It’s that time of year again. The Winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society is nearly upon us. To make the most of your time at the meeting, we at AstroBetter would like to remind you of some resources available on the Wiki.
First, the post that everyone attending a winter AAS meeting should read (even if you’re not a first-timer), Jason Wright’s guide to Getting the Most Out of AAS Meetings. This resource is especially useful for students attending their first AAS meeting!
Jason has updated this post with specific sections regarding harassment and the wonderful Astronomy Allies program. ALL ATTENDEES need to familiarize themselves with the AAS Anti-Harassment Policy. The AAS Winter Meeting is a meeting of professional astronomers (not a nightclub) and we should all behave as such.
Second, if you are giving a presentation, whether it be a talk or a poster, the AstroBetter Wiki has a number of resources to help you with your Presentation Skills.
Third, if you have an idea for a fun, small project you’d like to put together, we highly recommend that you check out AASHackDay. A hack day is a day where we come together to write code or work on some other project, fast. The idea is to design a do-able project and fully execute it in one day. Or at least go down trying. Come with a project, or come with deployable skills, ready to deploy.
If you have a Twitter account, you can also tweet with the #AAS227 hashtag to follow the goings-on throughout the conference. Personally, I find this particularly useful when there are too many simultaneous sessions I want to go to, so I can follow the tweets coming out of that session.
Most importantly, be respectful of everyone you meet or encounter. Strive to be inclusive and non-discriminatory. It makes both the meeting and our field better for all of us!
If you know of any other good resources, or found any of ours particularly useful, please leave a note in the comments.
Also, if you use twitter, make sure to tweet with the #aas227 hashtag during the meeting, and to write your twitter handle on your badge (assuming you want to….)
Yes! Following what’s going on throughout the meeting on Twitter is fascinating.