Secretary's Update - February 2013
By now all ATA members should have received two issues of THYROID under its new Editor-in-Chief, Peter Kopp, and his updated editorial board. You may have noticed the change in color of the cover as the leadership team transitioned. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Charles Emerson for his successful tenure as EIC under which THYROID grew to be the premier scientific journal for thyroid science. To accommodate the increasing numbers of papers and their increasingly international origins, Peter has expanded the editorial board both in number and international membership. Thanks also to thank Vicki Cohn and her team at our Publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. for their expert assistance for this better-than-seamless transition.
Coming very soon is the first issue of a Chinese version of THYROID. Our publisher Mary Ann Liebert with approval and support of the editors and our board of directors has negotiated a Chinese translation of selected articles from THYROID to be published and circulated in China. Publication of the journal in Chinese is supported by Merck. A Chinese Thyroid editorial board has been selected which will be led by Dr. Teng Weiping of The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning and will be working closely with Peter Kopp in putting together the publication. We are excited to see this project begin and congratulate all involved in bringing it forward. It will serve to enhance our international relationships with our colleagues in China and hopefully bring a number of them to ATA membership and to participation in our meetings.
The nominating committee will begin its deliberations over the next month regarding candidates for our elections this year. The committee selects candidates for President-elect and Board of Directors members to replace outgoing officers. This year outgoing officers include Jim Fagin as immediate past-President, David Sarne as Treasurer, and Directors Peter Kopp and Elizabeth Pearce. (Greg Randolph, selected last year as Treasurer-elect will replace David Sarne) The ATA board now charges the nominating committee to fill these slots with candidates that will not only serve the ATA but also maintain diversity of gender and professional discipline within the board members that reflects the ATA membership. Because of this, it is important that we have an accurate and up-to-date assessment of our members. If you have not recently updated your membership profile on our website, please do so right away so that the most accurate information is available to us as this process goes forward. Also, please nominate your colleagues for these positions. Each nomination received from the membership is reviewed by the nominating committee and is important in its deliberations. You are invited to submit nominations electronically.
Please include our Spring Symposium & Research Summit in your plans. Jacquie Jonklass, Ken Burman, and Tony Bianco have put together an outstanding program entitled "Treatment of Hypothyroidism: Exploring the Possibilities" that will include a half-day research summit on Thursday, April 25 and a full-day clinical symposium on Friday, April 26. Like most of our spring meetings, the venue is Washington, D.C. and this year will be at the Westin City Center Hotel. You can find the program details and registration materials on the front page of our website.
Planning for our 83rd Annual Meeting, October 16-20, in San Juan, Puerto Rico is progressing well. The program committee, directed by Julie Ann Sosa and Ron Koenig, has recently sent invitations for speakers and the call for abstracts will open on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 . Being there promises you the best in basic, clinical, and translational Thyroid science and beautiful Caribbean setting. Mark your calendars!
We have recently made a decision to end our agreement with Multibriefs for the publication of THYROID WEEKLY. As you have likely seen, TW was a summary of thyroid-related news items and published articles of interest to the thyroid community that were summarized and circulated by Mulitbriefs. Each week it also included several advertisements that were solicited and negotiated by Mulitbriefs which supported the publication and provided income to both Multibriefs and ATA.
We have struggled with this publication since its inception approximately 3 years ago. Initially the articles summaries were an issue that required considerable editing by our public relations committee (the president-elect and immediate past president) and sometimes resulted in unfavorable commentary by ATA members. This improved through better selection of articles to review by Multibriefs, many of them now coming directly from CLINCAL THROIDOLOGY. However, the advertisements included in the publication have continued to be a source of concern for many ATA members and our efforts to resolve the issue successfully with Multibriefs has been incomplete. Because of this problem, and with the knowledge that the income to ATA was only modest, we have agreed to discontinue TW effective immediately.
I hope to see you in Washington for the Spring Symposium!
John Morris, MD
Secretary/Chief Operating Officer
