Community and Urban Sociology

Dear CUSS members, I would like to begin my first Chair’s Message by expressing gratitude to Derek Hyra for his leadership during a difficult year and for assembling teams of people who created successful sessions and meetings at the online version of ASA’s annual meeting. I also want to thank our Secretary Treasurers, Mary J. Fischer and Yuki Kato. Special thanks to Yuki, who is staying on in that role for one more year after stepping in mid-term. They have made our section better and are helping me to transition into the role of Chair.

At the online Business Meeting, we thanked outgoing Council members Alexandra K. Murphy and Zaire Z. Dinzey-Flores and welcomed new members Brian McCabe and Jessica Simes. I also want to thank Mary J. Fischer for serving as the new Chair-elect. Thank you to Albert Fu for his dedicated work as Communications Coordinator, a role that is vital for engaging in public sociology and sharing our members’ work (please send announcements for the list to Albert at afu@kutztown.edu).

In terms of new business, we will have five sessions next year in Los Angeles. We have called for volunteers and are staffing the committees and organizing sessions and planning the reception. We solicited volunteers at the Business Meeting and on the listserv. We are also working on creating a slate of positions for next year’s election, so if are interesting, please let Mary know (mary.fischer@uconn.edu). Yuki and I are working on creating an online volunteer form for future use, as it is very important to me that everyone has a chance to get involved. Thank you to all of our members for their past and future service and engagement.

I’m honored and excited to start my year as your Chair, and I look forward to working with all of you over the year and at the meeting in Los Angeles. Please renew your Section membership and encourage colleagues and students to do the same, as our strong membership demonstrates the importance of community and urban sociology to ASA. My door is open, and I welcome ideas about improving the section. I am especially interested in ways to improve membership and help our section demonstrate excellence in diversity and inclusion, a subject about which I feel passionate and am prioritizing in my own professional work. My email is rachael.woldoff@mail.wvu.edu. Do not hesitate to reach out!

Warmly,

Rachael A. Woldoff