Message from NAASO President

Dear NAASO Members:

As we enter the New Year, I am delighted to be writing this column as one of my first duties as NAASO's President. NAASO has had a tradition of excellent leadership and after 17 years as a member, it is daunting to follow in my predecessors' footsteps. However, they have established a strong foundation and I am confident that NAASO will continue its success in the future.

There are three issues I would like to address in this letter:

1. NAASO's role as part of the larger obesity community;
2. NAASO's Strategic Plan;
3. Upcoming vote on changes in the Bylaws

The Obesity Community
Over the past three years, NAASO has explored new ways of interacting as a society with our colleagues in other organizations. We have participated in Nutrition Week, attempted a merger with the American Obesity Association, collaborated with the American Diabetes Association on our Annual Meeting and made other attempts to define our place within the community of organizations focused on obesity and its related comorbidities. We are aware that some members were concerned about the possibility that NAASO would be "taken-over" by another organization in the past year. NAASO is currently in a strong position in the field and will not be swallowed by another organization, although we will continue to explore mutually beneficial opportunities with others. We will continue to work with others in the obesity community to find ways to support each other while at the same time achieving our goals including expanding funding for obesity research and improving care for the obese.

Our New Strategic Plan
I had the pleasure of introducing NAASO's new Strategic Plan during our Annual Business Meeting in Las Vegas. This plan expands NAASO's scope while maintaining our traditional leadership in the science of obesity. It presents, for the first time, a Vision Statement as well as NAASO's Core Values. We take these values of Compassion, Responsibility, Respect, Progress, and Sharing/Mentoring seriously and believe they have been incorporated into our culture at every level. I encourage you to visit our Website and review the Plan.

Bylaws changes
By the end of this month, NAASO Fellows will receive a ballot asking them to approve a change in our Bylaws. There are two changes proposed, both resulting from the strategic planning process. The first will allow the creation of Special Interest Groups. We have seen NAASO's membership grow during the past few years and with this growth has come an increased diversity in our membership and our members' interests. Initially, NAASO had been able to accommodate this diversity through the use of Committees such as the Clinical and Student/Post- doc Committees. We now believe there is a better way. Council has recently approved a plan to allow for the formation of Special Interest Groups that will replace these Committees with self-identified, self- directed groups. The benefit of this approach is that the Groups will have more authority and autonomy and can develop into stronger units of NAASO.

The second change is much more fundamental. We propose to modify our name from "The North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO)" to "NAASO, The Obesity Society." We have found that NAASO's full name is a barrier to our public affairs efforts and may be slowing our growth by hindering our effort to increase awareness of our organization. On the other hand, "NAASO" has an excellent reputation that we want to build upon. The new name solves both problems. It quickly explains who we are and what we are about while maintaining the link to the reputation NAASO has built over the last 23 years. I urge you to vote yes on both initiatives next month.

As I start my tenure as President, NAASO is a stronger, bigger and more effective organization than at anytime in its history. It truly is my pleasure to serve at this time.

Sincerely,

Louis J Aronne, MD
President