IPA Bulletin
President's Report

Alistair Burns

It was a great privilege to be installed as President of this organization at the end of the Nice Conference, albeit overshadowed by the tragic world events of September 11, 2001. The Nice Congress was a great success scientifically and, again, our thanks go to Philippe Robert and his many colleagues who worked so hard to make the meeting so enjoyable. Often, it is only after weeks or some months of reflection that the true impact of a meeting begins to sink in. I think it is fair to say that Nice will stand out as one of our most memorable events. Another measure of the Congress’s success is that I can welcome, with delight, 72 new IPA members as a result of the Nice meeting.

Publications Continue to Thrive

You may recall that one objective of my presidency is to involve IPA members in the business of the organization. One of the most appreciated benefits of IPA membership is our publications. In addition to this excellent and informative newsletter (excepting, of course, my contributions), IPA publishes a peer-reviewed scientific journal, International Psychogeriatrics, as well as our Website, www.ipa-online.org.

All three of our publications are a result of the time and effort of committed and dedicated IPA members. On behalf of the IPA Board of Directors, I wish to express our appreciation and gratitude to our three editors: Robin Eastwood, Editor-in-Chief of International Psychogeriatrics, Jay Luxenberg, Editor of IPA-Online and David Folks, the new Editor of the IPA Bulletin. Obviously, behind these posts lie a network of individuals and our thanks are duly extended to them. 

International Psychogeriatrics. Recently, we distributed a call for reviewers for International Psychogeriatrics. Reviewing scientific abstracts can often be a tedious and sometimes thankless task. (The more distant and potentially intangible benefits of a contribution to scientific endeavor are not always uppermost on one’s mind when plowing through text in the early hours of the morning!) However, close to 100 IPA members responded to our call, offering their time and expertise to this very important process. Editor-in-Chief Robin Eastwood was thrilled and will reply to all of you who put yourselves forward.

Robin’s term as Editor-in-Chief will come to an end with the close of 2003. We thank him for his tireless efforts to edit and produce International Psychogeriatrics. His rigorous approach to improving and maintaining the scientific content of articles is much appreciated. A call for a successor will be distributed later this year and the Publications Committee (on behalf of the IPA Board of Directors) will begin the search for the person who can take on the difficult job of following in Robin’s footsteps.

IPA-Online. If you have a chance, you may like to spend some time looking at the new IPA Website (www.ipa-online.org), which is scheduled to go live in June of 2002. In fact, bookmark it so that it will be easy for you to return to time and time again. Under the able direction of Jay Luxenberg, we recently redesigned the site, improving its navigational possibilities and the presentation of information. We are extremely pleased with these changes and hope that you take the time to examine them. Please send us your comments and suggestions. As always, the IPA is a reflection of its membership and your views and thoughts are essential to us. We plan to update the information on the Website consistently and continuously, enhancing the site with new features, articles and information on a monthly basis.

We are fortunate that, even after this important work, Jay has agreed to a second term as editor. I will take the liberty, on behalf of you all, to pass on our thanks to him.

IPA Bulletin. This issue of the Bulletin is a landmark one in that it is the first produced by our new editor, David Folks. We are lucky to have David’s vast publishing and editorial experience, as well as a distinguished career in our subject. The IPA Board of Directors appointed David to a four-year term and we welcome him to the organization in his leadership role.

David shares a problem that is all too common to people who follow others in important, high-profile jobs—that is, to maintain the standard created by a predecessor. (Of course, Jay Luxenberg has neatly avoided this by succeeding himself!) David Folks has the difficult task of succeeding David Ames, whose contribution to the newsletter was truly exceptional. I find the newsletter one of the most interesting and readable magazines I receive. One skill required of an editor is to persuade people to contribute, almost without them knowing it, and David was very skilled in doing this. He set an incredibly high standard and, again, we owe our thanks to him and to everyone who contributes to the publication.

Upcoming Meetings

Our meetings continue to blossom. We now take a much more direct role in their arrangement and organization and collaboration with local organizers. Joel Sadavoy, João Machado and Diane Nickolson have been particularly active alongside local organizers. Arrangements are proceeding apace for the meeting in Hong Kong in October this year, for Geneva next Spring, and for our major congress in Chicago in August 2003. The complexity of these arrangements and the amount of work involved in setting up and smoothly running the Congress is huge.

At the time of this writing, we are looking forward to the meeting in Rome, and I am sure it will be a tremendous success. I am particularly delighted that the Regional Initiative program is going ahead. I think this is one of the major ways in which the IPA can reach and involve its membership.

Please contact Alistair Burns via Sue Whalley, Academic Secretary to Professor Alistair Burns, Department of Psychiatry, 2nd Floor, Education and Research Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Rd., Manchester M23 9LT, 0-161-291-5887, or send an email message to swhalley@fs1.with.man.ac.uk

Reprinted from IPA Bulletin, Volume 19 Number 2