Title: Mid-Year Meeting

Author:

Section/SPIG: Environment

Issue Date:

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On Wednesday March 24, 2004, the APHA Environment Section held its first official Mid-Year Meeting! The all day meeting was held at APHA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The more than 20 participants represented Section members, invited guests, and fellow Section leaders. Specifically, the Public Health Nursing Section provided a great list of suggestions for further collaboration that included joint efforts in program planning, business meetings, and the Continuing Education Institute.

We were joined by Frances Atkinson, Manager of APHA Section Affairs, Lynn Schoen, APHA Exhibits Manager, Tracy Kolian, Policy Fellow, and Dr. Georges Benjamin, APHA Executive Director. Dr. Benjamin highlighted some planned events for the 2004 Annual Meeting to date and voiced his excitement for this year’s theme “Public Health and the Environment.” The Section will continue to work closely with APHA on plenary session organizing, exhibit coordination, and inclusion of environmental health messages and strategies in the overall conference planning.

The Membership Committee reported that current goals include not only obtaining new members but retaining current members as well. The Policy Committee reported that they have reviewed and prioritized existing environmental section policies and selected two areas, air quality and built environment, for official review this year. The policies in these two areas have been listed on the APHA Web site, and comments were solicited from the general membership. The Student Involvement Committee has been working to have students more involved behind the scenes during the APHA Annual Meeting. This Committee is also looking for ways to have students highlighted in scientific sessions, increasing professional development.

The Environment Section annually provides a local field trip in the host city of the APHA Annual Meeting. The group discussed possible locations for this year’s tour in the D.C. metro area. Interest was presented for a built environment focus as well as highlighting a successful community revitalization project.

The success of the Mid-Year Meeting provided consensus among members to make such an event a regular part of section yearly business. This meeting not only provides a specific time for the Section to get a great amount of work accomplished but also serves as a great social time away from the larger APHA Annual Meeting. The Section also found this meeting to be a great way to encourage potential members to actively become engaged in a variety of Section business.