Town Hall
Strings 2023 is happy to be hosting an innaugural town hall. There are two topics up for discussion:
1. The formation and charges of a proposed Strings Planning Committee, moderated by Rajesh Gopakumar.
2. A proposal to move the postdoc hiring deadline, moderated by Cynthia Keeler.
More information for the second proposal can be found here. Below please find the details for the first proposal. The voting form will be sent to registered participants of the Strings 2023 conference after the town hall.
UPDATE: The Strings Planning Committee proposal was approved by vote after the Strings 2023 Town hall. The current members of the committee are: David Gross [chair], Nathan Berkovits, Agnese Bissi, Stefan Fredenhagen, Igor Klebanov, Jeff Murugan, Rob Myers, Hirosi Ooguri, Sabrina Pasterski, Eva Silverstein, Edward Witten.
Strings Planning Committee
We believe that the annual Strings conference serves as an important forum, where we can meet as a community and update ourselves on the latest developments in our broad research field. These meetings have been held annually for over 30 years, and the tradition has been that new hosts spontaneously volunteered to organize the meeting. However, in recent years, there has been some difficulty in finding new hosts. In an effort to continue the Strings meetings, an Ad Hoc Strings Planning committee was organized in the summer of 2022. The aim of the committee was to be proactive in soliciting proposals and to provide advice to organizers. At this point, this ad hoc committee would like to propose that this committee be continued in an official capacity.
A proposal regarding the formation of an official "Strings Planning Committee" will be discussed at the inaugural Strings Town Hall meeting, Thursday July 27th at 13:00 ET. For those unable to attend, a recording of the discussion will also be made available shortly after the meeting ends.
Details of the proposal can be found below. After the Town Hall meeting, a vote on the proposals will open to all registered participants of Strings 2023. Voting will remain open until Friday July 28th at 13:00 ET. The final tally will be made public at the closing session on Friday July 28th.
We encourage all interested participants to participate in the discussion at the Town Hall.
Proposal from the Ad Hoc Strings Planning Committee*
The Strings Planning Committee shall be composed of a representative from each of the 3 most recent Strings conference organizing committees and any number of additional members who serve 3-year renewable terms voted on by registered participants at a townhall meeting at each Strings conference. The committee's responsibilities are to find organizers for future Strings conferences and to help them develop their plans. The initial Committee shall be composed of the current members of the Ad Hoc Strings Planning Committee listed at the end of this proposal.
The committee shall solicit proposals to host Strings conferences. A proposal should include:
-- Proposed dates.
-- List of local organizers and local administrative support.
-- Availability of the venue, funding, and on-line options.
-- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) plan to ensure that the conference will be held in a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all members of our community. There must be an EDI representative in each Strings organization committee.
-- Plan to support young researchers, postdocs, and participants from developing countries.
-- Suggestions to make the meeting environmentally friendly.
In evaluating proposals, the committee shall take into account the safety and full participation of all participants. The choice of site is not an endorsement of the policies and practices of the host city, state, or country.
If there is more than one potential host for a given year, the committee has the authority to choose one.
There will be opportunities at future townhall meetings to modify this procedure.
The Strings Planning Committee requires that each Strings conference has a code of conduct and a process to implement it. Here is an example:
Code of Conduct:
The string community is committed to providing an environment at the Strings conference that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. Participants of the conference will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, or political affiliation. Harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Conference participants will treat each other with respect to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment. We do not tolerate repeated or sustained disruption of talks, or any other behavior that interferes with full participation by others.
This code applies both to in-person behaviors and when using any communication channels, including social media.
*: David Gross [chair], Nathan Berkovits, Agnese Bissi, Stefan Fredenhagen, Igor Klebanov, Jeff Murugan, Rob Myers, Hirosi Ooguri, Eva Silverstein, Edward Witten