Happy New Year!

As we enter 2006, the Mental Health Section has both an exciting and busy year ahead.  First, I would like to thank Bill Fisher for his tenure as chair for the past two years, particularly through the difficult times at the end of 2005.  The events of last year have left us slightly behind schedule and with membership faltering a bit.  However, we have a core group of dedicated diehard Section members motivated to keep us on track, and we are always looking for more active members.

Every year I hear from, or about, Section members who are eager to get more involved with the Section but don’t know how.  I would like to use my space here to give you some concrete ideas about how you can help.

1.  Submit an abstract.  This year’s Annual Meeting will take place Nov. 4-8 in Boston and has the theme of  “Public Health and Human Rights”—what a fabulous opportunity for the Mental Health Section to highlight some crucial issues.  Abstract deadlines are coming up fast—Valentines day (i.e., Feb. 14)!  Please take a look at the call for abstracts at http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/mh.htm for instructions and contact information for this year’s Program Chair, David Mandell.  Also, please encourage colleagues and students to submit as well.

2.  Check your membership record.  One of our key issues this year is membership.  With the hurricanes, change in venue, and general chaos of last year, many people were unable to attend the conference or forgot to renew membership; and, as always, I heard several stories of members not getting Section information or trying unsuccessfully to change information with APHA.  Membership is absolutely crucial to our Section—it determines our budget, the strength of our voice on Governing Council, and the number of slots we get for sessions at the Annual Meeting, among other things.  Therefore, I would urge every Section member to log on to the APHA Web site and check your contact information and status of membership—even if you think it’s correct.  It only takes a few minutes, but could make a world of difference to the Section.  I did, and found several small errors.  If you do nothing else, please please do this!  

To check membership, go to  http://www.apha.org/intro_private.cfm and click inside the box on the right that says “Where can I find my Member ID?” (‘cause let’s face it, who remembers their APHA member ID?).  APHA will then, in a few moments, e-mail you your id, password, and date of member expiration. At the same Web address click on “Log in now” and log in—then click on “Update your Member Record” (blue box on the right).  Check everything, and if you make changes don’t forget to hit the “Submit Changes” button at the bottom of the screen.  If your membership is expired or expiring soon, hit the purple “Join/Renew” button on the left of the screen.

If APHA does not recognize your e-mail address when you request your ID, don’t give up!  Write to membership.mail@apha.org to update your e-mail address.  If you don’t, you may not get important information from us, because we rely on APHA’s e-mail lists. Nine times out of 10, if you have not heard from us, it is because the e-mail address on record is wrong.

3.  Contribute to this Newsletter.  Contact Anthony Kouzis at akouzis@jhsph.edu.  Don’t think you have anything to contribute?  Consider the following: do you have a new training grant, fellowship, or job opening? Give us the relevant information and we will post it.  Have you had publications in peer-reviewed journals in the past few months that you are particularly excited about? Send us a link to the pdf file.  Are you looking for collaborators? Write us a short blurb on your work with contact information.  Are you involved in any advocacy or policy issues at the national level? Consider writing a short piece on the issue and how people might contribute.  We have lots of room in the newsletter, and I would like to see us utilize it as a networking tool more than we have in the past.

4.  Volunteer for a committee.  We have immediate need for members on two committees, membership and the booth, and we need a ‘webmaster’. We will also need help arranging the social this year in Boston, and manning the booth at the conference.

After many years of Herculean effort, Jean Demmler is handing over the membership reigns.  I’m sure I speak for so many of us in sincerely thanking her for her efforts.  In fact, so great were those efforts that we are replacing her with a committee!  Judy Samuels has graciously agreed to chair the committee, but other members are needed.  It would involve a commitment of several hours a month throughout the year.  For more information you can contact me at rani.desai@yale.edu .

Second, we generated a number of good ideas for sprucing up the Section booth next year, and the Fedex snafu that resulted in the loss of our promotional materials also provides us with an opportunity to start fresh.  If you are interested in joining our booth chair, Kathleen Thomas, in this creative effort let me know.  In addition, we will be asking for your help in manning the booth at the conference for 1-2 hour stints.
    

Finally, our section Web site is outdated and needs help.  You don’t need to know advanced Web design--this opportunity primarily involves making sure the documents on the site are kept updated.  This is one of our public faces to the world, so it is really important that it is maintained. Plus, any creative ideas for improvement would be welcome!

5.  Volunteer to review abstracts.  Every year all of the abstracts that get submitted need to be peer reviewed by at least two people in the field, and preferably three. We need stakeholders of all kinds, including consumers, students, policy makers, and researchers.  The review process takes place in the spring; you would get about a month to review about 20 abstracts using a pretty friendly online review process.  If you are interested contact David Mandell, our Program Chair, at mandelld@mail.med.upenn.edu and let him know your contact information and area(s) of expertise. 

As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to become involved.  Also, if you have other ideas let me know.  Cheers for a happy and healthy 2006!