Message from the President- Sean Peffer

In looking back on my year as president of the ABO, I am thinking of the Past, the Present and the Future.

The Past
When I started in this position, I stated my goal as follows:

My goal for this year is not just to get more members to join the ABO section.  My goal is to make the section even stronger and serve the members better, and to nurture the great personal connections and great network within the section.

I failed!  I hate to admit it, but there is no way around it.  While my goal was not just to grow the section, the section went ahead and grew anyway.  As of January we had 1063 active members.  That is the highest active member count in January for past four years (as far back as I have numbers).  Oh well.  I guess I can live with failure.

However, I think we accomplished the second part of the goal statement.  Probably the largest way the section “serves the members” and “nurtures personal connections” is through the Annual ABO Section Conference.  We had over 124 members attend this year’s conference in Philadelphia.  This is compared to 57, 78, 72, and 90 in the previous four years respectively!  It took a collective effort to make this happen and I want to thank all that worked on or attended the conference.  Did I mention that we had over 124 members attend the meeting?

Seriously, the section is growing, the conference is exploding, and the section is as well off financially as it ever has been.  We are looking back on a great year.

The Present
Two items are currently outstanding.  The first is the call for nominees for the ABO Section Outstanding Dissertation Award.  The second is for the call for nominees for 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.

The Future
2008 Annual Meeting
Bill Pasewark and Steve Buchheit have constructed 19 ABO concurrent sessions for the annual meeting in Anaheim on August 3-6.  Paper acceptances for this meeting should have gone out at the end of March.  Please thank them when you see them running from session to session frantically checking on things at the meeting.

2008 ABO Section Conference
Jean Bedard is off and running in creating next year’s ABO Section Conference in Providence, RI on October 9-11.  In addition, Laureen Maines is putting together the doctoral consortium.  These meetings keep getting better every year.  I am sure that Jean and Laureen will surpass the success of this year’s meetings.  (Did I mention that we had over 124 members attend…?)

New President
Rich Houston is the President-Elect of the section.  He is currently filling the officer and chair positions for next year.  Please consider serving if Rich contacts you.  You will find it very rewarding.

New BRIA Editor
As you already know, Theresa Libby is the new editor of BRIA.  She has already established a new editorial board.  Theresa faces the formidable task of taking the journal from an annual to a bi-annual publication.  Please support Theresa as she tackles this new position.

Well that is a look at the past, present and future.  Since this is my last letter, I just want to thank everyone who has made this job a true pleasure.  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.

Sincerely,

Sean

Sean A. Peffer
2007-2008 ABO President

P.S.  Did I mention that we had over 124…..?