From the Chair
I am happy to report that again this year, the ATOD Section had an extremely successful showing at the Annual Meeting. Even though the move to Philadelphia did not allow some of our ATOD Section members to attend, APHA and our Section must be congratulated for all the effort that was taken to make the meeting such an overwhelming success. It did seem to me that the horrendous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina would eliminate any possibility of a meeting, and sometimes in the weeks following the disaster it was difficult to think of anything else but the victims and their needs, as well as the incompetence of our government in providing disaster relief and even basic public health requirements. However, it was an amazing feat that APHA was able to first postpone and then relocate a major convention from New Orleans to Philadelphia in a few months' time. Not only did they move the meeting, but everything worked smoothly. APHA leadership and staff work equally hard to keep the sections in the loop. Dr Linda Deguits, the chairperson and ATOD’s representative to the Executive Board, kept all the Section chairs apprised of the changes, while the Association staff worked around the clock to make everything run so smoothly. Fran Atkinson also deserves much credit. She is in charge of Section Affairs and always is helpful and responsive to our Section's requests.
We did lose some sessions, but it was only a small percentage of our overall program. In the end we had about 48 oral sessions and 29 poster sessions: still one of the largest programs offered by any section. Attendance was high, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive concerning the quality and diversity of our program. Again, I need to tha