Quick Summary

SPAAM is a community of researchers from around the world focusing on ancient metagenomics, affiliated with the International Society of Biomolecular Archaeology

• Our primary community space is Element, and we also have an annual conference and other online events

• All career stages are invited, but the emphasis is on providing a welcoming space for early-career researchers

• We have a variety of initiatives to support the community, from classes to informal meetings and seminars

• SPAAM initiatives and events are supported by a Steering Committee but are often led by SPAAM members; reach out if you have ideas or are interested in helping

• SPAAM will hold annual elections for the Steering Committee for which all members can nominate themselves

• SPAAM membership is free, but donations may be requested during the annual meeting– and if you are interested in supporting SPAAM financially, please reach out to the Steering Committee!

Definition of SPAAM and history

SPAAM stands for Standards Precautions & Advances in Ancient Metagenomics. We are a community of researchers from around the world focusing on ancient metagenomics.

We aim to openly share knowledge and experience to find solutions to common challenges and obstacles that the field faces, primarily within online community spaces (Element). We run various collaborative projects for the benefit of the whole community and to progress the field including a regular conference for early career researchers. We have various events and a regular workshop with cycling organisation committees to improve networking.

The idea of SPAAM originated in 2016 from the Standards, Precautions, and Advances in Ancient Metagenomics (SPAAM) conference and publication on ways of improving ancient metagenomics research. Later, it was expanded to become an entire community-led effort and space thanks to the initiative of a small group of researchers in the field of aDNA and metagenomics. We now have over two hundred members from all over the world! We have also been associated with the International Society of Biomolecular Archaeology since 2022.

Location

Our main community space is Element. We also gather either in-person or online yearly for a main conference and online for various events. We keep information about the community archived on our website, along with information on how to get involved.

Membership

We welcome all early stage career researchers, as well as Principal Investigators (PIs) and other senior researchers, to join our community. However, the community wants to be especially useful and supportive for early career researchers; thus, we encourage PIs to not monopolise discussions.

All members of our community are obliged to follow our code of conduct. Before joining the community be sure to read and understand what this entails. This code of conduct outlines our expectations for all those who participate in our community, as well as the consequences for unacceptable behaviour. All members of SPAAM are required to agree and comply with this code of conduct. Safety officers are responsible for enforcing this code within the community, including dealing with any violations. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe and positive environment for everybody.

To report any violations of this code of conduct within activities in the scope of the community, please reach out to our safety officers whose contacts can be found at the code of conduct. An anonymous reporting form is also available here. The actions taken by the safety officers would depend on the gravity of the action via a case by case assessment, and they are entitled to remove a member from the community should the behaviour in question be a gross violation of our code of conduct.

Initiatives

The community does not only serve as a place for members to communicate and exchange knowledge but also as a platform to start initiatives and collaborations.

These are some recurrent initiatives:

• SPAAM conference: a yearly meeting where members of the community present their work or topics that are important for the community.

• SPAAMTisch: a monthly event in which the community agrees on a topic to discuss or a seminar presented by the author of a recent publication relevant to the community. This initiative is also a space to foster new connections among young researchers and encourage new ideas for projects. (The name is a play on Stammtisch, the German tradition of regularly meeting for drinks)

• SPAAM summer school: this summer school is aimed at masters or early PhD students and its goal is to introduce them to the field and provide a basic skill set to work with metagenomic datasets

• Ancient Metagenomics Directory (AMDir): a community effort to curate a github repository of standardised metadata for samples, studies, and libraries of aDNA sequencing. This resource helps make the reuse of data across studies easier than ever and has led to multiple publications.

• MINAS MIxS Checklist: rich metadata is crucial for implementing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and enhancing the quality of research. It enables researchers to gain deeper insights into their own data as well as previously published data. The MINAS MIxS Checklist is a community-driven initiative to set minimal standards for metadata reporting of palaeogenomic sequence data.

New initiatives and projects are highly encouraged. For that reason a Steering Committee (see description below) was established to aid the projects/initiatives to reach their goals by providing ideas, support and advice.

Finances

There is no membership fee to join the SPAAM community. However, opportunities for voluntary donations will be presented in community-wide SPAAM meetings. We are financially supported by voluntary donations by members and research group leaders. If you are able to contribute financially and would like to support the SPAAM community, please contact a member of the treasurer team of the Steering Committee.

Constitution

The constitution (this document) outlines the structure and information about the SPAAM community. The constitution is a living document which will be updated as needed to fit the needs of the SPAAM community. It is primarily maintained by the Steering Committee, but other members can make suggestions by reaching out to the Steering committee and advocate for changes as they see fit. Changes to the constitution are subject to a vote by the community and will require a 2/3 majority (2/3 “yes” votes out of all votes). The vote will be announced on our Element channel and the mailing list and will not have a minimum number of votes.

SPAAM Steering Committee

Definition - Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is an advisory board that provides support, guidance and oversight of particular issues or projects within the context of the community. It was formed in 2022 during the SPAAM4 conference. The Steering Committee meets roughly every two weeks.

