As Thanksgiving Day approaches, I’m thankful for another opportunity to spend the holiday with my family and friends. Though many folks consider the holiday to be about finding time to “unwind and relax,” most of the time away from work will involve me chasing children, hosting family members, and testing a new method for smoking large poultry. Sometimes office work seems easier! The warm weather in Charlotte makes for different Thanksgiving activities than my long-standing New England traditions (in particular, not freezing while playing outdoor sports with my kids), but the holiday is certainly no less enjoyable.

I’m also thankful for the tremendous support of our AASM members this year. We had a record-setting response to both our call for committee volunteers and our call for SLEEP 2019 session proposal reviewers. I’m thrilled that we have so many members who want to be more involved in the initiatives of the AASM, and we continue to seek new ways to engage our members and connect you with one another. For example, you’ll soon receive more details about the upcoming launch of our new Sleep Team Assemblies.

Meanwhile, I am ever so thankful for our current volunteers and donors – the power source of our society. Our committees and task forces continue to work diligently on wide-ranging projects that will have a broad and lasting impact on the sleep field. Our course chairs and faculty are ensuring that our educational events provide exceptional learning opportunities, and our members continue to give generously to the AASM Foundation and the AASM Political Action Committee.

We also received a tremendous response from members to our compensation survey, which was the largest national survey of physicians and advanced practice providers in the sleep field. I’m thankful for each member who took the time to complete it, and I’m pleased to let you know that the final report is now available on the AASM website as a members only resource. I hope it will provide needed information for those members who have long been working in the dark regarding their compensation.

As president I’ve come to appreciate just how much work is being done by the AASM to advance the sleep field, and I recognize that none of it would be possible without our members. I thank you for supporting the AASM vision of achieving optimal health through better sleep, and I encourage you to reaffirm your support by renewing your membership for 2019.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful, safe, and sleep-filled Thanksgiving holiday.

Sincerely,
Doug

Douglas B. Kirsch, MD
AASM President