Oceanography | March 2021
TOS MAKES PROGRESS ON ITS
STRATEGY 2030: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
IN JANUARY 2021, I took over the posi-
tion of president of The Oceanography
Society (TOS) from Martin Visbeck, who
had just finished navigating a remarkably
challenging year punctuated by divisive
US politics, global unrest, and a devastat-
ing pandemic that changed lives every-
where. Science took a back seat, with
field seasons canceled, education systems
stalled, and many of us struggling to bal-
ance our new working arrangements. And
yet, under Martin’s steady leadership, the
Society embraced many positive changes.
With a stabilized budget and healthy
membership growth, Martin turned his
sights to our longer-term strategy— one of
his goals for TOS was to articulate a vision
for the Society for the coming decade.
After the close of the Ocean Sciences
Meeting in San Diego in February 2020,
and just weeks before the pandemic shut-
tered our everyday lives, Martin con-
vened a strategy and visioning work-
shop for TOS. Drawing energy from
the UN Decade of Ocean Science for
Sustainable Development, he called the
session “Strategy 2030: Looking to the
Future” and posed several questions for
its participants: “How should TOS adapt
to the changes in ocean science? How
can TOS provide value for our members?
And how can we strengthen the profile
and impact of TOS?”
Many exciting ideas were proposed at
the first Strategy 2030 workshop, and feel-
ing energized, participants decided that
some of these ideas needed to be imple-
mented without delay, before the vision-
ing process was complete. High on the
priority list was the notion that we need
to both support excellence in core ocean
sciences research and exploration and
yet firmly encourage a vision that helps
ocean science solve some of our planet’s
most thorny challenges. It appeared that
a good starting place for TOS would be to
improve our scientific inclusivity, mem-
ber equity, and diversity. We want broad
participation to include members who
represent solution-driven science at the
intersection of oceanography and socio-
economics, policy, social sciences, big
data, and informatics. One way to encour-
age an inclusive and diverse membership
is for the make-up of the TOS Council to
reflect the scientific diversity of its mem-
bers. As a result of this first workshop,
we have added an Ocean Data Science
Councilor and an Ocean Social Science
and Policy Councilor. TOS’s commit-
ment to its student and early career mem-
bers remains strong, and so we have also
added an Education Councilor and an
Early Career Councilor, and have initi-
ated a Student Committee, chaired by the
Council’s Student Representative.
An area that has seen explosive growth
in engagement and awareness on the
national stage, and has some very sig-
nificant urgency in our own Society, is
the issue of justice, equity, diversity, and
inclusion (JEDI). The TOS JEDI commit-
tee was inaugurated this last year, with
the goal of celebrating our differences and
creating a culture of belonging. The JEDI
committee has been diligently working to
firm up our core values and terms of ref-
erence, which will soon be shared with
the TOS community. As president of
TOS, I feel we are in good hands with the
wisdom of our JEDI committee.
While the pandemic offered few sil-
ver linings, it did turn out to be a time
of opportunity for experimenting with
member engagement. We have learned
that member engagement can be more
creative, more personalized, and suc-
cessful even without the privilege of
in-person meetings. Some of the rec-
ommendations from the first Strategy
2030 workshop for enhancing member
engagement include hosting our annual
membership meetings online, a policy
we have now adopted and will imple-
ment this coming year, and hosting webi-
nars to engage members, which we have
also started planning, with a fireside talk
webinar focused on “Oceanography and
Technology” about to be rolled out.
While some of the actions recom-
mended, and implemented, as a result of
the Strategy 2030 workshop are reason to
celebrate, my goal as president of TOS is
to pick up where Martin left off and com-
plete the TOS Strategy 2030, embracing
a use-inspired mission that benefits our
global society and the environment. I
look forward to the challenges ahead and
to working with the TOS Council, and I
especially hope I can lean on my prede-
cessors to help find the right path forward.
I am writing to you from the main lab
on one of our ocean class research ves-
sels, about to embark on an expedition to
explore the intersection of ocean acous-
tics and shelf break physical oceanogra-
phy, hopeful that this is the beginning of
the end of a painful year in which the pan-
demic has stifled the advance of observa-
tional ocean science. Yet, I am also heavy
hearted, knowing that for many interna-
tional members of our Society, the pan-
demic is still raging. I look forward to a
time when we can all engage equally in
this scientific endeavor.
Andone C. Lavery, TOS President
FROM THE PRESIDENT