By James Hill, ASN President
My goal during the coming year is to help ensure that ASN is a relevant organization. I see this as making it relevant for our members but also relevant to other scientists, to government policy makers, and to the public. We are well positioned to do this but I would love to start a dialogue with our members to talk about strategies and what we can accomplish through these strategies. Our Public Policy and Public Information committees are anxious to do more in this area and our staff person, Mary Lee Watts, provides exceptional leadership and support for these efforts. One way to become relevant is to be willing to comment on emerging (and often controversial) issues. I would like to see ASN as the “go to” organization for quick, accurate comment on nutritional issues. Sometimes we will have adequate time to prepare a response and sometimes we will need to act quickly. I believe we need a quick response team to deal with issues that require a rapid response. I understand that our response needs to be fast-paced and correct but I think we can take on this challenge. At the same time we need to be proactively working to generate interest in nutritional issues that we want to bring to the attention of the media and the public. I would love to hear your views on how to ensure that ASN is relevant.