By Renetta Garrison Tull, Ph.D.
Wherever we grow up around the world with whatever native language, mastering our “ABCs” is foundational to how we learn, understand, and grow. I guess that’s why I am drawn to this structure when surveying or analyzing large amounts of information. Reflecting on the broad range of our discussions at the AGU Board of Directors’ December meeting, it seemed we had covered everything from A-Z. So why not report out doing just that?
The Board started the day assessing the A-Team partnership qualities of volunteer leaders, members and staff that all brought an action-oriented, agile approach in meeting the current climate of challenge to science funding and policy. New alliances were formed to support fired federal workers and advance climate science. The Board also approved the AGU 2026 Budget and committed to always having a “beyond” mentality in our ambitions, moving beyond borders to global reach. Our agenda focused on the importance of looking to our Community and the larger culture for answers and direction when confronting crisis.
A major discussion was led on the troubling trend of Declining trust in science and how data and documentation is needed more than ever. That also means we need to promote the upcoming Elections for AGU Board so that the posture of AGU continues to be, quoting President Brandon Jones, “Fighting Forward” to protect and defend our members. We spoke of the importance of always being Globally minded to truly represent the scientific enterprise and ever conscious that History matters.
A review of membership trends Illustrated the continued need for engaging industry for meaningful partnerships. Speaking of growth, we heard a lot about the increase in our Journals’ output, especially with special collections and open access. The Board also heard about the Eos Engage program for high schoolers and discussed how the whole of K-12 is vital in growing science’s next generation. There was also an update on our support of ongoing Litigation in defense of fired federal scientists and how this can be used to demonstrate Member Value in AGU.
We were presented with an overview of AGU25 New Orleans and commended staff on the extensive preparations. We acknowledged that Policy and politics will continue to shape leadership demands. We must continue to ask Questions that build both our quantitative and qualitative data. It seemed like Resilience was a constant underlying flavor to our agenda as we dedicated ourselves to strengthening not just Science but Trust in science so that our global community is Unified and unwavering. Part of that process we recommended, is increasing our communications with strong Video output to drive home the value proposition of the whole organization.
Finally, we saluted our Volunteer leaders and recognized we need more of them especially from the next generation so that we are Winning for science. And in closing, in Mandarin Chinese we say 谢谢 or “thank you” for living in the ‘Yes’ and going forth with a Zest to support and grow our sciences and always show up with a zeal for embracing this mission.