2007 SFP Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner
SFP held its 2007 Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner in Minneapolis on September 28, 2007. We sincerely thank everyone who attended and hope that those members who were unable to join us will be able to attend next year.
The meeting reflected the organization's rapid growth. Founded just two years earlier, by the time of this meeting SFP included a diverse spectrum of more than 140 members, and we were very pleased at both the number of attendees and the level of participation. We had a busy agenda and a healthy debate, and we accomplished several important tasks that will contribute to the future of the SFP:
- We welcomed four new Board members:
- Mark Nichols, MD, President-Elect
- Eve Espey, MD, MPH, At-Large Member
- Bryna Harwood, MD, MS, At-Large Member
- James Trussell, PhD, At-Large Member
- Philip D. Darney, MD, MSc, stepped into his position as Immediate Past-President of the Society of Family Planning and welcomed his successor, Mitchell D. Creinin, MD, to the position of President.
- We announced the nine grant recipients from the 2007 RFP and thanked Dr. David Grimes for his role as Chair of the Review Committee.
- We acknowledged exiting Secretary of the Society, Carolyn Westhoff, MD, and exiting at-large member, Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH, for their important contributions to the founding of the organization.
- Board members present at the meeting unanimously passed a proposed policy to allow the Society of Family Planning to make public policy statements.
- After a lively discussion about proposed changes to the SFP Bylaws, the changes were approved by a majority of those voting with the following amendment:
“The publication criterion for membership as a Fellow has been changed from five (5) articles related to family planning to three (3). It remains that the applicant must still be the first author on at least two of these publications. All three articles must be original research articles and must be published in peer-reviewed journals.” - We presented our esteemed colleagues, Dr. Allan Rosenfield and Dr. Daniel R. Mishell, Jr., with the Society’s annual lifetime achievement awards. After a moving presentation of Dr. Rosenfield’s comments and earlier acceptance of the award, Dr. Mishell concluded the evening with an important presentation, “Journey of a Contraceptive Pioneer.” We thank both of our award recipients for the evening’s presentations and for their invaluable academic contributions to the field of family planning.
