SRA Chapters Handbook

Overview

A Chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) represents the SRA members from one or more areas within a country, and has its own officers and program.

The purpose of this handbook is to help new or prospective Chapter leaders become familiar with local chapter functions and the national organization.

The handbook is comprised of 7 sections:

1. Introduction
2. Mission Statement
3. Forming a Chapter
4. Membership and Dues
5. Communications
6. Meetings
7. Speakers

1. Introduction

Chapters help SRA members in a local area organize activities, invite speakers, hold conferences, and foster intellectual exchange. Chapters may also sponsor travel awards and other assistance to members.

2. Mission Statement

• Mission statement and activities for Chapters .
• For examples of current Chapter activities, click on several of the individual Chapter web sites.

3. Forming a Chapter

The basic steps needed to form a chapter and Sample of chapter by-laws (from SRA Secretariat):

• Section XII of the SRA Bylaws, “Regional Sections and Chapters”
• Requirements for Chapters
• Petition for Chapter Status (or as a MS Word file)
• Samples of Chapter Bylaws can be found via the Chapters web sites (see e.g. the Ohio Chapter Bylaws and the Northern California Chapter Bylaws)

4. Membership and Dues

Examples of membership applications for SRA Chapters can be found through the SRA web site via the list of Chapters web sites. For example,

• Greater Pittsburgh Chapter
• Northern California
• Research Triangle

Many SRA Chapters now collect dues through the Annual Meeting and Dues Payment conducted by the SRA. See the online dues renewal form or contact sra@burkinc.com.

5. Communications

Different methods are used by chapters to communicate with members, including newsletters, e-mail, and chapter web sites.

See the the list of Chapters web sites for examples of current communications methods used by chapters.

6. Meetings

This section contains information on how different chapters hold meetings, including special meetings or events.

See Chapter web sites for examples of recent and regular meetings held by chapters. Following are some recent examples of the different meeting methods used by the Chapters:

• Chapitre St-Laurent held a conference in late May 2001 in Montreal. They plan 1 meeting per month, alternating between Montreal and Quebec. The attendance for their first meeting was approximately 40 people.
• Chicago Chapter has bI-monthly meetings at Argonne National Laboratory. They are planning a 4-day workshop at Argonne on Ecological Risk Assessment to be held sometime next year. DOE-Chicago, EPA-Region V, and Argonne will sponsor the workshop/symposium. They intend to use ANL’s publishing department to produce the proceedings from these workshops.
• New England Chapter holds seminars every month with two speakers at each session. The attendance for these seminars has been excellent. They had a poster session on April 10, 2001. Approximately 30-40 people attended the poster session.
• Philadelphia Chapter has 3 meetings a year, with approximately 25 attendees at each meeting.
• Research Triangle Park holds monthly presentations at which experts report on work they are doing relating to risk assessment. The Research Triangle chapter also holds an annual symposium.
• Southern California covers a large geographic area from Los Angeles to San Diego. They have an annual workshop in May, and are very interested in inviting speakers from outside California to the workshop. This year they organized four dinner meetings, which were very well attended. A speaker for each of these dinner meetings discusses a different topic.

7. Speakers

This section contains information on the availability of speakers from the SRA.

Chapters frequently invite guest speakers, usually funded by Chapter membership dues, meeting registration fees, donations from local sponsors, co-sponsorship with local universities, and the like.

In addition, through the SRA Speakers Bureau, the national SRA can offer funds to Chapters to support visits by speakers who are present or past SRA officers and members of the SRA Council. Chapters interested in such support for the SRA should write to the national SRA requesting such funds, as indicated in the Chapter's Request for Travel Funding for an SRA Speaker.