It is a privilege to serve as your Chair of the Board of Directors this year. Following the Spring Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas, the Board of Directors (BOD) had a two day session on Strategic Planning for the Organization. Using data from the last Members' Survey, we have identified 10 areas that need to be further developed. Further development of the intent and strategy for implementing each of these areas will direct the Finance Committee and overall budget process for the next year and into the future. In the following table are the eight identified strategic objectives at the highest level that were approved on April 11 during this first annual Strategic Planning Meeting of the Board. For each of these areas, there are multiple sub-objectives and proposed metrics to be developed further.

Some of our members have been involved in this development process for three years now so there is a solid foundation to work from and further refine our direction for the future. If you have input that you would like the Board to consider, please contact your Chapter Representative or myself directly.

There are other areas of activity in which we are very involved at this time. We met with the Executive Committee of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physics at the Spring Clinical Meeting and continued our coordination of activities of the two organizations that are mutually beneficial to us all. We also met with our newly organized Corporate Advisory Board at the SPC, to develop our relationships with our vendors in a way that will offer new opportunities to both our physics and Corporate Members. We encourage our physics members that are employed in industry to get more involved in AAPM committee work. This is one of our Strategic Goals that we are working to develop and strengthen.

There are two Medical Physics Practice Guidelines being submitted for review by the Board of Directors that will have significant impact to the practice of medical physics in the future: MPPG # 7: "Supervision of Medical Physicist Assistants" and MPPG # 10: "Scope of Practice for Medical Physics". Both of these MPPGs have been in the process of development for over two years with much input.

President Bruce Thomadsen has formed an Ad Hoc Committee to work with members of the Health Physics Society to explore how the two organizations can work together to cover the requirements in training and education relative to the radiation safety needs for the future as well as integrate the activities and training of HPS members into the medical community.

We are encouraged about the development of funding for four new residencies in Imaging Medical Physics—two will be funded by AAPM and two will be funded by the RSNA. Encouragement from the graduate programs to interest graduate students in imaging is appreciated. As can be seen from the current job openings on our website, the demand for Imaging Medical Physicists is growing. This demand will only increase as The Joint Commission continues to require additional training and equipment evaluations by Qualified Medical Physicists.

As you can see, your Executive Committee and the organization is alive and well and very active. We appreciate all of our members and encourage you to contact us at any time.