President's Letter

Hello to all ABO Members.

This will be my last message in the ABO Reporter. Consequently, I would first like to thank everyone who has volunteered in any capacity to help the ABO Section. All of you have helped us maintain high standards in everything we do and also to continue increases in conference attendance and membership. Elizabeth Almer, who will follow me as President, already is quite involved and has contributed greatly to making the section better.

A few things to keep an eye out for. First, very soon we will be electing a President to follow Elizabeth in 2010 and a Secretary/Treasurer to succeed Jennifer Joe starting this fall. I would like to thank Jennifer on behalf of the section for her many years of great service to the ABO. Sean Peffer is in charge of the nominations committee and is developing a slate of extremely qualified people.

I also would like to thank Sean on behalf of the section for all that he has done over the years. Sean is incredibly dedicated to the ABO and does many things on the section’s behalf that many people do not know about. Being the kind of person he is, Sean undertakes these activities without any expectation of recognition—he does so for the benefit of the section—and I would just like to ensure that Sean receives some of the recognition he deserves.

Also, please heed the calls for nominations for section awards, including the ABO Section Outstanding Dissertation Award and the ABO Notable Contribution Award.  Both of these awards are given out at the Research Conference in October.  Calls for both of these are included in this newsletter.  Please take a moment and nominate someone for these awards.

Before going further, I would like to address something not ordinarily addressed in these letters from the President. As I was thinking about what to write, I could not help but keep coming back to the effect of the current economic problems on our profession, our section, and many of our friends and colleagues. First, some of our colleagues either currently are looking for positions or know someone who is. This goes for experienced faculty as well as our graduating PhD students. Please do all that you can to support these people as they seek employment in an extremely tough job market.

Please also keep in your thoughts those people who are experiencing the effects of funding cuts, whether they be in the form of salary reductions or reductions in other forms of support. Most of us are extremely lucky to have a solid job with all the benefits that entails—not everyone in our profession is so lucky right now.

Also, I write briefly below about our upcoming conferences. I know that funding is tight, perhaps especially for travel. However, it is extremely important to the continuing success of the section that we continue to provide quality programs and keep up our trend of high attendance. When you are weighing your options for how to spend your travel budgets, and when you are seeking funding for your PhD students, please be assured that everyone involved with planning section events is committed to putting together extremely high quality programs. Also, the networking opportunities created by the PhD Consortium, not to mention the quality of the program, has very much helped PhD students network, secure employment, and enhance their research skills.

Please do all that you can to ensure that PhD students and faculty continue to have the opportunity to attend our events. Just as businesses that continue spending on R&D tend to come out of recessions better than those that don’t, faculty and PhD students who continue to attend conferences and take advantage of all the benefits they provide will enhance their careers.

I would also like to highlight some upcoming events.

2009 Annual Meeting
Damon Fleming has overseen the ABO’s participation in the meeting and has constructed high quality ABO concurrent sessions for the annual meeting in New York on August 1-5.  Damon has done an outstanding job.

2009 ABO Section Conference
Frank Hodge and Nathan Stuart currently are planning the Section Conference in Seattle, WA on October 8-10.  In addition, Jane Kennedy is putting together the doctoral consortium.  These meetings keep getting better every year in terms of both attendance and quality of the content.  It is also worth noting that we continue to have a great reputation as being one of the friendliest of the Section conferences.

Please also keep your eye on the section’s page on AAA Commons. Tom Clausen is our liaison with AAA and he continues to improve the quality of the section’s content. I really appreciate everyone’s willingness to serve, adapt, and step up to the plate when things need to get done.  That is what makes this section great. I have no doubt that this tradition will continue under Elizabeth and her soon to be determined successor.

Sincerely,

Rich

Richard W. Houston
2008-2009 ABO President