Wow!

A CCSTI is

• a metallic structure
• leans on the chamber of commerce
• can file for bankrupcy
• limps in the North of France
• a matter of networking
• supports
• boxes exhibits
• doesn’t take care of women

Do you know now what a CCSTI is? It is a “Centre de Culture Scientifique, Technique et Industrielle“, a Center for Scientific Culture, Technology and Industry. These centers have been initiated by the government in all French regions: at the first place, it is a building, with space for exhibitions, rooms for conferences and with personnel and an address book to support activities related to science communication. During the two day long seminar of the French Physical Society (SFP) in Orleans, me and my neighbor Elisabeth, had a lot of fun collecting sentences about the CCSTI, figuring out what it was about. Actualy many actions for the World Year of Physics were done in collaboration with the CCSTI, and the collegues who got active in science communicatation testified, how much they had to learn about existing structures, networks to get press-coverage, outreach actions that work and others which don't work. A lot of valuable knowledge that should not get lost for the future.

It’s nearly a year now, that I am a member of the Council of the SFP, and it is the first time that I participated in the yearly seminar of the SFP. First of all, I was truly impressed by the review of all the activities related to the World Year of Physics that were organized in the different regions: exhibits, theater, dance, physics and art, initiatives in schools, science buses, etc. with the aim to reach the general public, and in particular to wake the interesst in school kids for science. I was stunned about all the things that happened in Paris: I am physicist, I live in Paris, I ignored most of them and I was not at all implied in any of these activities.

This is certainly my fault, not having searched for information and opportunities to get involved. But I am also sure, that it would have been possible to mobilize many more physicists in actions related to the World Year of Physics. Yet what do I know? I have not been involved in associative work so far and I am not a volunteer in any organization. Those who became actif for the WYP did so with an enormous amount of personal engagement, time and whatever means they could get. Wow! I think they deserve a big "thank you" for what they did! On the other side, I am convinced that their are still many physcists around that might want to participate in such actions, but miss a little incitation to do so. Even the way I got involved in the Quantum Diaries was pure chance: many collegues asked me how "I got selected" - yet it was simply that I've heart about it at the right moment.

The SFP has currently a problem of a decreasing membership and an "image problem" among physcists, being percived mainly as and institution disitributing "prices". Personally I had pretty much the same opinion. Why I still became a member of the SFP is a different story: my first contact was through the organization of the “Journées Jeunes Chercheurs”, a little conference for 2^nd year PhD students in High Energy Physics. For me it was the first opportunity to organize a conference. Proposing such opportunities to young physicists seems to me the best way to attract members.   

During this seminar, we had a lot of discussions, formal and informal, about “recruiting”. Most people I discussed with don’t think that publicity without being able to propose something attractive and concrete for new members is the right way to go. It maybe a difficult moment for the SFP, but I think it importat to think about its identity, its role, its purpose: institutions that are over 100 years old need some questioning from time to time to remain lively. The initiatives for the World Year of Physics, have shown that the SFP has actualy a lot to offer. But there are also working groups on North-South exchanges is physics, science education etc.There is an existing structure, we can use it, up to us, to have ideas about what we would like to do with it.