Membership

POSSUM Policy on Membership and Effort Tracking


POSSUM membership is open to all qualified astronomers and students who agree to abide by the relevant policies below. Please see this link to apply for membership.

Members of POSSUM have the following rights and responsibilities:

  • Members are expected make a substantive contribution to POSSUM activities through one or more of the POSSUM Working Groups. All POSSUM members must be members of and must make active technical contributions to at least one Working Group.
  • Members are expected to participate in regular POSSUM videoconferences, busy weeks and other meetings, where they will present their work and discuss topics and issues.
  • Members must agree to adhere to the POSSUM Code of Conduct and all other POSSUM policies.
  • Members will have access to all relevant tools, software pipelines, documentation and data sets resulting from POSSUM, and will be able to propose science projects and publications using these resources.
  • It is the goal to make all of these resources public as soon as possible. Non-members will have access to these resources once they are made public.
  • Activities of all members will be reviewed at regular intervals by the POSSUM Executive. Those judged to have substantively contributed since the last review period will have their membership renewed, while those who have not made substantive contributions may have their membership lapse, or may be warned that their membership may lapse unless their level of contribution increases.
  • Individuals whose membership has lapsed lose the rights associated with POSSUM membership, including data access. POSSUM projects or student projects led by a POSSUM member may terminate when that individual's membership lapses, but any POSSUM Publication for which the individual is the Principal Contact will remain active.
  • New members or expired members can (re-)apply at any time. However, any application from someone who has had two previous lapses of membership due to lack of substantive contributions will need to include a specific justification for reinstatement.

Contributions will be tracked and assessed as follows:

  • The chairs of the POSSUM Working Groups will continually assess individual contributions to the activities of their respective working group.
  • A substantive contribution is defined as making ongoing essential or meaningful technical contributions, amounting to at least ~50 hours of activity devoted to POSSUM over a 12-month period. Scientific activities are not currently counted as contributions.
  • Special consideration will be given to students who are POSSUM Members and who have active POSSUM Student Projects, recognising that a student's focus will often need to be on their individual project rather than on contributions to the overall POSSUM project.
  • The POSSUM PIs may choose to renew the membership of any individual who has not made a substantive contribution in the period since the last review, but who has made major contributions at earlier times or for whom major future contributions are anticipated.