This email came today from one of our fantastic hub liaisons in Boston, Natalie Kuldell of the MIT Department of Biological Engineering. I thought others might enjoy hearing about their great kick off event.

Hi Sheri— If folks are looking for ways to jumpstart their regional hubs, I can highly recommend what we tried here in Boston. Just a few weeks ago we kicked off our regional hub with a meeting at a brewpub. We picked a place that was not too far for any of our “hubbies” to travel to. We also picked a place that wasn’t the “home institute” for any of us (me, Ben and Marie who are coordinating the Boston area hub) since we strongly feel that the hub doesn’t belong to any single participant. Email invitations went out about 2 weeks before the event, asking folks to stop by the brewpub between 4 and 6, to meet one another and share a little information about what’s happening at their organizations. At the event, we had a few nametags, a few copies of the latest COPUS Clarion and a list of the YoS2009 monthly themes. We socialized most of the time but did take about a 1/2 hour out to go around the room to say who we are, why we joined COPUS and how we’d like to see the hub work. One of the most surprising things to come from the gathering (at least surprising to us, the organizers) is how much there is going on in our area and yet how little effort has been made in the past to cross-promote and inform each other of these programs. So now we have two more mixers planned, one for July and another for September. We have lots of folks eager to share and coordinate their efforts and there’s a real sense of collaboration and sharing among us. So as I said at the start, if folks at other hubs are looking for ways to launch, I would highly recommend a face-to-face kickoff event at a brewpub or some other social place. Maybe you can join us for the next one! Best, Natalie Kuldell

For more information about the Boston hub and how to participate contact Natalie at nkuldell@MIT.EDU. Participation is open to anyone in the science community in the Boston area (or anyone within driving distance), the more the merrier!