S A E M
Newsletter of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine May/June 2007 Volume XXII, Number 3
901 N. Washington Ave. Lansing, MI 48906-5137 (517) 485-5484 saem@saem.org www.saem.org
SAEM Names New Executive Director
President’s Message
The SAEM Website: The Face of the Society
On April 4, after an eight month search process, SAEM named its new Executive Director, James Tarrant. Mr. Tarrant has accepted the Executive Directorship of SAEM, effective June 4, 2007, and he will be present at the SAEM Annual Meeting in Chicago where he will be formally introduced to the membership at the Annual Business Meeting. The Board of Directors and the Executive James Tarrant Director Search Committee are very excited about Mr. Tarrant and the knowledge, experience, professionalism, and enthusiasm which he will bring to SAEM. This transition has the potential to transform the Society. James Tarrant has over 16 years of experience in medical societies. He is presently the Executive Director of the Chicago Medical Society, an organization of approximately 6000 Illinois physicians. Jim brings expertise in non-profit society management, fund raising, physician education, and meeting planning to SAEM. He has experience fostering leadership/staff collaboration; building external relationships; advocacy; and, management of related associations and independent consultants. Jim will bring a fresh perspective to the Society and the SAEM office management. His family ties in the Lansing area make him the perfect candidate to develop a long-term relationship with our membership. The SAEM Board of Directors wishes to thank Dave Sklar and the members of the Executive Director Search Committee (Jim Adams, Jill Baren, Bill Barsan, Louis Ling, John Marx, Craig Newgard, Emanuel Rivers, Bob Schafermeyer, Sandy Schneider, and Brian Zink) for their hard work, dedication, and foresight throughout the search process. Many of the search committee members are senior members of SAEM, including past presidents and board members. Their insights and leadership throughout the search are much appreciated. The committee was commissioned in August, 2006, and has worked diligently with Jim Zaniello and Pamela Kaul of Association Strategies, Inc. to analyze the SAEM office, design a position description, advertise nationally, identify candidates, interview select candidates, and negotiate a final commitment. The committee reviewed over 45 applications, and interviewed six candidates over the months of March and April to narrow the field down to the final candidate. Please join me in welcoming Jim to the Society.
I have been on the Board of Directors for SAEM for the past six years, and I have spent most of that time patiently waiting for the new SAEM Website to be developed, populated, and unveiled. Needless to say, it took us quite awhile to get the site up and running. James Hoekstra, MD SAEM has traditionally counted on its member volunteers for consultation, expertise, editorial guidance, and a lot of hard work. Volunteer-heavy organizations aren’t very nimble when it comes to such an all-encompassing project as a society website. After a couple of starts and stops, some new editorial energy, and some office infrastructure-building, we finally got the last pieces of the puzzle put together in the spring of 2006. The website was all set for unveiling at the 2006 Annual Meeting, but we ran into some last minute technical issues again. Glenn Hamilton, who had put more time, energy, and editorial effort into the website development than any other SAEM president, was unable to flip the switch and unveil the site as his legacy at the Annual Business Meeting. It’s too bad, because he deserved the public acknowledgement he would have received for his efforts on the site. Finally, in September, 2006, the site was unveiled to the membership, without much in the way of hoopla. Maybe it’s because it was so long in coming, maybe it’s because everyone just expected it to look so good, or maybe nobody actually looks at the website! The latter may be true for some of us old timers, but the young physicians coming into our specialty are very computer literate and web sophisticated. For whatever reason, the site just sort-of appeared, and people just started using it as if it had always been there. We haven’t gotten much negative or positive feedback in the SAEM office about the site, and I guess that’s good. No news is good news, so to speak. If you look at the site, however, it certainly looks better and navigates better than the old site. Societal themes are across the top, constituencies are on the left side, and news is front and center. Meeting dates, times, and locations are prominent. Links to resident, student, and faculty membership databases and development materials are simpler, more logical, and easy to navigate. (continued on page 14)
“to improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine”