Ok I lied, I didn't do the post I promised Tuesday night. Instead I stayed up till all hours of the night hanging out with friends. And we were at the Tabard Inn. It doesn't get much better than that. Along with wonderful food and wine, they even have a green roof!

The post I promised was about the session that Jenn, FarierScience friend Susan Metz and I did at NSF's big Joint Annual meeting on Tuesday.

Our goal: Make STEM gender researchers and advocates better at getting their message across to the media.
Other method: Role play, of course. Jenn played the naive researcher who has just done a study of men as fairy godmothers. Susan was the intrepid reporter and I was the stop action person. Every time Jenn goofed I stopped the action and asked the audience what Jenn should do.

It was a fairy tale in four acts:

Act I: Don't agree to an on the spot interview; research the journalist first.
Act II: Have a message and tailor it to your audience.
ACT III: Watch your language.
Act IV: Answer the question you want to answer; not necessarily the one you are asked.

Then all 140 people there had to write a response to a reporter's question: " I understand that the goal of your project is to increase the number of women in science and engineering; why is this important?"

We got some great responses including:

"Airbags"
"Diverse groups produce better results"
"Our world needs the intellectual talent of people of all backgrounds"
"Women's participation make all scientists better scientists"
"If the cure to cancer was in the mind of a girl, we’d miss it." Quoting Myra Sadker, who died of breast cancer.

Feel free to use them or better yet come up with your own and share. BTW we're going to do a similar version at WEPAN on June 18th If your going to be at WEPAN come join us. It's 11:15 in the Austin South Room of the Omni. This time FairerScience friend Kathryn Campbell-Kibler will be the stop action person and I'll be the evil reporter. Jenn will reprise her role as the hapless researcher