President’s Message
SER is the most member-focused and member-driven organization that I have encountered in my career. As we move to the end of September, our members have just wrapped up submitting their proposals for symposia, lunch sessions, and workshops. Soon, we will be setting the agenda for the annual meeting in Austin next June. I know of no other organization where the membership has so much input into the structure and content of their annual meeting. It’s much more common for a few committee members to determine what’s important and set the agenda and invite speakers. But we do it differently—in a remarkable and inspiring way. Our members, you, propose the content and speakers, and then the entire board works its magic to create the SER program. So, for those of you who have submitted proposals this year—thank you…and if you are unsuccessful, please try again next year. And for those of you who didn’t submit a proposal this year, it’s not too early to be thinking about SER in 2025. Remember that if you think the annual meeting doesn’t have enough content in a particular area, the solution is to submit a symposium proposal that addresses that gap!
I’m excited for the annual meeting in Austin. The symposium proposals that I’ve seen are incredible and I know that many other great ones have been submitted. Y’all are so good at keeping us engaged while educating us at the same time. As we noted in our recent letter to the SER membership, we’ll be in Austin during the celebration of Juneteenth, and Juneteenth originated in Texas. We will use this opportunity to call attention to the role of epidemiology in public health and in the improvement of health for all people. I hope that you will join me in supporting the >100 members of SER from Texas, as well as the many members from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America that we expect to join us there. We want to be sure that the experience in Austin is a positive one for everyone who attends. We have also been working to improve the accessibility of the meeting, ensuring that everyone can get the most out of the meeting. Finally, we wanted to be sure that everyone knows that while all presentations will be in person, the plenaries and main symposia will be available virtually to members who are unable to attend.
If you are unable to attend the annual conference in Austin, please consider attending the mid-year meeting, which will be held the week of March 4 in Toronto. The early part of the week is used for virtual abstract presentations, while on Friday, the in-person sessions are held. These sessions are also available virtually. By providing a variety of options for our conferences, we hope to ensure that everyone can participate in a meaningful way that meets their own needs.
A year and a half after learning that y’all had elected me to serve in this role, I am still stunned and humbled. Thank you for putting your trust in me to keep us moving forward. If you have questions, thoughts, ideas, or concerns, feel free to reach out to me (bill_miller@unc.edu (yes, that is correct—I recently changed institutions)) or Sue Bevan (sbevan@epiresearch.org). Thank you, everyone, for all you do for our organization.
Bill Miller, SER President