Dear ORSNZ members,
There is an opportunity to represent ORSNZ at the upcoming IFORS (given that the Coronavirus situation has been resolved). Our IFORS representative, Andy Philpott, is not going to IFORS this year so if you are planning on going and would like to represent ORSNZ please let me know (president[AT]orsnz.org.nz). Below is a letter to Andy that outlines some opportunities for ORSNZ’s rep at IFORS 2020.
Kind regards,
Mike (ORSNZ President)
Greetings!
IFORS 2020 is coming up and I do hope to see you there. As you know, it is during our Triennial Conferences that we get to meet during the Board of Representatives meeting where the Administrative Committee reports on its activities.
We would like to hear from you, our members, and for this, we have organized a session called the Lightning Talks and the Roundtable Discussion which I describe below.
Lightning Talks- Perspectives on the Local State of OR and the Role of National Societies
The lightning talks are intended to be a way of opening up windows into different aspects of OR practice across various national settings and how each national society performs its role of promoting the discipline. Representing a country, each speaker will deal with the national state of OR study and practice, which forms the backdrop in which the national OR society operates. For one hour, five speakers will each be asked to do a 10-minute presentation. The idea is for the audience to get an overview of the state of OR study and practice in the locality. For the second half, each speaker will touch on the successes and challenges faced by the society and how these are achieved and addressed, respectively. These talks are meant to drum up interest of the audience, stimulate discussions, and provide food for thought for the succeeding session on how OR national societies tackle the successes and challenges that face them in the short term and on the long term as they strive to fulfill their objectives.
Roundtable Discussion: Learning from Successes and Challenges of National OR Societies
This 1-1/2 hour session will involve dividing participants into small groups of not less than 5 per group. During the group discussion, each participant will speak for his or her society, guided by a questionnaire. Each group will have a facilitator, recorder and reporter. At the end of the session, reports from each group will be shared with the audience.
The group will tackle these questions:
- How is OR practice and education in your country?
- How has this affected your national OR society?
- What did your national society do well? In which aspects could it do better?
- Are there other experiences shared by others that you could try with your national society?
- What do you think are your society’s key success factors?
- What could IFORS and/or its national societies do to help countries who are struggling to drive OR forward?
At the end of 50 minutes, each table will have a reporter who will tell the others the summary of what their group has discussed. A secretary will record all key points and this could be included in a report or article for IFORS.
I am inviting you to participate in this session. While I realize that you may not be able to come, I do hope that you’ll exert every effort to see that your society is represented. You may have some associates who are presenting papers and they could still participate in the session as this is exempted from the one-author-one-abstract rule.
The session is still being scheduled. Please coordinate with former IFORS President Elise del Rosario (REDACTED) who is putting together this session.
Sincerely,
Grazia Speranza
President, IFORS
