O.R./Analytics at Work Blog

https://renew.informs.org
Dear INFORMS member,

Thank you for being part of another successful year for the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Some of INFORMS 2010 accomplishments include:

• Strong abstract submission for the Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, which bodes well for very strong attendance;
• Successful and highly rated Practice Conference in Orlando, Florida that attracted a large number of C-level executives;
• Increased international cooperation through an excellent ALIO-INFORMS Joint International Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
• INFORMS Journals now hold four of the top five journal positions in Thomson’s OR/MS article influence rankings;
• Wide acceptance of our newest outreach effort, the digital magazine Analytics;
• Strong movement toward understanding and serving the burgeoning analytics field including an exciting re-branding of our spring Practice Conference as our spring Analytics Conference;
• Launching the brand new redesigned IOL website that shines the brightest possible light on INFORMS and the profession;
• At both the Practice and Annual Meetings, experimenting with new web technologies—including blogs, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter feeds—to enhance the experience and increase the reach and impact of our meetings; and
• Launching the first of a series of Podcasts and on-demand video presentations in order to better disseminate new ideas and breakthroughs in the art and science of better decision making.

We know you share our excitement and enthusiasm for our field, which truly makes a difference in the lives of people everywhere. We invite you to renew your membership in the Institute today. Your membership dues show your support for our vitally important field and guarantee uninterrupted access to exclusive member benefits:

• Discounts of up to 60% or more on individual INFORMS publications including your dues journal and free member magazine;
• Suite of all 12 INFORMS electronic journals at the reduced price of $99 per year for regular members and $50 for retired and student members;
• Members-only savings on renowned topical, regional, national and international meetings, conferences, and workshops where you can present, learn, and network;
• Access to over 100 INFORMS Communities including Societies, Sections, and geographic and student Chapters, providing multiple options for networking with professional peers and enhancing the visibility you need;
• Educational material that you can use to enrich the O.R. classroom including print, electronic, audio, video, and multi-media materials; and
• A Job Placement Service that provides the first word on new job openings for positions in O.R. and related fields along with other career resources for academics, practitioners, and students.

We are looking forward to 2011 with great enthusiasm. We have three exciting and attractive meeting locations, including our brand new healthcare thematic meeting in beautiful and cosmopolitan Montreal in June! The Analytics Conference (formerly known as the Practice Conference) will be in fun and vibrant Chicago in April, and the Annual Meeting will take place in the growing, financial work horse city of Charlotte, North Carolina—home to great Southern charm, excellent food, and a thriving businesses community—in November. Our journals will continue to publish the very best of O.R. scholarship, and our many awards programs will continue to identify and reward meritorious achievement in all aspects of our field.

In 2011 we will continue progress on several strategic fronts. We will begin to serve professionals in the analytics field to help empower their organization’s decision making ability, further our mission, and strengthen our numbers. Pending an acceptable proposal, we plan to begin development of a new INFORMS journal—the first one in nearly 10 years. We will work to help ingrain O.R. and analytical thinking and decision making in all facets of government. And, we will take steps to ensure that principles of management science are taught in business schools to our leaders of tomorrow. Your membership dues support all of these activities, plus much more, including educational programs and outreach activities to spread the good word about O.R. and analytics.

Please don’t delay—renew your INFORMS membership today.

Sincerely,

From a practical standpoint I am an INFORMS member to support the professional society organized around the field I chose to study, practice, and teach. Professional societies need membership to remain strong, active, and influential, and I am more than willing to help INFORMS in this regard and have done so for over twenty years.

However, my decision to remain a member is more focused on my personal history with INFORMS and all that my membership has made available for me over the years. As an undergraduate student forcing myself to study biology because “being a doctor is good”, discovering O.R. classes, and finding that an O.R. professional society existed with meetings and journal publications really helped me find my academic focus. School actually became interesting! I joined ORSA as an undergraduate and even though I couldn’t understand any of the articles in Operations Research, I still wanted my copies!

After graduate school I worked in industrial R&D as an O.R. staff member. At this stage of my career the INFORMS journals and technical presentations that I could now understand became more of a focus. They helped me do my job for eight years. In addition to doing my job, I also found a new job through INFORMS in academia. As an academic who now teaches O.R., I find myself focusing more on opportunities to help INFORMS through committee work. I find this to be rewarding and a great way to meet a bunch of great people. This is where I am at now, and I will continue to be an INFORMS member. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine what would have been without INFORMS.

Please comment on why you are a member of INFORMS and why you stay a member.