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In this issue: Letter from the President-Elect New Division Directors Orientation Report from the Institute of Medicine Committee AACAP Steering Committee on Workforce Issues Administration Committee Report Clinical Committee Report Education Committee Report EDITOR'S COLUMN Paramjit T. Joshi, M.D. Greetings from Washington DC! I hope each and every one of you are enjoying the summer. I was honored when Bob Hendren asked me to take over the stewardship of our SPCAP Newsletter. In the past few years the SPCAP Newsletter has been published twice a year: in late Spring or summer, capturing the highlights of the annual SPCAP meeting and then again just after the New Year in preparation for the annual meeting, that is usually held in a warm, comfortable spot in March. As I sit at my computer composing this introductory column, I can't but help think of and thank my friend and mentor James Harris, who introduced me to the SPCAP more than a decade ago. I attended my first meeting in Cancun, Mexico and since then have attended all, except ironically this year in Santa Fe. So, I find my self in a position of trying to shed some light on a meeting I did not attend. Instead I am counting heavily on colleagues and friends who were at the meeting to describe their experience, write about important issues that we are dealing with as a field, and also to reflect upon what lies ahead. I sincerely hope that over the next few years the SPCAP Newsletter will become a gathering spot for what we are actively doing as an organization and become the collective voice for academic challenges, changes, and innovation. Drs. Scully and Yager enjoy a laugh at the SPCAP Annual Meeting. SPCAP for me is an organization where one does not feel alone. There is always someone who knows the answers to vexing questions from learning how to be financially viable, to changes in training, to exciting directions in research, and how to mentor and help foster and promote junior faculty and keep young colleagues excited about academic medicine. I have always enjoyed both the relaxed atmosphere of the society and the more academic and serious forums in which important matters are discussed. I was pleased to know that several new division directors were present in Santa Fe. I welcome them and hope to meet them at the next meeting. I look forward to working with President-Elect David Pruitt and the rest of the Executive Committee. Taking advantage of technology we hope to have the Newsletter largely web based and continue to publish it twice a year. I hope you will find the Newsletter interesting and informative and welcome any and all suggestions on how to make it more useful and helpful. Please let me know if any of you have ideas about the format and content of this "new and improved" Newsletter.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Robert Hendren, D.O. I surveyed a number of our members, especially those who don't attend our meeting regularly, regarding what should be the focus of our Society and of our annual meeting. The consistent theme resonated with our newly defined mission "to aggressively promote academic child and adolescent psychiatry." Most also recommended that our meeting content should focus on our jobs as Division Directors and not on information that we could get at other meetings. This year's program was designed with these goals in mind, and as you review the highlights of the meeting in this newsletter, I think you'll agree that we met our objectives! The SPCAP jointly sponsored an exciting meeting recently with the NIMH and the AACAP titled "Enhancing Research Efforts in Child Mental Health." David Pruitt, Ginger Anthony, and I first recognized this opportunity to be an active leader in this effort during our 2002 annual meeting. In my opening comments on behalf of the SPCAP, I pointed out that the Professors is uniquely positioned to help develop more child and adolescent psychiatrist researchers, as well as other child researchers, since we are deeply involved with recruitment, curriculum, service assignments and funding, and we have a close working relationship with Psychiatry chairs, medical school students and teachers, service settings and the child and adolescent psychiatry faculty. I think this initiative is an excellent opportunity for the Professors to show how effective an organization we can be, and I think it might be a good theme for our annual meeting in March. At the beginning of my term, I worked with the Executive Committee to develop a two-year action plan. The goals are to: 1) Organize an effective Executive and sub-committee structure; 2) Identify tasks from the AACAP Workforce Initiatives that the Professors will accomplish; 3) Increase the number and quality of child psychiatrist researchers; 4) Attract leading child psychiatrists to collaborate with the SPCAP in its mission; 5) Develop and evaluate a format for the annual program that is effective in addressing the SPCAP mission; and 6) Develop a budget that allows the Professors to accomplish its mission. I think we are making progress on these, but we have a way to go! Before the next annual meeting, I will communicate with you about a few proposed Bylaw changes that relate to membership (add an international category and programs without training programs), composition of the Executive Committee (include Program Chair and Membership Chair appointed by President), and the criteria for President (must be sitting Division Director). David Pruitt and I will be identifying new committee co-chairs to replace the senior co-chair, so let us know if you would like to volunteer. Also please let us know if you have program ideas for our meeting in March. We still do not have a definite time or place but we will by the end of September and will let you know then. I think this has been a good year for the Professors. I appreciate Paramjit's willingness to take on the editorship of our newsletter. Alan Josephson did a great job of taking over as Program Chair. Marty Drell has done another outstanding job taking over the Membership Committee. Matthew Gomez has been a wonderful addition as our Executive Assistant. It has been a great pleasure to work with David Pruitt and feel that we will have long range continuity in our Society. We hope that you will join us in accomplishing our mission and look forward to seeing you at our reception at the AACAP annual meeting in Miami! Warm regards, Bob