Final SWISLR All-Hands Meeting

The funding for our SWISLR RCN is ending this June. We were able to host the final SWISLR all-hands meeting at LUMCON May 13th - 16th. We had 19 participants from various universities and many from LUMCON join our meeting. We heard updates from 15 different projects spanning from studying ecological shifts to socio-ecological impacts to soil chemistry. We discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the SWISLR RCN over the three year funding period. We saw first hand the land loss along the Louisiana coast and heard about life with these changes from the Point Au Chien Indian Tribe

​From conversations throughout the all-hands meeting and beyond, a common theme appearing has been the importance of keeping this network alive post funding. So the question arises: How do we continue the benefits of the SWISLR RCN without the DISES funded network?

We have been discussing what pieces of the SWISLR RCN should be kept moving forward. Mostly, people would like to keep the connections created and the information exchange possibility alive. One of the biggest benefits of the RCN has been the ability for early career researchers to meet and connect with other SWISLR focused people at all stages of their career. This sort of connection has spawned many collaborative research projects all focused on better understanding the hazard of SWISLR. We are working to create an online community platform that will help sustain this network after this funding is gone. While this effort is underway, here are some smaller ideas that came out of the all-hands meeting to help us keep this network alive:

1. Host a SWISLR focused session at a conference (and tell us about it!)
2. Meet with other SWISLR people at your institution to give updates and share information
   
3. Submit a newsletter update for easier newsletter curation in the future: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexDwodYrlVKAfNiIXRXKrrT8blN2za6DHEvxj3urKiLvpYeQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
4. Identify your top SWISLR research papers or news articles and share them with the network.

As we continue to brainstorm efforts we would love to include your voices in the RCN feedback and help us decide what efforts to focus on. Complete this survey to provide your thoughts on the DISES supported SWISLR RCN: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_410mSLEfDn910zA​