APHA, as a whole, is facing a down turn in membership, as are many organizations around the country.  Our Section is also experiencing this trend, since ATOD membership is down. As of March, 2006, we had 916 primary members and 37 secondary members.  Compare this to last year at this time when we had 937 primary members.  An example of what has been happening to our membership is that between July and September 2005, we gained 111 new members, but we lost 137 of our members. At one time, our membership was well over 1,000. The questions we should be asking ourselves are, what can we do to make our members want to stay, and how can we continue to attract new members?  What is the value of belonging to ATOD?

ATOD has one of the largest and most impressive scientific programs at APHA’s Annual Meeting. Our membership numbers determine the number of sessions we are given. There is tremendous competition for these scientific sessions.  When our membership drops, we are then not able to accept as many of the hundreds of excellent submissions we receive each year. Presenting at APHA is prestigious and sought after and is a real value for our members. In addition, belonging to ATOD provides an opportunity to network with peers as well as participate in a multi-disciplinary group with varying perspectives on issues of importance to all as who work in the field of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Also, a more tangible impact of any reduction in membership numbers is that this is directly linked to the small, but necessary, budget we are given by APHA to operate ATOD functions. When membership drops, so does our funding.

To address this challenge, we have formed a committee focusing on boosting our membership. We are trying to find all avenues possible to network both formally and informally to make people aware of our Section. One of our goals is to also increase ATOD's visibility within APHA. This is important since APHA is now allowing members to belong to more than one section, doing away with primary and secondary affiliations. Our leadership is updating our ATOD brochures and materials and will use these to recruit at other national meetings. We are investigating other types of benefits that we can make available to our members. One suggestion has been hosting topic-related conference calls to provide access to breaking research topics and issues. This year we will also use our ATOD Booth to help spread the word and reach out to interested APHA members.

I want to encourage all ATOD members to get involved in this ongoing effort to ensure a robust future of our Section. Let us know what you think the value of belonging to ATOD is for you and send any suggestions for attracting new and helping to retain our current members. Please feel free to contact Membership Chair Carol Schmitt at schmittc@battelle.org.

Fran Stillman
ATOD Chair