'Job Crunch' Discussion

[KATHY KING]

     ON DISCUSSING THE JOB CRUNCH AND THE GRANT CRUNCH ON
     THE INTERNET: A RECOMMENDATION
     
     The recent discussion in the ASCB newsletter about the
     job crunch and the grant crunch led ASCB member Dr.
     Arthur E. Sowers (aesowers at umabnet.ab.umd.edu) to
     suggest that purposeful discussion could take place on
     the INTERNET in a USENET discussion group.  After some
     preliminary contact with some coordinators and
     moderators,  a search of existing newsgroups, their
     practices, and present content, he recommends that
     those with Internet USENET access be directed to the
     newsgroup  sci.research.careers  and look for relevant
     news threads or start their own.  A related newsgroup
      sci.research  is more science oriented than people
     oriented and has more traffic.  Most other newsgroups,
     including in the BIONET hierarchy, actually seem to be
     less relevant to job and grant problems. Since starting
     a new, specific newsgroups takes some time and has to
     filter through much non-centralized procedures, several
     suggestions  have led to the decision to begin with an
     existing unmoderated, but relevant and not too busy
     newsgroup.  The theme that should be kept in mind is
      Contemporary Problems in Science Jobs  and individual
     postings could use that as a title or part of a title. 
     Browsing in that newsgroup would entail looking for
     that in the titles.   Replies to a message thread on
     some sites will come under the subject in the first
     posting.  It is advised that newcomers browse the
     existing content in a newsgroup before posting and page
     through any of the better popular internet books on how
     to post to USENET newsgroups.  Test postings to  test 
     groups, places where one should practice their craft
     before making serious postings, should remember to
     include the word  ignore  in the subject and body of
     the text or there will be numerous automatic replies
     from the autoresponders that exist at many sites all
     over the world and will still be coming in for days
     after the initial test posting.  Interested parties
     should feel free to make any suggestions, express
     feelings, and relate their experiences until a
     consensus appears to be developing about what kinds of
     things should be done next.  Dr. Sowers will answer
     e-mail to him, but prefers that traffic be directed at
     the open postings.