I would like to update you on IPA happenings over the past few months. Firstly, we
had a very successful Asia Pacific regional meeting in Seoul Sep 8–11 2004. We had nearly 500 attendees
from throughout the region and the world. I congratulate our organizers and the chair of the scientific
committee, Profs. Jonghan Park, Regional Meeting Chair, Byeong Kil Yeon, Regional Meeting Vice-Chair and Byoung Hoon Oh, Scientific Chair, on an
outstanding conference.
April 5–8 2005 we are looking forward to our next regional meeting in New Zealand. We anticipate a
record turnout and a superb scientific meeting. Please join us.
Relative to meetings, the excitement is building toward our next Congress, September 20–24, 2005
in Stockholm. As you have probably heard, the Secretariat has relocated, to more compact and affordable
space in suburban Chicago as we continue to work with our consultant toward putting IPA on a more
secure financial footing. Our Executive Director, Fern Finkel has been working toward transitioning
out of her position over the next year and has been quite busy on many projects including
our most recent MCI Expert Conference. Also in the works is an expert conference on late life bipolar
disease. Members who have viable proposals and are willing to work toward securing funding for expert
conferences should contact the Secretariat. IPA leadership has been busy working
with the Membership Committee in developing special membership fees for members from emerging nations as well as for
non-physician members, students and bundled memberships for those who are members of an IPA-affiliated
organization. I would like to thank Dr. Helen Chiu for her leadership in this area. These developments
will make it possible for us to grow IPA, particularly in underrepresented areas of the world, and to make
IPA more interdisciplinary.
I wish all of you a healthy and happy New Year and encourage you to get involved in IPA at all levels.
Dear Colleagues...