President's Report 2002-03
Southwest Chapter, AMWA

Membership

Chapter membership is 232 as of January 2, 2003.

Finances

The chapter has a balanced budget and a healthy financial reserve.

Major Developments

The Southwest chapter has made several strides in 2002-2003.

• First, in the fall of 2002, the IRS approved the chapter's application as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization. The process of how this was done will be presented in a poster at the 2003 AMWA Annual Conference and will be shared readily with other AMWA chapters interested in applying for this status, which allows individuals and companies to make tax-deductible donations to chapters.
• Second, major meetings are routinely videorecorded with VHS tapes made available to members who cannot attend meetings, particularly those members in more remote regions. In addition, the Southwest Chapter partnered with the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC) Library to present a webcast of the chapter's December lecture (see list of programs below). This allows anyone with a current version of the RealONE media player to access the lecture via the Internet.
• Third, in September 2002, the chapter held its first conference featuring AMWA core credit workshops. This was the first chapter conference in more than 15 years and featured a student scholarship sponsored by Dr. John P. McGovern, an AMWA Fellow, allowing 10 students to attend at a significantly reduced rate.
• Fourth, the chapter has continued its commitment of $200 (or more if needed) to fund smaller, regional meetings as the chapter's regional directors are able to schedule events. Although several events have been organized or are being planned, these funds have not been fully used, and efforts continue to help organize more regional events. In addition, the chapter will hold its first Membership Appreciation Reception in April. This nonprogrammatic event will feature complimentary food and a cash bar. The reception will provide a chance for members and prospective members to learn more about AMWA and how to become involved.

Programs — Houston

July 13, 2003; Clear Lake, Texas
Space Flight and the Human Body: Effects and Countermeasures. John Evanoff, PhD, and Michael Barratt, MD, of NASA-Johnson Space Center presented a 1-hour lecture on the effects of space flight on the human body and aspects of medical research and practice is outer space. Approximately 35 people attended.

September 19, 2002, Houston, Texas
Southwestern Medical Writing Conference. This half-day meeting featured a plenary lecture "Industry-sponsored tobacco research: lessons in conflicts of interest for academia," by Lisa Bero, PhD, of the University of California at San Francisco. The lecture was followed by lunch and a choice of 3 workshops: Punctuation for Clarity and Style [R], Journal Submissions Other than Research Articles [EW], and Organizing the Biomedical Paper [EW/FL]. Approximately 80 people attended. The meeting will be moved to the spring to avoid scheduling conflicts with the national annual conference; the next chapter conference is scheduled for the spring of 2004. The conference program will be expanded to a full day to allow attendees to register for more than one workshop.

December 3, 2002, Houston, Texas
Southwest Chapter Holiday Gala. A festive reception followed an interactive and engaging lecture by Stanley J. Reiser, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. The lecture, "Frankenstein and Ethical Challenges in the Medical Future," was accompanied by a National Library of Medicine exhibit on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and modern biomedical developments. A live webcast of the presentation was recorded and later made available on the Web. About 30 people attended.

January 29, 2003, Houston, Texas
Annual John P. McGovern Award Banquet. Our annual McGovern Award was presented to Robin M. Henig, an accomplished author of books and articles dealing with a variety of topics in science and medicine. Ms. Henig presented a lecture titled "Turning Science into Stories: The Limits of Narrative Nonfiction." Approximately 37 people attended this event.

March 13, 2003, Houston, Texas
Special lecture. Carol Ann Wilson Story, from the Plain Language Association, will present a lecture titled, "Plain Language: Ensuring Strong Communication" May 14, 2003, Houston, Texas Fourth Annual Career Roundtables. This annual meeting will feature career roundtable discussions, with each discussion led by a chapter member with a specific area of expertise.

Programs — Regional

Albuquerque
Several regional directors have compiled regional membership e-mail lists to better communicate with chapter members spread out within their regions, which include Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Central Texas, and North Texas. Several small meetings are being planned, including a possible talk in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on "Communicating Health Issues across Borders." Also, the North Texas (Dallas/Ft. Worth) region has held one small planning and get-together meeting, as well as a larger and more widely publicized "Adventures in Freelancing" event that attracted approximately 40 attendees.

Scholarship Program

We are in the third year of our scholarship program, designed to encourage a promising student in the field of medical communication. Participants are required to submit a 500-word essay that will be judged by a panel of AMWA chapter members. The winner will receive a check for $500, a one-year student membership in AMWA, the publication of the winning essay in the Southwest Chapter Newsletter, and an invitation to the chapter's annual career roundtables meeting in May.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas Gegeny, MS, ELS Chapter President
Chapter President, 2002-03

• Susan Siefert
• Laurel Prokop
• Jennifer Newcomb Fernandez
• Pamela Paradis Tice
• Maureen Goode