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SRA Regional Organization Handbook

Overview

A regional organization of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) represents the SRA members from one or more areas within a country and has its own officers and program.

The purpose of this handbook is to help new or prospective regional organization leaders become familiar with local regional organization functions and the national organization.

The handbook is comprised of 7 sections:

  1. Introduction
  2. Mission Statement
  3. Forming a regional organization
  4. Membership and Dues
  5. Communications
  6. Meetings
  7. Speakers

1. Introduction

Regional organizations help SRA members in a local area organize activities, invite speakers, hold conferences, and foster intellectual exchange. Regional organizations may also sponsor travel awards and other assistance to members.

2. Mission Statement

3. Forming a Regional Organization

The basic steps needed to form a regional organization and sample of regional organization bylaws (from SRA Secretariat):

4. Membership and Dues

Examples of membership applications for SRA regional organizations can be found through the SRA website via the list of regional organization web sites. For example,

Many SRA regional organizations now collect dues through the annual meeting and dues payment conducted by the SRA. See the online dues renewal form or contact sra@burkinc.com.

5. Communications

Different methods are used by regional organizations to communicate with members, including newsletters, email, and regional organizations websites.

See the the list of regional organizations websites for examples of current communications methods used by regional organizations.

6. Meetings

This section contains information on how different regional organization hold meetings, including special meetings or events.

See regional organization websites for examples of recent and regular meetings held by regional organizations. Following are some recent examples of the different meeting methods used by the regional organizations:

  • Chapitre St-Laurent held a conference in late May 2001 in Montreal. They plan 1 meeting per month, alternating between Montreal and Quebec. The attendance for their first meeting was approximately 40 people.
  • Chicago Regional Organization has bi-monthly meetings at Argonne National Laboratory. They are planning a 4-day workshop at Argonne on Ecological Risk Assessment to be held sometime next year. DOE-Chicago, EPA-Region V, and Argonne will sponsor the workshop/symposium. They intend to use ANL’s publishing department to produce the proceedings from these workshops.
  • New England Regional Organization holds seminars every month with two speakers at each session. The attendance for these seminars has been excellent. They had a poster session on April 10, 2001. Approximately 30-40 people attended the poster session.
  • Philadelphia Regional Organization has 3 meetings a year, with approximately 25 attendees at each meeting.
  • Research Triangle Park holds monthly presentations at which experts report on work they are doing relating to risk assessment. The Research Triangle regional organization also holds an annual symposium.
  • Southern California covers a large geographic area from Los Angeles to San Diego. They have an annual workshop in May, and are very interested in inviting speakers from outside California to the workshop. This year they organized four dinner meetings, which were very well attended. A speaker for each of these dinner meetings discusses a different topic.

7. Speakers

This section contains information on the availability of speakers from the SRA.

Regional organizations frequently invite guest speakers, usually funded by regional organization membership dues, meeting registration fees, donations from local sponsors, co-sponsorship with local universities, and the like.

In addition, through the SRA Speakers Bureau, the national SRA can offer funds to regional organizations to support visits by speakers who are present or past SRA officers and members of the SRA Council. Regional organizations interested in such support for the SRA should write to the national SRA requesting such funds, as indicated in the Regional Organization’s Request for Travel Funding for an SRA Speaker.