Guidebooks

Need a hand in running your section or what to expect from your officers? Guidebooks and Officer Handbooks are available for download.

Programs

The American Nuclear Society encourages of all phases of nuclear science and technology and the goal of student sections is to provide an interchange of information which is related to the field. Each section should be operated in line with the members’ interests.  There are a wide variety of programs you can offer your members, such as:

    1. Lectures and seminars featuring keynote speakers
    2. Movie screenings: Pandora’s Promise or other industry films.
    3. Tours of local nuclear installations.
    4. Collaborative meetings with other ANS Local or Student sections
    5. Sponsorship and/or participation in student conferences.
    6. Participation in the Student Program at ANS national meetings.
    7. Public Outreach programs (scouts, K-12, general public).
    8. Social events (fundraisers, trivia night, bowling, picnics, etc)

Meetings

Student Sections are required to hold at least four (4) meeting each year, one of which shall be the annual meeting. The frequency of meetings and social activities of a student section will depend on  student composition of your section. A section whose membership is primarily graduate students will find its members are occupied with thesis matters and monthly or bi-quarterly meetings will be sufficient. Advanced technical talks by visiting specialists will be more popular then general information discussions. Student sections having large undergraduate memberships may wish to participate in engineering shows, contests, sponsor high school science meetings, conduct tours of campus or nearby industrial facilities, as well as the technical talks. In either case, meetings at the start of the academic year will generally be less highly specialized than those later on. In particular, the first meeting can be an “introduction to nuclear science and engineering” type of program. The new transfer students and/or new faculty members are as anxious to meet you as you are to meet them.

In some institutions, due to group size or campus regulations, campus organizations having related interests may wish to conduct joint meetings.  This can work towards your benefit, since nationally known speakers are easily  secured if larger audiences are expected.

Student sections located in large metropolitan areas may function solely as a clearing agency for ANS information on the campus, and hold all their meetings in cooperation with the local section in the area. In such a case, it is recommended that student section have a representative on the local section’s executive committee.

If your institution is far from your source of speakers, write these organizations and let them know of your desire to have them present a program for you. Offer to arrange your meeting to coincide with the speaker’s being in or passing by your area on other business. You will be surprised at how many speakers will come.

Section News

One of the ANS’s communication goals is the rapid interchange of information.  To help support this goal, sections should report their activities to ANS Headquarters and to the SSC Newsletter Subcommittee to share their successes with a wider audience.  Sections can send their stories (preferably with pictures) to ssc@ans.org.

Other ANS publications: