Secretary's Update, December 2014

John C. Morris, M.D. ATA Secretary/ Chief Operating Officer

Best Holiday wishes to everyone. This season is both a joyous and busy time of year for everyone, including the American Thyroid Association. As the dust settles following our annual meeting, we begin the work of 2015. One of the first tasks for our President, Bob Smallridge, and the executive group is to revise and finalize our committee leaders and membership. Currently ATA's work is carried out by 26 committees and task forces including over 300 members, representing all constituencies and interests. These groups will be having conference calls and completing work by email throughout the year, and most will begin that work almost immediately. Thank you to all who serve ATA in this way. The updated committee list will be available on our website for your interest.

CEO Bobbi Smith and I wish to provide an update regarding several changes involving new faces and personnel in the ATA office. In mid-November Shirlyn Barger resigned, and we wish her well. We have engaged an accounting service and expanded the responsibilities of a recent hire in the meetings department to include program and financial coordination. The new ATA meetings and finance manager, Josette Paige, comes to us from 8 years of managing federal government contracts for many federal agencies including the NIH. In both meetings and accounting, we expect that Josette will lead overall strategy and outcome analysis that promotes success for the ATA.

Coincidentally this December, we were also successful in hiring a development and communications specialist, Susan Simmons, whose experience includes organizing diversity and global initiatives in the scientific community, corporate outreach programs, fundraising events, and planned giving initiatives.  We look forward to having a full-time staff person dedicated to our fundraising, marketing, awareness and communications efforts.

You may be interested to know about the success of our 84th annual meeting completed last month in Coronado, CA. We were delighted to host the second highest attendance on record for our annual meetings, second only to the 2007 New York meeting. The meeting did set a number of all-time records, including number of abstracts submitted and presented, number of exhibitors, number of fellows attending, and number of persons wearing Halloween costumes to the annual banquet. Because of the large attendance and the great work that our director of meetings, Adonia Coates, and all the ATA staff, the meeting was also a financial success for us. The first ever E. Chester Ridgway Trainee Conference got top marks from both fellows and faculty, and our appreciation for the efforts of ATA staff, Sharleene Cano, in coordinating the program, attendees and on-site logistics is well-deserved.

The ATA board of directors will be holding a weekend meeting at the end of January to revise and update our organization's strategic plan for the next several years. The meeting will include all BOD members as well as several committee chairs and additional leaders. Our newest BOD members of course, Regina Castro, Julie Ann Sosa, and Christine Spitzweg will be involved. Congratulations to them for their election to the board. Congratulations also to Tony Bianco who is our new President-elect and will become president at the 15th International Thyroid Congress in October in Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), Florida

Speaking of the ITC, please mark your calendars now to attend this great event, October 18-23, 2015! Rebecca Bahn and her Program Organizing Committee are nearing completing of the scientific program now and it promises to be an outstanding opportunity for all. The venue at the Swan and Dolphin Hotels at Disney World will be fun and exciting and I hope that many of you will wish to bring along your family members to enjoy the activities.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the 2015 ATA Clinical Management Guidelines on Medullary Thyroid Cancer and for Children with Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer to be held on Wednesday afternoon March 4, just prior to the opening of the Endocrine Society Meeting in San Diego. There will be presented highlights from two of our newest guidelines, including the update of the medullary thyroid cancer guidelines and the new pediatric thyroid cancer guidelines. All presentations will be made by members of those guidelines task forces, so you will have a first-hand opportunity to learn of their development from those who created them. You can register for this while registering for the Endocrine Society meeting and will receive a member discount when doing so.

I hope each of you has a Happy New Year. See you in 2015 at an ATA meeting!

John C. Morris, MD
Secretary/Chief Operating Officer