GUEST EDITORIAL: The Importance of Wood Science Professional Organisations

Scientists enjoy participating in professional associations. These associations provide us a forum to publish our papers, orally present our findings at meetings, network with old and new colleagues, and develop collaborative research partnerships. There are several professional wood science organisations throughout the world. These organisations typically do not contain members from a wide range of countries. Rather, the members are largely from one or more countries with a very small minority of members from other countries. Societies such as these can be very effective at serving member needs. However, these societies suffer from lack of diversity of input that can be expected with members from different countries, backgrounds, races, religions, etc. Sociologists refer to this as ‘group think’ in which most members of the group tend to think alike. New and creative ideas for the betterment of the society in the present and future become uncommon.