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A Message from the GSA President and GSA Council

Science Often Teaches Us That

Amazing Discoveries Happen

When We Least Expect Them

Most of us did not expect a novel coronavirus to envelope the earth
in a global pandemic this spring, and many of us now face obstacles
that we hadn’t even begun to imagine only a few weeks ago because
of COVID-19. You may be wondering, “What and where are the
resources I can use to take my teaching online?” “How can I further
my research when I can’t get to the field or attend conferences?”
“Can I find (or keep) a job in this sudden economic downturn?”

GSA understands that scientists, including geoscientists, will be
GSA President considered heroes in this historical saga, not just those at the front
Don Siegel lines in medicine but at every level of society. We will be the ones
who will lead the innovation and mitigation to find our way into this
new world order. GSA’s mission is to support the geoscience community in this endeavor.

To that end, GSA Council has authorized open access to some resources that may help
you keep moving forward in these uncertain times. We now have posted the GSA Online
Education Resource Guide (www.geosociety.org/online-resources) to help with teaching,
learning, and remote research, including links to third-party offerings that might be helpful.
We encourage you to use and share this information to benefit your work.

GSA is also moving quickly to take advantage of the opportunities that the new world of
virtual communication can bring to our members and the organization as the medium
evolves. In the future, we anticipate that our conferences and meetings will have more vir-
tual content that mirrors and/or enhances in-person communication. More flexibility across
all platforms of communication enables us to offer our services to members and the broader
community without the kind of disruption that COVID-19 has brought to us and to all other
organizations. GSA staff was already building on virtual platforms as part of our strategic
plan before COVID-19 struck, and so the build-out should proceed quickly.

The GSA community wants to share the burden of your very stressful life right now and
in the uncertain future ahead of us. Reach out to your colleagues, use our resources, and
make an amazing discovery about the life-saving value of your network, even if you didn’t
expect to!

Stay Well.
GSA President Don Siegel and the GSA Council

64 GSA Today | May 2020