Dear Fellow Members:

I hope you are enjoying the summer and the slower pace it so often brings. This brief note will not bring any relief from the extreme heat we have been experiencing but will inform you of several important activities at NAASO =96 The Obesity Society.

The program for our Annual Scientific Meeting has been finalized and looks outstanding. We had a near- record number of submissions to the meeting (second only to Las Vegas), and the Program Committee, led by Drs. Donna Ryan and Andy Greenberg, has secured an outstanding group of speakers to present invited addresses and participate in symposia. I look forward to welcoming you to the meeting, which will be held in Boston, October 20th-24th. Please contact our home office in Silver Spring if you have any questions about attending the meeting.

The Annual Meeting will give us an opportunity to officially welcome Morgan Downey, JD, to the Obesity Society as our new Executive Vice President. Morgan will assume this position on September 5th, after having served as Executive Director of the American Obesity Association (AOA) for the past 9 years. With Drs. Richard Atkinson and Judith Stern, two of NAASO's former presidents who co-founded AOA, Morgan has worked tirelessly to have obesity recognized as a disease by government agencies and to increase funding for obesity research. His extensive experience at AOA and on Capitol Hill will bring vital new leadership to our society.

The Annual Meeting also will provide an opportunity to congratulate recipients of this year's New Investigator Awards. Dr. George Bray, chair of our society's Scientific Review Committee, will present awards of $25,000 to each of four new investigators who were selected from a total of 80 applicants. The Obesity Society has made supporting new investigators one of its top priorities, given the marked competition for NIH funding the past several years. To date, the New Investigator Awards Program has received pledges from corporate sponsors totaling $225,000. We appreciate their support of this critically important program.

Our society's President-Elect, Dr. Eric Ravussin, has been ably chairing a committee that is examining opportunities for the Obesity Society to partner with a newly formed organization, Shaping America's Health =96 Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention (SAH-AWMOP). This new organization, which is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association, is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the problem of obesity. The Obesity Society and SAH-AWMOP plan to jointly sponsor two consensus conferences in the next several months. Details will follow.

Several of our committees have been very active this year. The Clinical Committee, led by Dr. Bob Kushner, is nearing completion of a Code of Conduct for our society, which will be presented at the Annual Meeting. Dr. Pat O'Neil and other members of the Education Committee are collaborating with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) on preparation of the Practical Guide to the Management of the Metabolic Syndrome. The Publications Committee, chaired by Dr. Jeanine Albu, recently initiated a review of our journal, Obesity, to determine ways to increase its circulation, impact and profitability. Dr. Barbara Corkey, editor of Obesity, has been working steadily with the journal's publisher to resolve the delay in publication. She recently informed me that the publication will be back on track with the October issue (in time for our Boston meeting).

In closing, I want to thank Ann Kenworthy, our Interim Executive Director, for her superb service to our Society this year. Ann is a consummate professional, who made this a very productive year for the Obesity Society and a pleasure for me personally. Thank you, Ann, for a job well done!

Best wishes to those traveling to Sydney next month for the International Congress on Obesity. I look forward to seeing you in Boston in October.

Tom Wadden
President

The Late-Breaking Abstracts submission period closes at 11:59 PM on Friday, August 11. Accepted Late- Breaking Abstracts will be presented as posters only, and will be printed in Obesity in early 2007. Please visit the 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting Web Site for more information.

With a total of 11 new members sponsored into the society's ranks, Gary Foster is the winner of the recently concluded =93Bring-a-Member-In Challenge.=94 As a reward, he will receive his choice of a $500 American Express gift certificate or one free full registration to the 2006 annual meeting AND one free year of membership. Congratulations, Gary!

Other winners in the BMI Challenge were:
2nd place (a tie!): Eric Ravussin and Louise Hesson, who each receive their choice of a $300 American Express gift certificate or one free full registration to the 2006 annual meeting.

3rd place: Penny Gordon-Larsen wins her choice of a $200 American Express gift certificate or one year free society membership.

4th place: Maria Petriello, who wins a $100 American Express gift certificate.

A special thanks to these top recruiters and to everyone else who accepted the BMI Challenge. Even though the contest is over, all members are encouraged to continue recommending the society to non-member colleagues. Your personal efforts make the difference in recruiting new members.

During the first week of August, Obesity Online surpassed a significant milestone: a total of 500,000 slides downloaded! Our award-winning education Web site began in November 2004 and use of the materials has been growing at an accelerating rate. July 2006 was the busiest month in the site's history, with nearly 48,000 slides downloaded. As we add new programs, we anticipate this growth to continue at a more rapid pace. Obesity Online is the education resource for clinicians, researchers and educators with an interest in obesity and its related disorders. You can use our slide library to customize timely, relevant presentations, or take advantage of virtual meetings and other activities that offer CME credit. Materials are updated regularly by our expert Editorial Board. If you haven't yet taken a look at Obesity Online to see how you might benefit, now's the time.

