AAPM Newsletter
November/December 2009
Editor’s Column
Mahadevappa Mahesh Johns Hopkins University
T
his is my 18th column since I started as editor for the Newsletter and my last column for this year. Looking back, these past 3 years have gone unbelievably fast and a lot of things have happened on the way. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of our association and we now are marching towards the next milestone. When I say many things have happened, one area of special note to me is the Newsletter. As economic times have gotten tougher, we constantly tried to tighten the belt in terms of the expenses relating to the Newsletter. First, we moved away from glossy paper to a less expensive paper and soon followed with a change in the way that the newsletter was mailed. Early in the year the newsletter was mailed via first-class mail and we changed that by using regular mail only. In addition, we provided all readers the option to “opt-out” from receiving printed copies (nearly 20% of the membership did choose this option). As I began to write this column, I reread my column from the Nov-Dec 2008 issue and found that in that issue I was discussing the process of appealing to the AAPM Board of Directors to restore the budget for
the printed version. However, this time I have news to share with all of you… the newsletter will go online only starting with this issue. The process of this decision occurred as follows. The AAPM EXCOM had to trim expenses for this year and requested all committees to trim their budget. It is at that point that I suggested the option to go on-line for the Nov-Dec issue only, hoping the EXCOM would not demand more cuts in the 2010 Newsletter budget. However, since the AAPM EXCOM is facing a significant budget deficit, they were forced to take exhaustive measures to rein in the ever expanding AAPM budget for next year and as part of these budget cuts, I had to agree with the decision to go online-only for the Newsletter. I tried for a long time to provide members with the option to receive the printed edition but the time has come to go electronic only and rather than gripping over a lost cause, I will embrace this as a new opportunity to try out new features with the electronic version of the Newsletter. Two immediate and obvious changes are that there will be less time between the submission deadline and the on-line publication date and the Newsletter will now appear in full-color. Although the Newsletter will only be available electronically, the format will remain the same. I request that articles still be of limited size and laid out in similar fashion as with the print version. However, in order to not to loose any advertisement revenue and provide additional value to advertisements, we will allow our corporate advertisers to include enhanced PDF’s (i.e., direct
11
links to websites and full color ads). The decision by the association for the Newsletter to go electronic only may cause some “discomfort” to some AAPM members, but I feel that there have been “signs on the wall” from past years. With the current budget deficit that the association is facing, this seems to be the right time to accept this decision. While pondering this column, I was reminded of reading a story by a famous Sufi poet. The story goes like this – ‘A wise king summons his wise men and orders them to come up with a saying that cannot be too long and one that would stabilize his inner state – by bringing joy when he is unhappy and remind him of sadness when he is happy and able to carry with him all the time. The wise men, after lengthy deliberations, returned to the king and presented him with a small box. In side that small box there was a ring, and inside the ring was inscribed: This too shall pass.’ As we are juggling with the budget cuts and monetary constraints due to prevailing economic conditions, I find this statement very comforting. As this is the last issue of this year, I’d like to thank Ms. Nancy Vazquez for all of her work on the Newsletter and Ms. Farhana Khan for her help in establishing a presence on the AAPM website. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Angela Keyser and the headquarters’ staff, the Newsletter Editorial Board and the Executive Committee for their help and advice. Finally, I would also like to thank my wife and kids for their cooperation in this task. As this issue arrives at your desk, we are entering the holiday season and I wish you and your family a very happy holiday season.