Greetings from SSP President

Dear SSP,

As 2009 came to a close, the Society for Scholarly Publishing ended the year with a near-record 973 members, an increase of 50 over 2008. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment to renew your membership for this year so that you may continue to enjoy the benefits of SSP.

The highlight of the year for our organization is our Annual Meeting, which will be held in San Francisco from June 2 through 4. Our Program Committee has formulated an especially strong theme for this year's meeting, A Golden Opportunity: A Shared Vision for Publishers, Librarians and Users, with two keynote addresses and 20 concurrent sessions. The meeting will be preceded by six pre-conference seminars organized by our Education Committee, and will feature more than 40 exhibitors from our industry. Look for our "Save the Date" postcard soon. Registration will open in early March.

In conjunction with our Annual Meeting, SSP is pleased to announce that we will once again sponsor our fifth annual Travel Grant program for up to 10 students and early career professionals. If any of you know a young "rising star" in your organization, please urge him or her to apply for a travel grant to the meeting. We will once again have an SSP Membership booth by the exhibit area, which will be staffed throughout the meeting by SSP leadership. Please stop by to say "Hi" and even to apply to join one of our volunteer committees.

Last month, we resumed our SSP Member Profiles  on the website with a piece on Google's Michael Healy. Each month, we intend to feature an SSP member who will comment on the opportunities and new developments in our ever-changing field. Suggestions for future profiles are always welcome.

We will have our second IN Conference in Philadelphia from September 21 through 23. Last year's inaugural conference, which assigned participants to groups with personas such as a mega search company or small technology firm, was a rousing success. We anticipate the 2010 meeting will be another sell-out event. Stay tuned for further developments. 

Finally, the SSP election  is fast approaching. We will be mailing postcards out to the membership soon to announce the upcoming balloting, which will once again be conducted electronically. Please help to decide SSP's future by voting for the next President-elect and at-large Board members.

As always, I am happy to hear from any of you with your suggestions on how SSP can be improved. I hope that everyone affected is surviving the cold and snow in this most unusual winter. See you in sunny San Francisco.

Sincerely,

Ray Fastiggi

SSP President

Email: fastigg@mail.rockefeller.edu

P.S. SSP News is taking a hiatus for several months while we decide how best to serve our members and other readers.  If you have any ideas in that regard, please do let me know.  In the meantime, thanks to everyone who made the publication possible from its inception, most especially Bill Kasdorf, Lois Smith, Patty Baskin, and Barbara Meyers Ford with support from our great staff at the Resource Center.