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Spring 2001 |
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Archive of Newsletters |
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTDear SSPD Members, It is an unbelievable honor to serve as president of this society in the first year of the millenium. The SSPD was the first professional organization I joined while a graduate student under a future president, Alice Young. It is at every meeting that my commitment to the society is re-affirmed and replenished. This Society has differentiated itself from the myriad of other comparable groupings in it's commitment to remain as it was intended by our founders in the 1970's - an organization of scientists without social barriers or cliques. The student has always been as welcome as the senior researchers who first met in hotel rooms to discuss the issues of the day. Our yearly dues have remained low and our doors remained open because of the continuous friendly atmosphere of some of our most senior past-Presidents such as Don Overton, Jim Appell, and Jim Howard, among others, who are present at almost every meeting. Because of the hard work of the two past presidents, Wouter Koek and Charles France, our society is financially on solid ground. I convey to them our society's full appreciation for all they have done over their years of tenure. It is indeed an honor to stand at the helm of the Society after them. And of course, no president could be fully functional without the competent and motivated endeavors of the Secretary-Treasurer, and it has been our extreme benefit to have Jenny Wiley at the computer and the check book. I , like Jenny, have held that job for two consecutive terms and know the commitment it takes to do the job as well as Jenny has over the last two years. It will also be a distinct privilege to turn all of this over to the incoming-President, Michael Swedberg in 2002. The Society is sound and growing. We will have two meetings this year. The first meeting will be in Marseilles, France in September the afternoon before the EBBS/EBPS meeting. The second meeting will be held, as usual, in conjunction with the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California. The Marseilles meeting will hopefully focus on methodological issues associated with the various stimulus functions of drugs. Wouter has already agreed to discuss statistical limitations of DD research and we are looking for other interested researchers to tackle similar relevant issues. The San Diego meeting will be geared to current research projects and I would encourage student submissions. We welcome the submissions of abstracts for both meetings at any time, and encourage the membership to recruit "new blood" into the Society. I look forward to seeing you all in San Diego or Marseilles. We would also welcome comments, suggestions, or responses to a submitted proposal to change the by-laws to reflect the two-year tenure of the Presidency of the Society to alternate with the two-year tenure of the Secretary-Treasurer. A number of past-presidents have suggested that these changes would allow for a more effective leadership of the society by stabilizing the executive committee over a longer period of time. A formal vote on this proposal will occur during the October business meeting in San Diego, but I encourage you to let us know your opinions on this specific change to the by-laws. Yours sincerely, |
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Summer 2004