The 20th anniversary special edition of the IASO Obesity Newsletter =96 the biggest-ever edition =96 is now available online at www.iaso.org/newsletterjuly.htm. The 14,000- copy printed edition will be available to all those attending The Obesity Society's annual meeting in Boston as well as to those at ICO2006 in Sydney Sept 3-8.

News from the West
By Judith Stern

CALIFORNIA
Britt Burton-Freeman (Assistant Research Nutritionist, UC Davis) spoke at ADA this year: =93Relationship between body weight, inflammation and chronic disease.=94 New grant awards include: a USDA NRI to study the physiological effects of bioactive protein fragments in dairy, an ILSI project examining carbohydrate properties on food intake regulation, and pilot funds for testing flaxseed oil variation in EFA ratios on metabolic outcomes. Contact her at bbfreeman@ucdavis.edu

David Heber (UCLA) was recently elected chair of the Medical Nutrition Council of the American Society for Nutrition. Congratulations David!

News from Kaiser Permanente (KP):
KP has been recognized for its activities in obesity. Its Care Management Institute Weight Management Initiative won the first Recognizing Excellence Award for the Best Application of Behavioral Change Principles to Disease Management from the Disease Management Association of America.

Sami Alskaf (S. Cal Permanente, medical director of the Panorama City metabolic obesity and nutrition program) was appointed as lead physician for nutrition and health promotion. Recent honors include election to the examination committee of the American Board of Bariatric Medicine; diplomate, American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists; and KP National Diversity Program's 2005 Achievement Award. Congratulations Sami!

Nora Norback was instrumental in the funding of an obesity prevention community collaboration in Richmond, CA. They received $1.5 million from the Northern California KP Community Benefit program to support promotion of healthy eating and active living in an urban environment.

Troy Donahoo has been appointed medical director of weight management programs for KP Colorado. Trina Histon (Project Director, CA) and Keith Bachman (Clinical Lead for the Weight Management Initiative, OR) introduced KP's clinical tools and models of obesity care at a statewide weight management coalition convened in June by the Department of Health in New Mexico and the New Mexico Medical Society.

Finally, KP Northwest Community Benefit Program in Portland printed 2000 copies of KP-CMI's "Adult Weight Management Treatment Guide," which will be distributed to primary care physicians in Oregon and SW Washington. This guide summarizes evidence, a treatment algorithm based on the NIH Practical Guide, and best communication strategies. It is based on a similar document that has been used in training of more than 1000 KP adult primary care clinicians.

News from the Midwest
By Melissa Nelson

Michael Jensen, Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), was honored with an American Diabetes Association Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award. In addition, Dr. Jensen recently retired as chair of the NIH Clinical and Integrative Diabetes and Obesity study section.

Joseph E. Donnelly, Professor of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas, has been named the director of the Center for Physical Activity and Weight Management at the University of Kansas. The Center has established a new facility at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics focusing on reducing childhood obesity in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri.

Kimberly Barber-Heidal, PhD, MHS, RD, LDN, was named the "Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year" by the North Carolina Dietetic Association this past April.

On Saturday, September 30, 2006, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery is sponsoring a "Walk from Obesity." In cities all across America, participants will be joining forces and walking to raise money for research, education, prevention and treatment of obesity. For more information, see the website: www.walkfromobesity.com.

News from Canada
by Paul Boisvert

CON-CIHR Obesity Summer Student Boot Camp 2006
The Canadian Obesity Network, directed by Arya Sharma, in collaboration with the Merck Frosst/CIHR Research Chair in Obesity, held by Denis Richard, is pleased to report that the network's inaugural Obesity Summer Student Boot Camp, held July 16-24 at Station Touristique Duchesnay, Quebec, was an overwhelming success. Two dozen students/trainees were brought together with 11 leading faculty members from five Canadian universities. The nine- day program featured insightful sessions on key scientific and psycho-social issues in the prevention and treatment of obesity and its complications, such as epidemiology, public health, cell biology, energy, regulation, clinical management and health policy.

The Canadian Obesity Network organized the Obesity Challenges and Solutions conference in Montreal, Quebec on June 6 and in Toronto, Ontario on June 7, 2006. The Toronto conference is available via live webcast at http://epresence.ehealthinnovation.org/eprese nce/website_archived.aspx?dir=5