President's Update
– January 2009

Greetings SGR Members!!

Having just recently returned from the RSNA and our Board Meeting for the Society, I have a lot of news to convey. First of all, the meeting in Orlando is all set and looks spectacular. By now those of you who have submitted scientific abstracts and posters, and proposals for the Research Awards/Grants should have received your results, and I thank you for all of your submissions. The submissions for abstracts and posters are some of the best we have seen.

Like always, the Business Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 21st at 1:00 PM, and it is important this year as we discuss the merger and other significant topics; I encourage all of you to attend. Please also note the Cannon Lecture will be given by Professor Andreas Adam who is the Past President of the European Radiology Society, the current President of the Royal College of Radiology, and a world renowned interventional radiologist. In addition, the ESGAR Guest Lecture on Friday will be given by Dr. Luis Marti-Bonmati .The ChampionsGate Hotel is excited to have us, and it should be a beautiful venue to visit.

Another thing for the members to consider; as our Society grows with the SUR, we are being recognized more and more as the “front line” society for Abdominal Radiology; A new on-line Journal has approached me and asked us to summarize our meeting and write an article into a new on-line journal called “Imaging in Medicine”; if there is any member who would like to write this piece for the Journal, please contact me.

Importantly, the merger committee has done an outstanding job wading through the bylaws of both Societies and coming up with a new set of bylaws. The current plan is to disseminate the bylaws in 2010, and vote in 2011. The merger committee had equal representation from both Societies, and was superbly co-chaired by Alec Megibow from the SGR and Stuart Silverman from the SUR.

A couple of points that we need feedback on:

1) Attached is the new set of bylaws which we believe will carry forward the new Society for the upcoming years. The bylaws outline what the Board and Committee feel are the necessary components of new Society, yet allow us flexibility as we move forward to a new era. We are hoping that you will give us feedback prior to the next Board Meeting to discuss and consider prior to the official vote on the bylaws. Comments and suggestions can be posted to the joint SUR/SGR forum, which can be accessed via the ‘members only’ section of the SGR Web site, www.sgr.org. If you would like for your comments to be private, please email them to info@sgr.org. All comments should be posted or emailed no later than Friday, February 5th.

2) We still don’t have an official name for the new Society. Jim Ellis (President of the SUR) and I will form a committee to propose a new name; we welcome ideas from the members.

3) The Board also felt that the member of both of Societies might be concerned about the individual differences in the finances of each Society. The SGR and SUR have specific commitments to individual awards, trips, and other areas that the Board feels should be maintained after the merger. In this regard, Jim and I will also appoint a committee to further study this in detail.

Hoping to see all of you at the meeting.

Sincerely,

Peter R. Mueller, MD
2009-2010, SGR President