SER President’s Message

It falls on me to be the bearer of bad news, although it lessens the sting to know that this comes as no real surprise to anyone.   Travel, hospitality, and the many dimensions of daily life – from childcare to university reimbursements – have not yet returned to such a state that we can depend on them in June.  Those of us who closed our eyes and anticipated the warm Pacific breeze on our faces must wait until summer of 2026 for that sensation (our San Diego hotel contract is not canceled, but merely postponed by 5 years).  Many thanks to the nearly 1100 of you who responded to our recent survey, effectively supporting this reluctant decision in something of a landslide.   Nearly 60% of respondents indicated that they would only attend a virtual meeting, and another 20% offered that they would attend regardless, but preferred the virtual format under the circumstances.  A hybrid meeting is substantially more expensive, and with only a small number of people indicating that they would come in person, it seems impossible to justify the large additional cost that is ultimately subsidized by a majority who will not benefit from it. Faced with this reality, the Executive Committee today finally abandoned our fondly held hope for some miraculous reprieve.  The 2021 meeting will be 100% virtual.  I promise you that nobody is more disappointed by this decision than I am.  Being president of the organization, while a tremendous honor, is also a constant chore.  I agreed to take on this burden mostly because I happened to be invited up to the hotel room of Dr. Schisterman when he presided over the 2019 meeting, and there discovered that the reigning president is accommodated in a hotel room that is stocked with unimaginable quantities of free beer and potato chips.  For the next two years I dreamt longingly of the epic night I would spend in this den of nutritional iniquity.  Instead, it is now clear that I will oversee the meeting from the sad humiliation of my kitchen table, strategically muting out the cries of unruly children in the background.  This was not what I had in mind for 2021, but don’t listen to your calendar:  2020 isn’t quite over yet.

Rest assured that the Executive Committee has undertaken a careful review of the 2020 “Boston” meeting, and that the SER staff has met at length with the vendor to improve the virtual experience.  Your feedback about frustrating or glitchy aspects of the last meeting was heard loud and clear, and we have asked the contracted company for substantial improvements to poster presentations, communication between attendees, and other aspects of the online environment.  We have also used savings from reduced travel costs to boost scholarships for trainees and others in need, including a large number of free registrations for international students connecting from lower and middle income countries.  Conference workshops will run from early May to early July, spread out to facilitate multiple registrations.  An excellent line-up of plenary speakers includes a focus on pandemic epidemiology, social epidemiology, epidemiologic methods, and a cavalcade of prestigious award winners representing the best our field has to offer.  You can also count on the full complement of breakfast roundtables, meet-the-experts events, career development workshops, and world-class symposia and oral sessions. The 2020 meeting was the warm-up, where we stumbled through our first virtual experience together, figuring out how it worked.  2021 will our best, and (ojalá, our LAST) virtual annual June SER meeting.  Be there or be square.

-Jay Kaufman, SER President