Abstract
For an organization to thrive and remain relevant, it must be flexible and adapt to changing conditions around it. This may seem obvious, but in 1993 Douglas C. North received a Nobel Prize in Economics for his in-depth analysis of the behaviors of institutions and organizations over time and their effects on economic performance. Successful organizations are socially and economically productive only if their members clearly understand that objective judgment and constant learning are mandatory. Luckily, our organization, The American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP), is dedicated to just that; we are a discipline employing the scientific process; objectivity and continual exploration are core scientific values that lead inevitably to adaptive change. We have been trained to apply these values to our science, but the discipline spills naturally into our organization. Over time we have kept what works and changed what did not, which is why we have reached our 60th anniversary in such great shape. In this issue, two former ACVP Presidents, David C. Dodd and Helen Acland, survey what has worked and what stopped working for our organization from 1961 to the present. This has not been done since T. C. Jones detailed our early history from the ACVP's founding in 1949 through 1960. We hope you will find the time to read and reflect on how far we have come and what it will take for a veterinary pathologist who may not yet have been born to report similar success six decades from now.