The Society
Impact of SVP on Society

Goal:
To become the voice of paleontology for the media and society. The central idea here is that people in the media, in politics, in other scientific societies, and in society at large call upon SVP members for insight and perspective about a wide range of topics in paleontology, earth history, and global change. These topics could include new paleontological discoveries and their significance, potential misrepresentations about evolution or earth history (by creationists and others), and a deep-time perspective on global warming or extinction. An example is to contact Al Gore and inform him that SVP has support for his message about global warming (in "An Inconvenient Truth").

Key Steps to Achieve the Goal:

  1. Press Releases
    Send many press releases each year from SVP, coordinated by the Media Liaison Committee. These releases will publicize new paleontological discoveries, the Romer-Simpson medalist at each annual meeting, and topics in each issue of the JVP, among other subjects.
  2. "Rapid-Response Team"
    Establish and train a "rapid-response team" to be on call for the media to comment upon breaking news about paleontology, evolution, intelligent design, global environmental change, and other relevant topics.
  3. SVP Network
    Develop a network of SVP members to attend state or national science-teachers meetings, including the National Association of Geology Teachers. It would be useful to have one or more SVP members who could attend the meeting in all 50 states over the next five years.
  4. Volunteer SVP Member Speakers
    Provide a pool of SVP members to speak at amateur meetings in each region of the U.S. and Canada.
  5. Distinguished-Speaker Series
    Develop a distinguished-speaker series to give paleontological talks to academic or public audiences.
  6. High Visibility Speakers
    Invite a famous speaker to give a keynote address at the annual SVP meeting. Suggestions within SVP’s group were Al Gore and Steven Spielberg. The purposes would be to bring more public visibility to the annual meeting and to make the speaker aware of our relevance to his or her causes.
  7. Cultivate Relationships with the Media
    Cultivate prominent journalists (with global, national, and regional bases) to increase the coverage of paleontological subjects in the media. An example mentioned was Alex Chadwick (National Public Radio) who might be interested in developing radio expeditions to fossil sites with SVP members.

Implementation:

  1. Hire Media Specialist
    Hire a media specialist to train members of the rapid-response team and others who will be in contact with the media regularly. (Would require funding).
  2. Media Training
    Offer a media-training workshop at a forthcoming annual meeting for anyone interested. (Would require funding).
  3. Coordinate Implementation of Goals with SVP Committees
    Meet with members of the Media Liaison Committee, Education & Outreach Committee, and Information Management Committee to discuss how to implement these goals. Our general goal overlaps the missions of each of these committees. Some reconfiguration of committees might be warranted. Talk to the committee chairs before the Ottawa meeting.
  4. Develop Contacts in the Media
    Talk to current contacts in the press and ask for further contacts in order to identify journalists who have special interests in paleontology and related disciplines.