Abstract
What's so “in” about being “out”? Well, if you haven't looked around lately, there's a tremendous amount of progress that your board of directors has made during the past two years. And it's progress that is bound to reshape and revamp ALA for many years to come.
Let's start from an organizational point of view. For the first time in our history, we have a professional and experienced chief administrative officer running the organization. Greg Dummer has made an immediate and strong impact in elevating the way ALA runs itself and in enhancing our value to members and to the industry.
Under Greg's leadership, we have built a capable staff organization to support our members and our leadership initiatives. Once run almost solely by volunteers, ALA now has a very experienced group of professionals guiding our professional affairs.
Then there are programmatic achievements that have occurred, all geared to better serving the community of laboratory automation professionals. These include:
A new agreement with Elsevier to publish the Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation (JALA). Our goal is to make JALA the premier journal in the field of laboratory automation.
Working together with Elsevier, we've revamped the look—so look for it!
Successful editions of ALA's LabAutomation and smallTalk conferences in 2003. In addition, to better serve the needs of biotechnology professionals, we've moved LabAutomation to San Jose beginning in 2004.
Launch of a new conference to focus on bio-pharmaceutical science—ALA LabFusion 2004. In Boston next June, members and exhibitors will want to attend this cutting-edge conference.
Launch of a “Friends of ALA” program. In conjunction with ALA conferences, we're inviting allied organizations to join us, hold meetings within our convention facilities, and increase cross-industry dialogue among the laboratory automation community.
A new campaign designed to recruit members into ALA has been launched, and last year we launched ALA's new Web site, which already has drawn rave reviews from members and industry professionals.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishments have to do with our leadership structure and processes. ALA now has a set of working committees, guided by a new set of bylaws, driving future development in all areas of the association. This is significant. As a nonprofit organization, our functional committees draw new volunteers into the organization, new ideas and better management. This is the place where great programs are born—and it's the place our future leaders will come from. If you are inclined to serve on a committee, please contact us. If not, ALA will always welcome member input and suggestions.
Finally, as a result of our FIRST board of director's election, I'm honored to turn the president's gavel over to Peter Grandsard, Ph.D., of Amgen, Inc. Peter has served ALA for more than seven years, has co-chaired our conference, and has been a steady and wise presence among our board of directors. I ask you, the members of ALA, to accept Peter with open arms as your first elected board member to succeed to the president's position.
As I leave the board, I see a strong organization poised for a great future. I definitely plan to stay involved as part of this future and invite you to join me. I thank all of you for your support and encouragement over the years and look forward to seeing us build the ALA together.
Tony Beugelsdijk, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Los Alamos National Laboratory