Dear Ocean Sciences Colleagues,

Dear AGU Ocean Sciences Section Colleagues, as the President - elect of our section I appealed to you last year about nominating deserving colleagues for election as AGU Fellows. This year I do the same. The competition is keen because we have many deserving colleagues and only a very limited percentage of the membership of AGU, 0.1 percent, may be elected by the Union Fellows Committee each year.

As I noted last year, I have been asked by some of our members about why we have so few women elected as fellows from our section, given the large number of well qualified women in ocean sciences. The simple answer to the question about more women from Ocean Sciences being elected as Fellows is that there are too few nominations of women from among our colleagues. In this regard, our section is not different from other AGU sections. However, this does not justify the current situation or demographics of election of Fellows. My appeal last year about this situation did not yield appreciably more nominations of women to be considered for election as Fellows. However, I persist this year in once again bringing this issue to your attention because of the importance of our meeting the challenge of this issue of gender equity.

With respect to all our colleagues in the Ocean Sciences section of AGU, it is my assessment from reviewing the list of nominees during the past three years that we have a very impressive group each year. I also have the impression that there are many deserving colleagues who are not nominated because few among us go to the trouble of preparing a nomination package. As President of the Ocean Sciences Section it is inappropriate for me to nominate colleagues during my term of office and membership on the section's Fellows Committee. However, I can and do urge members of the Ocean Sciences Section to consider nominating all deserving colleagues.

The deadline for nominations this year is July 1, 2009. A list of current Fellows and the Nomination Guidelines can be accessed on the AGU web site on the Honors page.

While I am on the subject of equity, I appeal to our Ocean Science Section members to become more active in broadening the participation of all underrepresented groups in ocean science, ocean engineering and ocean technology at all levels of learning and endeavor- pre K to life long learners. We and our nation in general will benefit from such actions.

Thank you for considering these appeals.

Sincerely,

John W. Farrington

President, Ocean Sciences Section, AGU