On June 22, 2002, the ISTSS board of directors held its midyear meeting in Chicago. Meeting highlights are discussed below.
ISTSS finances. After experiencing significant losses in 2000, the society began 2001 with $64,000 in debt and had budgeted to lose another $80,000 during the year. Faced with this situation, the last several Finance and Executive Committees have worked hard to institute tight cost controls. As a result of these efforts and the success of the annual meeting in New Orleans, the society did not lose money in 2001 but, instead, virtually broke even for the year-$78,000 better than projected. At the most conservative estimate, total debt will be reduced to $51,000 by the end of 2002, on an overall budget of $800,000. Assuming a good turnout at the 2002 annual meeting, plus ongoing and future fundraising activities, the society likely will do even better. The Finance and Fundraising Committees (chaired by Danny Kaloupek and Tom Mellman, respectively) are to be commended for these results.
Baltimore meeting. Eve Carlson, conference chair, and her various committees and advisors have assembled a stellar collection of workshops, colloquia and plenaries for the Baltimore meeting, with topics ranging from childhood abuse, political torture, terrorism and mass trauma to complicated grief reactions, forensics and the neurobiology of PTSD. This conference will be high on usable content; come prepared to learn, no matter what your current knowledge level.
ISTSS would like to offer as many partial travel grants as possible to ISTSS members who otherwise could not attend this conference. Apropos of our fiscal restraint, funding for these grants must come primarily from donations by ISTSS members. Board members have made contributions-please consider doing so yourself. Click here to donate online or call ISTSS headquarters at 847/480-9028.
International structure. ISTSS and its affiliate organizations have been discussing the development of a world umbrella organization of traumatic stress societies. This entity would include ISTSS and other trauma societies worldwide. It has yet to be determined how the individual societies would function within this international structure-that decision will depend on the constituent societies, not just ISTSS. What is being addressed at this time is a first step toward such an organization: the planning of a World Congress of Traumatic Stress Studies that would be organized by these various traumatic stress societies. Although there have been other world congresses in the past, for instance the excellent conference hosted recently by the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ASTSS), this congress would be a truly transglobal endeavor. Watch for more information about this congress on the ISTSS Web site.
One benefit of being ISTSS president has been the chance to see what the society really does and, by extension, what it really stands for. It was clear throughout the midyear meeting: We are part of an organization that is doing a world of good. In a society of Enrons and corporate malfeasance, we belong to something we can be proud of.