Message from the President

Sean Peffer

Hi. I hope your school year is off to a great start. I would just like to provide a few updates on what is happening within our section….

ANNUAL MEETING IN CHICAGO
I hope y'all enjoyed the annual meeting in Chicago. We owe a big "thank you" to Rich Houston for the ABO sessions. We had 67 submissions for the conference with 14 sessions and 42 papers presented. Unless my math is wrong, we had an acceptance rate of over 62%. If we have more quality submissions for future annual meetings, we have the opportunity to have more sessions. Good job Rich!

I WILL SEE YOU IN PHILLY!
Steve Kaplan and Jim Bierstaker deserve credit for putting together our annual section doctoral consortium and research conference in Philadelphia on October 19th and 20th. The meeting information is online at http://aaahq.org/meetings/2007ABO_online.htm .

If you are a doctoral student or new faculty I am sure you will find the doctoral consortium worthwhile. Steve has put together a solid program with a panel that will be invaluable to doctoral students and new faculty alike. We have received increased funding from Deloitte to help support the first 20 doctoral students to sign up for the meeting. Please thank Deloitte for their support.

Please consider attending the research conference. It runs from noon on Friday through Saturday. In addition to the conference activities, myself and a few of my friends are going out for dinner on Friday night. You are invited to join us. You can indicate on the meeting sign up sheet that you want to attend. If we get enough interest, Jim will make reservations for us at a local restaurant. This is not fancy and is not part of the meeting. It is just a bunch of people getting together for dinner. It will either be a great time, or a great flop.

Jean Bedard has graciously agreed to coordinate the 2008 ABO meeting in Providence, RI. Please thank her and give her your input for panels or other items you would like to see at that meeting.

We need your input on the 2009 meeting (yes, we actually plan out that far in advance…surprised me too). We are considering Seattle, New Orleans, and Denver. Come prepared to give your input at the business meeting in Philly.

THE ELECTION RESULTS ARE IN…
Thank you to Stacy Kovar for handling the nominations and the elections. Congratulations to Rich Houston who is now the President Elect and Jennifer Joe who has taken over from Elizabeth Almer as Secretary / Treasurer of the section. We owe Elizabeth Almer a large round of applause for her last two years of exemplary service.

BRIA IS GOING SEMIANNUAL
Bryan Church is completing plans to make BRIA a semiannual publication. Look for this in 2008. This is great news and did not happen without some extra special effort. When Bryan first became editor, Charlie Bailey (the president), Steve Kaplan (the outgoing editor) and Mike Shields (the publications committee chair) provided invaluable support and advice. The subsequent presidents, Stacy Kovar and Tim Louwers, kept the ball rolling. We now need you! To make this work, we need you to submit your high quality papers to the journal. You asked for it. You got it. Now we need you to support it! I know you will.

A PERSONAL THANKS FROM ME
As soon as I took over as President of the ABO section, the "powers that be" requested that I fill no less than 23 officer positions. I had all of these positions filled and confirmed within a few days. That is what sets this section apart. Everyone I asked said "yes" without hesitation. I really appreciate your willingness to serve.

Well, that is about all the updating I have and probably about all you want to read. One last thing…My goal for this year is not just to get more members to join the ABO section (I may get kicked out of the AAA for saying that). Instead, my goal is to make the section even stronger and serve the members better. We are a very strong section with excellent financials. We have great personal connections and a great network within the section. I hope to nurture this. I welcome any ideas or input you may have.

Keep the ideas coming…and Thanks!
Sean

Sean Peffer
2007–2008 ABO President