Wow, what a spring – no winter and then March was like summer. The poor plants were so confused, no azaleas or dogwoods for the Masters and no tulips for the Kentucky Derby! One can only speculate what the summer will bring.
But one thing we do expect is a great SLEEP annual meeting in June – and in the great city of Boston! Tea parties, revolutions, famous people like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, and Mary Dyer (go ahead and look it up). It is looking to be one of our most successful meetings ever, so I hope you have registered and booked your hotel room! Don’t wait or you might miss out, and you will be sorry you did.
One thing we are doing this year at the meeting is having a reception following the section meetings. We are hoping to foster more interest in the sections, which are meant to be an avenue for members to relay ideas to the leadership and as a way for the membership, particularly older members, to get more involved in the society. Currently our sections are divided up according to the ICSD chapters with the exception of the Childhood Sleep Disorders and Development Section. This was done a few years back so that members no longer had to identify themselves as “neurology/sleep” or “pulmonary/sleep” but for us all to be sleep doctors with a particular interest in one of a number of sleep disorders. For some of the sections, there is considerable interest and participation; for others, not so much.
Our board met a week ago and again, as we were re-evaluating our committees, the issue of whether we have sections properly configured came up. We have debated this regularly. Should sections be aligned in a different way? One proposal suggested aligning sections with the standing committees – education, accreditation, coding and compliance, etc. In this manner, section members could help committees by making suggestions on topics or processes, assist with projects, etc. Another suggestion was to align sections in other ways – those with small centers, big centers or multi-centers, academic centers, corporate programs. We could have a student section, a postgraduate training section, fellowship section, private practice section, and academic medical center section. Other section types might include Senior Scientists, Research, and Center Directors.
We want to know what you think and would like for you to share your opinion with us. Should we realign the sections? Is there a better way to get member feedback through sections? Let us know by sending your ideas to aasmsections@aasm.org.
Well, that’s all for now. Enjoy what is left of spring ‘cause it is looking like a hot summer is in the offing. And don’t forget to register for SLEEP 2012 in historic Boston – it is going to be great!
Nancy Collop, MD
President
