As I near the end of my two-year term as UFFC-S President, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve done, what worked, what didn’t, and what remains to be accomplished.

One of the challenges that I mentioned at the start of my term would be how we implemented hybrid conferences. Last year, as we slowly emerged from the pandemic, hybrid was recognized as a requirement because of continuing travel restrictions and health-related concerns. Indeed, based on post-conference health reports, our conferences were small but distinct “spreader” events. Each of our flagship conferences used different hybrid approaches, including livestreaming and remote Zoom presentations. My stated goal was that we would experiment and learn (and fail, perhaps). We did learn that there is a segment of our conference attendees who need to have remote/hybrid access. Even in 2023, with the pandemic issues further behind us, we still have significant virtual participation. However, the costs are high: the Society spent around 400,000 dollars on hybrid in 2022. While there may be some who propose returning to in-person only, this is a disservice to our members who cannot physically attend. The reasons may include family responsibilities, personal health, delays in obtaining visas, budget cutbacks at companies and universities, and most recently, restrictions on travel arising from climate concerns. So we will continue to have hybrid conferences, and now we need to find a balance between access and costs. That is still a work in progress, and we will continue to require presentation videos before the conference, to ensure availability for our colleagues joining remotely. (Coincidentally, pre-recording also serves as a backup in case unexpected issues arise with conference travel.) More details will be forthcoming soon about the videos and how they will help the Society in the long run. Again, I don’t think we’ve completely optimized the hybrid experience, so it will be an ongoing experiment.

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