Welcome, Postdoc Leaders!!

You are in charge of a group of volunteers looking to improve postdoctoral training and effect policy change for your larger community. Where do you start? How do you recruit and retain active volunteers? How do you unite people behind one voice? How do you tackle issues that will reach their conclusion long after you have left?

These questions torment the leaders of every volunteer organization. The Postdoc Leaders blog is designed to be a tool to help you in your volunteering. Around the world, postdocs like you step up every day to make things better for their peers. Too often resources and communication channels are scarce or are limited, so that you don't get the support you need to effect change. Nevertheless, you learn a lot through experience. This blog will provide a platform for all postdoc leaders to exchange ideas and learn from each other. What you experienced will be valuable to others, and what others experienced might help you. What challenges have you faced? How did you solve them? What worked and what did not? What happens at peer institutions? When postdocs start sharing, their stories of successful and unsuccessful grassroots leadership, we can learn from each other, and you get the support you need to effect change.  

The backbone of this blog is a  White Paper, written by consecutive postdoc leaders, and based on discussions at the NPA meetings of 2014 and 2015. On top of that weekly blog posts will address personal perspectives from us, and hopefully from you. Sign up here to never miss a post. Reach us at postdocsleaders(at)gmail.com with your comments or suggestions. And let's start supporting each other.