A Message from Our President

Stephen A. Feig, MD, FACR
President

The past two years have arguably been the most challenging ever in the 35 year history of ASBD. Like some other medical organizations, we have encountered a substantial reduction in corporate support from pharmaceutical companies, a major source of our income. In response, we have had to carefully review our budget and reduce less essential line items while maintaining and even expanding other services which are most valued by our members. We have also made a transition in our administration. Brooke Breslow is no longer Executive Director and I would like to recognize his many years of service. Lynn Hamilton is now our Executive Administrator. Chris Brockles continues to ably manage our finances along with Abbe Berns, a new member of our team. We have also recruited Anita Bliss to support fundraising. We are fortunate to have all of them on board.

Our 2009-2010 Executive Committee consisted of Gail Lebovic, M.D., President; Stephen Feig, M.D., Vice President (President Elect); Julio Ibarra, M.D., Past President; and Robert Carlson, M.D., Secretary-Treasurer. I would like to express my appreciation to them. They generously gave their time and considerable talents to our organization. Because of their efforts, the ASBD is now back on sustainable financial ground.

The ASBD has also had some notable successes. Under the leadership of Gail Lebovic, our multidisciplinary Oncoplastic Surgery Workshop has thrived, providing unique training for many surgeons. Through the efforts of Julio Ibarra and others , our International membership has greatly increased. We now need to build on these achievements and develop other innovative programs and services. Here are some specific cost-effective projects.

• We continue to rebuild our website into a more user-friendly source of up-to-the minute clinically useful information and ASBD activities
• We need to further develop and evolve our Annual Symposium
• We can expand our national and international education activities
• We should continue our cooperative activities with other breast organizations such as the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC)
• We can further publicize our excellent consensus statements and point-counterpoint articles through publication in medical journals
• We must increase our membership much more rapidly through membership campaigns, providing more valuable services to our members, and keeping our memberships dues comparable to those of other medical societies

We particularly need our members to be actively involved in ASBD Committees. If you are interested in serving on a committee, or have an idea, proposal or suggestion for a new ASBD activity, or would just like to express an opinion about ASBD, please e-mail me at sfeig@uci.edu so I can share your thoughts with the other current members of our Executive Committee: Gail Lebovic, past President; Jean Lynn, Vice President; Sandhya Pruthi, Secretary-Treasurer.

Each of you can make a difference in the exciting future of ASBD!