SSP President’s e-Letter – Fall 2016

Dear SSP Members,

Greetings from the Rocky Mountains, where the leaves are turning, the air is clear and crisp, and no one is at all worried about the statistical likelihood of nuclear armageddon immediately following the upcoming presidential election.

Our Society (that’s the Society for Scholarly Publishing, not society as a whole) can be proud of itself for the civility and good order that characterized our own most recent presidential contest, which culminated in the election of the marvelous Jennifer Pesanelli. Many of you will know Jennifer from her work with FASEB and from her previous service on the Education Committee and as a member of The Scholarly Kitchen‘s Kitchen Cabinet. She is already distinguishing herself as an outstanding President-elect, and is poised to do even more great things when she assumes the presidency next spring. I have to tell you, folks, it’s going to be huge. She’s very, very classy. Just the best.

Speaking of classy people who are the best, I want to take this opportunity to brag about a few of the accomplishments of our committees and task forces since my last letter. There have been too many to mention all of them, so I’m just scratching the surface here, but these are a few highlights:

• The SSP Fellowship Program, which got off to a great start at the annual meeting in Vancouver this past spring, has continued to provide networking and committee service opportunities to our initial cohort of twelve Fellows.
• We’ve had successful webinars on topics like workflow optimization, funder mandates, reader engagement, and career strategy (all archived online).
• The Scholarly Kitchen website renovation is nearly complete and will launch in another month or two. (I’m not going to give you a date-you’ll just have to read every day.)

At our Board of Directors meeting last week I was amazed yet again at the high level of engagement among our members, and the sheer volume of outstanding work that all of you do on behalf of our organization and our various professions. Thank you again and again!

And speaking of big thanks, with this letter I’m marking a bittersweet transition: Ann Mehan Crosse, who served as our Executive Director for many years and then as Deputy Executive Director with the hiring of Melanie Dolechek, has set her sights on retirement and will be stepping down as our Deputy ED. Well-deserved congratulations to her, but it’s a sad moment for all of us who have worked with her and benefited from her expertise and dedication. With Ann’s impending retirement, two things are happening: first, we’ll be gaining a new general manager, and second, our organizational mailing address and phone numbers will be changing–Kellen, our association management company, is shifting our base of support operations from the Denver to the Chicago office. Be on the lookout for more details soon.

In the meantime, please keep up the great work and know how much each SSP member is appreciated. You all are what make SSP the wonderful organization it is.

Rick Anderson

SSP President, 2016-17