From the President:

SFP is blessed to have an outstanding staff as well as a highly committed Board of Directors. The board of directors recently held its second meeting of 2009 this past May. The meeting was quite productive as we accomplished many things in advance of our annual business meeting:

• We created the Emeritus Fellow category of membership. Read the resolution...
• We approved the slate recommended by the Nominations Committee for the upcoming elections. The ballots will be sent to you via email on by August 1st.
• We approved the proposed changes for the bylaws as reported to the Board of Directors by the Bylaws committee. This information will be sent to you also by August 1st.
• The recently formed Junior Fellows Committee surveyed SFP junior fellows to better understand how we can create appropriate programs for them. This committee is chaired by Dr. Tessa Madden, the junior fellowship representative to the Board.
• We created an Education Committee to be chaired by Dr. Bryna Harwood in order to better understand how the society can serve its members and the general medical community better.
• We made future plans for continued funding of research and academic programs through the society.

Also of note is that the Society has become a member of the Liaison Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology (LCOG) of ACOG. Jack Sciarra, MD, PhD, SFP’s Board Treasurer is our representative to the committee which meets bi-annually. SFP submits a report for each meeting detailing our activities.

We have now finalized decisions on grant awards in SFP’s third funding cycle. We were delighted to be able to award nearly $1.15 million in grants this year. See the 19 research projects the funds will support...

As I approach the home stretch of my tenure as President, I have been excited to see the continued growth and development of the Society. One of SFP’s greatest resources are the hardworking staff who are fully committed to improving the benefits of society membership as we to continue to encourage the growth of family planning as an academic specialty.

Although it may be hard to see all of the benefits in these first few years, I am sure that all of us will feel rewarded as the years go by, looking back at the society that we have created together. As always, I am indebted to all of you who have worked so hard to advance the academic interests of family planning for women in our society.

Sincerely,

Mitch