Earlier this year, the SSE Council met in Raleigh, NC for our semi-annual meeting. We welcomed our new leaders Lynda Delph (President-Elect), Ophélie Ronce (Non-North American Vice President), Chris Caruso (Treasurer), Elizabeth Carlen (GSAC Chair-Elect), Joel McGlothlin (Councilor), and Nicole Valenzuela (Councilor). 

We reported, discussed, and voted on a variety of existing and upcoming initiatives, outlined below. We heard from each of our committees, as well as from our Business Office about our finances and membership statistics, and from our journal publisher Wiley about the progress of our journals Evolution and Evolution Letters in terms of reach, readership, and influence. We hope you’ll take a moment to look through this summary and follow the links to learn more about areas where SSE is having an impact. New programs and initiatives are marked with an asterisk.

Topics we covered at the meeting included:

• Hosting a welcoming, inclusive, intellectually stimulating, and fun annual meeting with the American Society of Naturalists and the Society of Systematic Biologists by:

• Presenting top research through our Sponsored Symposia
  
• Providing a variety of events for attendees from all backgrounds and career stages, including a “Flying Solo” event hosted by the SSE Graduate Student Advisory Council, the return of the Story Collider event featuring diverse voices from our community, and mixers for evolutionary biologists with disabilities, *scientists of color, *women in science, LGBTQ+ members, *PUI researchers, and more
• Increasing visibility and engagement with our Safe Evolution Code of Conduct by supporting trained Evo Allies and by *offering a workshop on improving workplace climate open to all attendees

[Note: Given the recent cancellation of the 2020 Evolution meeting, plans are now in the works for adjustments to the 2021 meeting and possible virtual events later this year.]

• Continuing to provide a home for top evolution research in our journals Evolution and Evolution Letters by:
  
  
• Maintaining short decision times while providing high quality, constructive reviews
• Continuing to provide low-cost Open Access options, especially to SSE members
• Increasing our international authorship and readership
• Offering science writing opportunities for trainees and improving research accessibility through free-access Digests
• Continuing to improve our article download and access rates

• Supporting student research through our grants and awards, including:

• Improving the application process via the online awards module for our Graduate Research Excellence Grants (GREGs) by working with our business office and web developer
• *Providing sample proposals as examples for students without experience writing GREG proposals
• Recognizing outstanding student presentations through the Hamilton Award
• Recognizing top student research through the Fisher Prize
• Celebrating first-time presenters at the annual meeting with swag provided by GSAC

• Increasing visibility of and participation in our many education and outreach activities, including:
  
  
• Supporting the Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution program, which brings undergrads to the annual meeting and provides tailored programming
• Supporting Undergraduate Day at Evolution, hosted by GSAC, which brings local undergrads to the meeting and provides mentoring
• Recognizing outstanding work in evolution outreach and education through the Huxley Award, Gould Prize, and Small Grants for Local and Regional Outreach
  
  
• Increasing international participation in SSE and engagement with evolutionary biology through our existing International Committee programs and grants, including:
  
  
• Funding for events organized by non-US evolution societies
• Funding for SSE members to participate in international training workshops
• Funding for SSE members in low-GDP countries to attend Evolution or ESEB meetings

• Continuing to recognize and promote diverse voices in our community including:

• *Awarding the first Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Award with ASN and SSB to recognize outstanding contributions to increasing diversity and accessibility in the evolutionary biology community
• Giving a voice to the evolution community’s diverse members and experiences through the SSE Community Blog, which you can submit to by contacting blog [at] evolutionsociety.org
• Highlighting new PIs in our New Faculty Profile series
• *Assessing our inclusivity through requests for award applicants to voluntarily provide their anonymized demographic information
  
  
• *Expanding our ability to responsibly manage Society funds with the addition of our new Treasurer position, filled by Chris Caruso
  
  
• Promoting a safe, inclusive environment for our community through the work of the tri-society Code of Ethics Committee

We thank you all for the opportunity to serve you. We welcome any thoughts, inputs, and feedback you have for us. Please feel free to reach out via email (communications@evolutionsociety.org), Twitter (;@sse_evolution), or Facebook (;@SSE.evolution).