Greetings Members! First I’d like to thank everyone involved in planning and organizing our very successful 61st Annual Scientific Conference in Las Vegas on October 15-18, 2017. We had an excellent attendance of 144 at the meeting, including 31 students. This is our first INROADS since that meeting, and we should recognize the Scientific Programming Committee, and its leadership including Matt Maltese, SPC Chair, Carl Schulman, Chair of the Annual Program Subcommittee for this conference, and Scott Gayzik who led planning around our 8th Annual Student Symposium. The Student Symposium continues to be one of the highlights of our annual meeting. Thanks so much to all the students who presented there!

As I begin to work with Katie Keel, our Executive Director for AAAM, to look at committee leadership and overall operations of the organization, we need to take a moment to pause and look at all we have accomplished over the last few years.  Our partnership with Bostrom is flourishing and supporting more of the business and organizational aspects of AAAM. In addition to making improvements in the operational aspects of AAAM (accounting, membership management, and governance review), AAAM successfully completed a communications audit, launched a new website, and has made significant strides in marketing AAAM and AIS to a broader audience. There are several committees who are rotating leadership on schedule.  Fran Lopez-Valdes and Mandy Agnew are joining the AAAM Executive Committee as Members-at-Large.  I want to thank Pat Gillich, who has completed his term as Abbreviated Injury Scale Chair and is succeeded by Mark Sochor, who has years of experience with AIS and will prove a capable leader.  Pat has been instrumental to the training program and success of AIS over the past several years and will continue to be involved with the committee. Thomas Hartka is joining the AIS Committee as Training and Certification Subcommittee chair.  Rawson Wood is our new Policy Committee chair.  David Browne is heading the Marketing Task Force for AAAM. Clay Gabler takes over the reins of the Fellow Review Committee.

Since the last annual meeting, I have given much thought to actions I believe will encourage growth and success of AAAM.  Member engagement is extremely important to a member-based association.  I am encouraging a concerted effort, with Katie and our committee leadership, to solicit diverse participation in all roles in our organization at every level. Word of mouth is often a very effective recruiting tool, but we owe all our members transparency and opportunities to participate in the organization. Most recently, you should have received open calls to join a New Membership Task Force and to join the Scientific Programming Committee.  We hope many of you will respond to these calls with your interest. We are initiating calls and advertisements for all volunteer and leadership positions within AAAM.

We are going to need the diversity and enthusiastic participation of our members to move forward with AAAM and keep it relevant. It is up to all of us to work on spreading the word about AAAM, the Annual Scientific Conference, and the value that AAAM brings to their members and the road safety community. It has become abundantly clear that autonomous vehicle technology is playing a rapidly increasing role in our lives in the future. With my oldest daughter only a couple years from driving age, I wonder if she will be driving a vehicle that has a higher degree of autonomy than anything on the road now by the time she’s in her 20’s. At the same time, the developing world has a high automotive injury-related morbidity and mortality, and as our keynote speaker Dr. van Ratingen pointed out at our annual conference, we will have the most ‘bang for the buck’ worldwide by reducing morbidity and mortality there. These two areas, autonomous vehicle technology, and the developing world are certainly worthy of consideration as strong focus areas for AAAM. But our cross-cutting mission will continue to encompass all areas of the Haddon Matrix and the scientific conference planning reflects that. One of our greatest resources, the Abbreviated Injury Scale, and the faculty and AIS leadership who are such a vital part of AIS, will continue to be a focus for AAAM. The AIS Task Force attests to this and we have engaged Bostrom for strategic planning around AIS to continue and build on its success in the future.

So, member engagement and focus: to this end, I am organizing a AAAM ‘Cabinet’ consisting of committee chairs and subcommittee chairs to begin to communicate about how we carry forward our organizational mission prescribed by the Board of Directors. This is a communication and organizational tool, not a new leadership group or committee. It is populated by people who are leaders and can engage the workhorses of AAAM, its committees, and members.  It will help us accomplish AAAM’s mission of saving lives and eliminating road traffic injuries.  The Cabinet will meet this month and we’ll be sure to update you on our activities in the next issue of INROADS. I hope you will be involved in some of the activities that result!

I invite you to participate in our mission and particularly invite you to submit abstracts and plan to attend our next Scientific Conference in Nashville, TN October 6-10, 2018. Abstracts are due Feb 1, 2018, and short communications and posters due April 15.You will find a diverse and passionate group of people here waiting for you and willing to work with you.

Joel Stitzel
AAAM President

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