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Academy President Reports: “The Future is Ours”

2011; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 88; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/opx.0b013e31823e6638

1538-9235

Karla Zadnik,

Advances in Oncology and Radiotherapy

So many of you were in Boston at Academy 2011 that writing this feels like I'm showing you the photo album after the family wedding. You numbered 5,699, just 92 fewer than a year ago in San Francisco. (Let's call that a “rounding error.”) That number included 3,388 optometrists and vision scientists and a whopping 1,158 “student” registrants, comprising residents, optometry students, and graduate students. We admitted 194 new fellows, and I took great personal pride on behalf of all of you in whispering, “Welcome to our Academy!” in their right ear as we posed for a picture on the banquet stage. The Lectures and Workshop Committee processed 55,847 course evaluations by the morning after the banquet. There were 297 hours of education, 104 scientific papers, 376 scientific posters, and 130 presentations by residents. We received an all-time record high of 175 new candidate applications processed at the Annual Meeting. Our very own American Optometric Foundation gave out $410,000 in scholarships, grants, and awards and received more than $200,000 in donations and new commitments at the meeting while awarding 14 coveted Ezell fellowships and welcoming 8 new Presidents Circle members. These are staggering numbers on all fronts, but they only tell part of the story. If you were there, you had the impression that all 5,699 people were actually at the meeting attending something all the time. (If you were on Facebook, you know they were out stimulating the local economy in Boston, too.) Lectures were standing room only, and some disappointed doctors and students were turned away from one room, only to find solace in an equally stimulating presentation around the corner. The outstanding Monroe J. Hirsch Symposium, “Omics,” was packed. Prentice Lecturer Dennis Levi and Fry Awardee David Atchison spoke brilliantly to a full house at the always-moving Awards Program. Every luncheon table seat was occupied at the knock-your-socks-off plenary session on traumatic brain injury. One Optics and Refractive Error paper session was even oversold, for heaven's sake! The sense everywhere was one of engaged, active, lifelong learning optometrists and vision scientists attending every kind of session they could and conducting spirited discussions en route to the next event. The usual place to meet and greet during the day—the convention center escalators—was uncharacteristically empty because the rooms were full. And then there was the annual business meeting. If you are a fellow who routinely attends the business meeting, you know that there is a sign, a couple of rows from the back of a relatively small lecture room, in front of which the fellows are supposed to sit. In past years, the back rows are sparsely occupied by our dedicated staff and a few people who seem to have wandered in by accident and stay because they think it would be rude to leave. This year, as fellows arrived, they could barely find a seat, because they arrived later than the more than 250 students who attended! It turns out they were signed up for the new Student Fellowship Program, for which they had to attend many key Academy events to earn the designation of Student Fellow (and free registration for their next meeting). After the fellows in attendance were crowded to the front of the room and forced to actually sit right next to each other, those fellows gave the students a standing ovation because... they represent our future. Their energy and enthusiasm for our science and our profession and our Academy were palpable. One student likened the business meeting to her sorority's business meetings during undergrad where everyone there loved what they were doing and the organization involved. Sounds like us, don't you think? (Not to mention, who would have ever thought the nouns, sorority and Academy, would ever appear in the same paragraph?) Another told me, “It was great to see how much you all love optometry. I love optometry!” I lost count of how many students and residents exclaimed, “This is my first Academy meeting, and I will never miss another one as long as I live.” Those students and their delight at being with us at our meeting of our Academy will carry through the year. We will see them at those Academy meetings to come in Phoenix, Seattle, Denver and beyond and will watch them carry our profession, our vision science, and our organization into a future so bright, we'll have to wear shades. Karla Zadnik President, American Academy of Optometry Columbus, Ohio