The tasks of the Steering Committee involve brainstorming and proposing new initiatives and helping new initiatives get off the ground, by increasing engagement and support for SPAAM members and events, helping with ongoing organisation efforts, popularisation of SPAAM, and sourcing funds for the maintenance of SPAAM.

Since the affiliation with the International Society for Biomolecular Archaeology (ISBA) in 2022, the Steering Committee represents the community within ISBA and reports back to ISBA in the annual general meeting. The SPAAM Steering Committee also maintains contact with the Steering Committees of other initiatives to share experiences and organize cross-community initiatives.

The Steering Committee is formed by teams consisting of the managing team: a chair and a secretary, a treasurer team, a social media team and an engagement team. The teams meet on a regular basis to divide responsibilities and set up a communication method that ensures tasks are fulfilled. The division of tasks and teams can be changed at the discretion of the Steering Committee.

The current members of the Steering Committee can be found here.

Election and Terms of the Steering Committee

Due to the growing community and increase in initiatives, the Steering Committee decided in 2025 to move towards formal elections of its members. The first election will take place in 2026. The Steering Committee should reflect the diversity of the SPAAM community on all demographic variables and academic backgrounds, e.g., it should have a balanced gender ratio and represent a broad variety of nationalities both on the individual and institutional level. Since SPAAM considers itself primarily an early-career initiative, this should be reflected in the Steering Committee as well.

In the future, the Steering Committee will consist of 12 members, and the standard term will be two years. Every year, half of the Steering Committee (six members) will be newly elected. This system ensures that two generations of members overlap for one year, allowing for a smooth handover of tasks, responsibilities, and institutional knowledge. After completing a two-year term, Committee members may be re-elected once, for a maximum consecutive tenure of four years.

To maintain an early-career focus, the Steering Committee must include at least one-third (four members) who are Master’s or PhD students, and no more than one-third (four members) who are PIs or group leaders. Relevant is the career level upon election.

Any SPAAM member may nominate themselves for election to the SC. To promote a diverse and representative Steering Committee, current Committee members can actively reach out to the community to identify and encourage potential candidates.

Elections will be held online each year, typically in the month following the annual SPAAM meeting. The elections will be organized by the Committee in office. Upcoming elections will be announced two months in advance on Element and via the mailing list. The deadline for nominations will be approximately one week before the annual SPAAM meeting. Candidates have to briefly introduce themselves at the annual SPAAM meeting, either in person, online or with a pre-recorded video.

The ballot will include information about the six continuing Committee members, enabling voters to better assess the overall diversity and representativeness of the Committee. If there are six candidates for the six open spots, the election will be designed as a confirmatory vote, in which all candidates need to receive at least 50% “yes” votes. If there are more candidates than open spots, the candidates with the most votes will be elected. There is no minimum voter turnout. Abstentions will not be included in the calculation of vote percentages.

Steering Committee members may step down at any time but should provide at least one month’s notice to the Committee. In such cases, the Committee may appoint a temporary replacement from among SPAAM members at its discretion without formal election. The appointed member will then be nominated for the next annual election.

Any concerns or complaints regarding the election process may be addressed directly to the Steering Committee or to the Safety Officers.

Description of the Roles

The roles and division of tasks is subject to change at discretion of the current Steering Committee. The following paragraphs give a rough description of the roles within the Steering Committee for those looking for the right contact person or interested to join the Steering Committee in the future.

In addition to the described roles, at least one member of the Steering Committee acts as a liaison officer for the annual SPAAM meeting organizing team. Furthermore, at least one Steering Committee member should be part of the Safety Office, reporting back about complaints or inquiries regarding the code of conduct.

Management team:

Formed by the chair and the secretary. Responsible for ensuring the committee functions smoothly and achieves its goals.

Chair: leads meetings, sets agendas, moderates discussions and delegates tasks to volunteer members. It represents the SPAAM community in any official meetings or interviews. They are also responsible for having an overview of the various initiatives by maintaining a close communication with the treasurer, social media and engagement teams. Allows for discussion around long-term topics, needs to be forward-thinking on this end.

Secretary: Takes meeting minutes and makes sure that assignments are noted. Organisational responsibilities (ie keeping googledocs in order, annotating the minutes with required links, possibly doing same for the agenda ahead of time. The role can also be divided between two Steering committee members.

Treasurer team

The treasurer team is responsible for managing the funds, for the communication related to funds, e.g., with the ISBA treasurers, and responsible for allocating funding to initiatives by serving as a line of communication between the organising committees and the Steering Committee. The treasurer team is also responsible to collect funds as well as finding grant opportunities to continue to fund SPAAM initiatives.

Social media team

The social media team is responsible for the outreach of the community, by tweeting, emailing as well as updating the website. Social media officers will announce new initiatives, conferences, papers and jobs that are relevant for the SPAAM community. They will also be responsible for maintaining the YouTube channel of the community.

Engagement team

The engagement officers are responsible for coming up with new initiatives (projects, summer schools, outreach activities, etc.) and propose them to the community. They will also oversee ongoing initiatives and provide support for them to reach their goals. They will ensure that the initiative is known in the community, as well as outside the community together with the media team. As well as suggesting potential funding sources for the initiative, by engaging with the treasurer team.

23rd of January 2026