we applaud the actions taken, from the spreadsheet to the courtroom. We challenge ourselves to use our strengths and work within our own spheres of influence to meet the needs of the moment. From a practical perspective, we acknowledge that we as a board must make space in our plans to absorb a huge range of possible outcomes while increasing our capacity to serve scientists.

The intersection of risk and opportunity requires courage. It challenges us to embrace our duties to AGU, but also to question any deeply held organizational beliefs that get in our way of supporting the voices of our scientists and ensuring access to science. We are carefully considering how we can do the work we love and expand our support for our colleagues and institutions. As we continue to communicate and convene, we accept the challenge to work toward a future that we can be proud to leave in our children’s hands.