Annual Meeting News
Annual Meeting Update
FROM NICHOLAS J. WESTERS, PSYD, ABPP
SAHM 2022 PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIR
As you know, our in-person Annual Meeting will now be held virtually. I am not sure there is anyone more disappointed and saddened about this than me. As SAHM President Dr. David Bell has transparently shared, the decision was driven by increasing travel restrictions, health and safety concerns, and a financial risk analysis that resulted in no feasible way to break even with our budget or even lose an acceptable amount from which SAHM could reasonably recover.
However, this does not mean you cannot still travel to sunny San Diego, meet up with members of our SAHMily on your own, and together join us virtually. (Note: You will have to make a reservation directly with the hotel. All the reservations in the SAHM room block were canceled for this year.) The hotel has agreed to maintain our contract with them for 2024 without penalty to SAHM. Perhaps the best outcome is that switching to an all-virtual meeting will now enable members to attend all sessions live.
If you’re like me, you are probably tired of Zoom meetings and virtual presentations. Hence, the Program Committee is dedicated to making this year’s meeting as exciting and innovative as possible. The Networking and Career Development Subcommittee already has many fun ideas in the works, such as holding a virtual scavenger hunt, bingo, daily dinner/drink recipes (“quarantini” anyone?), fun awards, SAHM superlatives, unique networking events, and a Closing Ceremony (shout out to the 2022 Winter Olympics).
Based on last year’s poll, we received overwhelming feedback that any virtual meeting should be held on a weekday, so we moved Saturday’s content to Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. This has resulted in a three-day meeting, March 9-11, 2022. We also received feedback that 60 minutes felt too short for virtual workshops, but 90 minutes is too long, so we are modifying the length of workshops to 75 minutes. Our many attendees from the West coast in the U.S. expressed a desire to begin each day at a more reasonable hour, so we are planning to schedule the start and end of each day at a time that maximizes live attendance from members all over the world.
We are still moving forward with the Invited Workshop Series initiative in direct response to comments made in our most recent meeting survey in which adamant requests were made for specific clinical topics. Anticipated topics this year include dermatology, sports medicine amidst COVID, and psychotropic medication management of adolescent anxiety, depression and ADHD. Finally, our Hot Topics subcommittee is reviewing and selecting the hottest proposals. I have personally reviewed all Hot Topics submissions and think they are all excellent choices. I also reviewed every Educational Session submission and believe our Program Committee has selected the best sessions and research proposals relevant to attendees.
The Program Committee is working incredibly hard on pivoting to an all-virtual conference while planning a broad range of quality activities and sessions to meet the diverse needs of our membership. While the disappointment of not being able to see each other in person for yet another year is still sinking in (at least for me), I am happy to say that the timing of the decision to pivot to a virtual meeting has given us sufficient time to offer a top-quality conference. On behalf of the Program Committee, we look forward to making the most out of the conference to meet SAHM’s mission. As we gear up for March, please stay healthy and safe, and be sure to use #SAHM22 when posting what you love about SAHM to social media!
Sincerely,
Nicholas J. Westers, PsyD, ABPP
Director of Programs
Children’s Medical Center Dallas & UT Southwestern Medical Center
nicholas.westers@childrens.com
