Keith’s note: A few moments ago at the NASA Advisory Council meeting Dava Newman was just gushing about a “Mission STEM” conference they are holding in Washington DC on 8-9 August with “hundreds of attendees” and partnerships with other agencies. Yet there is no mention of this event at NASA’s calendar, NASA’s Education webpage or even at missionstem.nasa.gov. If you look at the weekly NASA Education Express Message — July 28, 2016 from NASA’s Education Office you will see no mention of this event either. How are people outside of NASA’s little bubble supposed to know about these things?
Just watch. Now the secret about this stealthy event is out – little more than a week from today. Details will be grudgingly made public. You will see that this is an invitation-only event, closed to news media, and not streamed online. In other words NASA’s avowed intention of seeking external input about how to improve its education programs is not something that they intend to share with the rest of us. Think of the vast national audience they could have when coupled with NASA’s immense social media, website, and television reach. But no. Instead, its just more closed openness.
|
|
I get a weekly listing of NASA education related activities and events every week-very good, very complete ‘Education Express’ listing. I just received this week’s. I’ve been looking for events like this. Nothing at all about a NASA-related STEM conference on these dates. At this late date I probably cannot even get the travel approved.
I’m confused. The MissionSTEM website is about…wait for it…CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLIANCE?? WTF? Where’s the actual STEM content/support?
And the message from Brenda Manuel after “Read More” is dated 2012??
Are they going to have a conference for hundreds of attendees on civil rights compliance? WTF am I missing here?
Invitation only workshops seem to be becoming more common, at least in planetary science. Specifically ones where anyone aware of the workshop can contact the organizers and get an invitation. That is often a result of NASA’s less than well coordinated restrictions on travel. It’s a loophole which allows people to attend (and bill their expenses to NASA contracts and grants.) Organizing different sorts of meetings makes it harder (I.e. different rules apply to different people, or to billing to a grant versus a contract.) I don’t really like this trend, since it makes things less open and accessible to everyone who might be interested. I also know invitation only meetings can be used to deliberately exclude people. I object to that, and therefore I dislike the restrictions which seem to be making this a common and accepted way of doing business.