Source: RISK newsletter,
First Quarter 1996, published by the Society for Risk Analysis
In its report to the president and council during the Society's 1995 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, the SRA Advisory Board identified several areas it believes require aggressive, focused, long-term attention by the leadership and members:
(1) Competition from Other Societies. Many other societies, including long-established technical and scientific societies, now offer significant programs on risk analysis, providing competition to SRA.
(2) Areas Not Covered. Important areas of risk analysis are not adequately covered by SRA.
(3) Slow Membership Growth. SRA's overall membership, world-wide, has remained relatively stagnant despite the growth in interest and practice in the field of risk analysis in the last few years.
(4) Under-represented Private Sectors. Significant private sectors interested and, in one way or another, involved in risk analysis are under-represented--or not represented--within SRA's membership.
The board is concerned that without serious attention to these matters SRA will become a less significant factor in the broad field of risk analysis and its membership could even dwindle.
The board identified SRA's interdisciplinary, integrative character, combined with its ability to address special interests, as major strengths. With further cultivation and development, SRA's committees, specialty groups, sections and chapters, as well as its individual members, can develop attractive, significant programs and modes of outreach to cover more areas of interest, emphasize interdisciplinarity, attract more and varied members, and make SRA more visible in general and more central to its own chosen field.
To achieve this, the board suggested that provision must be made for continuity of effort transcending individual administrations of SRA and that, therefore, a strategic plan is needed. Arriving at such a plan and putting it into effect is, the board believes, a significant challenge for the president and council.
The board received a number of comments and suggestions from
the membership last year and solicits additional comments on
major issues members believe to be important to the future of the
Society. They should be forwarded either to Brett Burk at the SRA Secretariat
or to the chair of the Advisory Board, Paul Deisler, P.O. Box
5819, Austin, Texas 78763, telephone and fax (512)
480-9810.