From Your Executive Director, January 2025

Greetings Colleagues:

I hope all who celebrated recent holidays had a joyous time and that everyone celebrated a Happy New Year. Here in the US we are getting our footing under a new presidential administration and assessing what the future holds on important topics like censorship, transparency, etc. But enough about that!

Here at ASIS&T we are also entering a new era. On January 2 our new staff started working with the association. Our partnership with Global Management Partners allows us to tap into a wealth of expertise and resources and we are so happy to welcome the new members of the team. You can find the titles and contact information for each new team member here. And if you're wondering who to contact for what, you can find that on the Who Do I Contact page. We are still working out some of the kinks, and of course the new team members are on a steep learning curve, but I am confident that we will not lose a step in providing you the top-tier member service you have come to expect from ASIS&T.

Much of the last two months has been dedicated to this transition to new staff, but other activities are underway as well. The Annual Meeting Program Committee has finalized the Call for Proposals as well as the guidelines for submissions. The most notable change to the 2025 Annual Meeting will be the addition of a formal Satellite Virtual Meeting, which will allow for virtual presentations in several specific cases. Those cases are: a disability; prior or anticipated difficulty in obtaining a visa to travel to the US; or significant financial hardship. Individuals will be asked to request this accommodation to present virtually upon submission of their proposal. Additionally, papers and posters may be invited to present virtually if we have qualified proposals but insufficient room and time to present them all at the in-person meeting. Our belief is that this policy will allow us to maximize the quality content presented at the annual meeting while accommodating the needs of members who might not otherwise be able to attend in person due to factors outside of their control. This will be a beta test of this policy and, if successful, will be continued in future years.

Speaking of future years, by a margin of 2-1 you selected Bangkok as the venue for the 2026 Annual Meeting. I will be travelling to Bangkok in March to finalize the site selection but we have two top-tier hotels in downtown Bangkok in the running so I'm sure you'll be excited by our final selection.

Maria Bonn and her Strategic Planning Task Force is hard at work bringing together the first steps of the plan. Keep an eye on your emails as we'll be reaching out to chapters, SIGs, and committees to give input to the plan, then to the entire membership to react to the draft plan. You'll have ample opportunity to contribute your thoughts and ideas along the way. The next plan will cover three years rather than the five years that previous plans have covered. We are doing this because the world is moving so fast these days that much could be different in five years!

Awards juries are forming now. If you are interested in serving on a jury and were not able to volunteer during the call for volunteers in the fall, please reach out to me. We still have some slots available.

We appreciate your patience as we work through a staff turnover and I invite you to reach out to me if you have an issue that you can't get resolved elsewhere. I look forward to seeing many of you online in the next few months!

Best, Lydia