Long history – pros and cons: the youth section of the Hungarian Met Society

The Hungarian Meteorological Society (MMT) was established in 1925, long before the independent meteorological education was offered at the University.

As more than 100 students had already graduated in meteorology after a couple of years, an urgent need arose to bring together the young professionals. So, in 1957 the youth section of the MMT was created, namely Róna Zsigmond Ifjúsági Kör. The fresh and energetic launch was followed by a setback due to the changes in the educational system. After two decades of silent existence, a fresh start was made in 1977 and the youth section was re-established. Since then, there have been nine chair persons, who have led the activities of the youth section.

During the decades of its being, the foremost purpose of the youth section was to bring together young people from the University and also those who had recently graduated. The aim was to provide a platform for them to give and listen to scientific lectures, not only from the field of meteorology – which, we have to admit, is pretty broad in itself – but also people from related sciences. Giving a talk in a friendly environment has benefits for inexperienced young researchers:  they can gain experience of explaining their work and develop their presentation skills. Space for these meetings and talks is usually provided by the Hungarian Meteorological Service or the University.

Despite these gains, a ‘little’ inconvenience arose after several decades of existence … The youth section faces a problem – which is probably familiar for many of the readers: aging. In the most respectful way, we have to admit that the latest generation is not much attracted to the Society, not as much as it used to be. So, using the latest telecommunication methods and approaches, we are now trying to attract the “fresh blood” into the Society, for example using Facebook as an ad platform for our events, and this proved very-very effective!!!
We are planning to have our meetings online in future and we really do hope that the international connection with the jungeDMG in Germany and other youth networks in meteorology will be attractive to early-career scientists also in Hungary.

With an optimist spirit, we hope we can achieve this noble goal and keep in mind: time and tide wait for no one.

Mariann Darányi
Chair of Róna Zsigmond Ifjúsági Kör