Polar Outreach Catalogue

SACNAS is the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. They have been around for 36 years and are the largest minority serving science organization in the country. SACNAS celebrated the IPY theme for their 2008 conference, 'Global Climate Change in Our Communities'. They had 2400 people attend this meeting, and a challenged explaining to people that all disciplines of science can be connected to the IPY. Participants appreciated how the IPY theme had a 'call to action'. This year, SACNAS had a 20% increase in attendance, and had about 3000 people attend. Although not the primary focus of the meeting, the IPY sessions were filled to capacity and the theme continues to be well received. They incorporated traditional ecological knowledge from the poles and speakers to address how climate change is affecting indigenous people in the 2008 conference, and the feedback on these components was tremendous! They look forward to similar IPY sessions during next year?s conference, and hope to carry these sessions into the future.