Motivation: During the virtual Southern African Society of Plant Pathology (SASPP) conference, in 2021, members of SASPP were challenged to take ownership of ‘their’ organisation. A group of graduate and early career researcher members of SASPP have communicated and shared some ideas to initiate a chapter of SASPP to serve their peers and the SASPP community on social media platforms.

The chapter aims to bridge networking between SASPP congresses and foster a community which takes ‘ownership’ of plant health and crop protection while building careers.

Proposed activities:
– Engage with one another as graduates, ECRs and with our mentors.
– Promote plant pathology as a subject area
– Professional skills development
– Networking with industry – support or create invited seminar, not all want to remain in academia.

This survey was requested by the SASPP Council Members, seated at the University of the Free State, to gauge interest in launching a Chapter of this nature in SASPP.

Once the survey is completed a draft of the proposal will be shared with SASPP members.

Please complete this survey before the 20th of July 2022, in order for us to prepare the completed draft proposal for circulation. Should you have further inquiries please contact Dr Lisa Rothmann on coetzeeLA@ufs.ac.za.