Microscopy Society of America Focused Interest Groups: A Historical (and Personal) Perspective


Beverly E. Maleeff Administrative Editor, Microscopy Today


bev@alumni.psu.edu “A Focused Interest Group (FIG) is a group of not less than


ten MSA members who have organized, with the approval of MSA Council, to promote a specific discipline relevant to microscopy or microanalysis.” – mission statement from the FIG guidelines. Microscopy Society of America (MSA) Special Interest


Groups (SIG), predecessors of FIGs, were envisioned as a way to provide a meeting “home” for scientists whose microscopy and microanalysis disciplines were neither affiliated with a profes- sional organization nor met on a regular basis. At the 1999 MSA Winter Council meeting, a motion was made and seconded to establish the concept of SIGs. Per the meeting minutes, a committee was appointed to “bring specific recommendations relative to SIG criteria to Summer Council 1999 for approval.” Appointed committee members were Ralph Albrecht, Gracie Burke, Barry Carter, Ernie Hall, Jay Jerome, and Janet Wood- ward. By the time the 2000 Winter Council meeting was held, Special Interest Groups became Focused Interest Groups. Te Vascular Corrosion Casting (VCC; also known as MicroCor- rosion Casting) group was approved as the first official MSA FIG (Table 1). In the minutes of the 2001 Summer Council meeting, it was


noted that the VCC FIG, led by Fred Hossler, and the Bioma- terials FIG, led by Steven Eppell, “have had a positive effect by adding contributed papers” to the scientific program. Propos- als for additional FIGs were on the horizon. Several months later, at the 2002 Winter Council meeting, it was recorded that three new FIGs were approved by MSA Council: Focused Ion Beam (FIB), led by Lucille Giannuzzi; Atom Probe Field Ion Microscope (APFIM), led by David Larson; and Pharmaceuti- cals (Pharma), led by me. It was suggested that the Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) Program Chair should consult with FIG Leaders to decide which groups could organize a sympo- sium or other program-related activity in any given year. As recorded in the meeting minutes, the FIG guidelines then in development should be modified to state that “a FIG function depends on the activity of the group, but at a minimum should organize a symposium at an annual meeting.” However, “a FIG symposium at an annual meeting is not guaranteed. Te deci- sion is to be made by the Program Chair.” One year later, at the 2002 Summer Council meeting in


Quebec, FIG committee chair Ralph Albrecht commented on how the FIGs’ well-attended sessions served to attract attend- ees to the annual meetings and urged MSA Council to recog- nize their importance and relevance to the Society. Using the Technologists’ Forum as an example of success, he and Barry Carter pointed out that these specialized groups could be used as a way to increase membership in the Society. Also at this meeting, the application of a new FIG, Materials Research in


46 doi:10.1017/S1551929522000669


an Aberration-Free Environment (A-F) was approved; this new FIG would be eligible to propose a symposium for M&M 2003. Te PharmaFIG also held its first membership meeting in Quebec and made plans for a symposium at M&M 2003 in San Antonio. In 2003, there was some Council discussion regarding


the structure and leadership of the FIGs; it was noted that one or two groups had not changed leadership since they were formed. It was the original intent of the ad hoc committee that FIG leadership should change every 2 years. Tis action was communicated to the FIGs. However, at this point, there were still no formal guidelines in place. At M&M 2004 in Savannah, GA, I was approached by


Ralph Albrecht, FIG committee chair, and Barry Carter with an interesting proposal: would I consider becoming Chair of this collection of focused interest groups? Given that I had orga- nized the Pharmaceuticals FIG following a successful Pharma symposium at M&M 2000 and had held other leadership roles with MSA committees, they felt that I had the expertise to orga- nize the growing number of informally arranged groups into formal, MSA-sanctioned FIGs. I accepted the challenge, and my 3-year appointment as FIG Chair became official in 2005 (Table 2). At the same time, Council agreed that the FIG concept


would be a dynamic 5-year experiment. Formal guidelines and operating procedures, including dues collection, would need to be developed and implemented. It was felt that by assessing dues, in addition to annual MSA dues, members would dem- onstrate a commitment to supporting their chosen disciplines, and at the same time would build a treasury that each indi- vidual FIG could use to support non-program-related activities. In addition, the application to create a new Facilities Operation and Management (FOM) FIG was approved by Council. By 2005, the total number of sanctioned FIGs was seven:


A-F, APFIM, Biomaterials, FIB, FOM, Pharma, and VCC; each was chaired by a FIG Leader. Te overall coordinator of the FIGs was designated the FIG Chair; there was a (very brief) discussion that the holder of that position should be called the FIG Newton! Te FIG Chair convened the first meeting of the FIG Leaders at M&M 2005 in Honolulu. In addition to repre- sentatives from the 7 recognized FIGs, attendees included: MSA President Gracie Burke, who brought greetings and congratu- lations from MSA Council; MSA President-Elect Jay Jerome; MSA Council FIG Liaison Jeanette Killius; M&M 2005 Program Chair Bob Price; M&M 2006 Program Chair Paul Kotula; and M&M 2007 Program Chair Mike Marko. It was at this meeting that the first draſt of the FIG Guidelines was presented, and codified operating procedures were discussed. Specific recom- mendations were brought to the table by Bob Price regarding


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