2005 SAMBA ANNUAL MEETING - REGISTER NOW! - TOP

Register now for the 20th Annual SAMBA Meeting. The meeting will be held in Scottsdale, AZ, on May 12 -15, 2005, and the theme will be Ambulatory Anesthesia: 20 Years of Innovation.

This year's program features presentations on state-of-the-art topics of interest to practitioners involved in the care of outpatients undergoing ambulatory surgery in hospital-based, freestanding and office-based surgery facilities. Workshops on preoperative evaluation, regional anesthesia, advanced administration issues, and ultrasound in anesthesia will be offered, as well as the ever-popular "Cases from the Real World" session. Other sessions will focus on obesity and sleep apnea, understanding the new anesthesia machines, patient safety, and risk and outcome in ambulatory anesthesia. A program segment specifically for residents will discuss the pros and cons of both academic and private practice.

The meeting will be held at the wonderful Camelback Inn. The social highlight of the meeting will be "A Night Beneath the Arizona Sky", in the Inn's North Garden. The event will feature a dinner of true Southwestern cuisine, accompanied by a trio of musicians who will play soft music. There will also be entertainment by a story teller and tarot card reader, and a discussion of the star-filled Arizona sky by knowledgeable astronomers.

The deadline for pre-meeting registration is April 21, 2005. Registrations received after that date, will not be processed until on-site registration opens on Thursday, May 12, 2005, at 12:00 Noon.

The organizing committee for the SAMBA 20th Annual Meeting is currently looking for interesting patient cases to be presented at its "Cases from the Real World" session. If you have any cases you think would be of interest to others involved with ambulatory anesthesia, please submit them to sambameetings@asahq.org.

PROPOSED BYLAWS AMENDMENTS - TOP

Members attending the SAMBA 20th Annual Meeting on May 12-15, 2005, at the Marriott Camelback Inn Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, will be asked to approve amendments to the SAMBA Bylaws. The purpose of the amendments is to create a category of membership to accommodate corporate membership and to establish the Ambulatory Anesthesia Section Editor of Anesthesia & Analgesia as an ex-officio member of the Society’s Board of Directors. The Committee on Bylaws submitted recommended amendments to the Board of Directors at its October 2004 meeting for approval. The amendments are presented to the membership for their advisement as follows:

Section 3.2. CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP.

h. Benefactor. The Board of Directors may declare any individual, company, or corporation rendering valuable service to the Society to be Benefactor.

h. Benefactor. A commercial enterprise whose products and services are judged to be of value to SAMBA members in the practice of ambulatory anesthesia shall qualify for benefactor membership. A benefactor member shall designate a Society member representative. The member representative shall receive all Society announcements as provide to SAMBA active and affiliate members. Corporate member representatives are to be provided the opportunity to provide input in to the SAMBA Board of Directors and shall be permitted to serve on committees as determined by the Board of Directors.

Section 5.4. COMPOSITION. The Board of Directors shall be composed of the elected officers; the Immediate Past-President; and six (6) directors elected by the membership. Only active and fellow members of the Society shall be eligible to sit on the Board of Directors. The Delegate to the ASA House of Delegates, and the Editor of the Newsletter (“Ambulatory Anesthesia”), and the Ambulatory Anesthesia Section editor of Anesthesia & Analgesia shall serve as ex-officio members of the Board of Directors.

CALL FOR DISTINGUSHED SERVICE AWARD NOMINATIONS - TOP

The Committee on Awards is seeking nominations for the SAMBA 2006 Distinguished Service Award. The Award will be presented during the SAMBA 21st Annual Meeting to be held May 4 - 7, 2006 in Washington, DC.

This prestigious award, which represents the highest honor SAMBA can bestow upon an individual, is presented in recognition of outstanding achievement in ambulatory anesthesia. Past Distinguished Service Award recipients are:

1994 Marie-Louise Levy, M.D., Chevy Chase, Maryland
1995 Bernard V. Wetchler, M.D., Chicago, Illinois
1996 Stanley Bresticker, M.D., Somerset, New Jersey
1997 Harry C. Wong, M.D., Salt Lake City, Utah
1998 Burton S. Epstein, M.D., Bethesda, Maryland
1999 Surinder K. Kallar, M.B., Richmond, Virginia
2000 Wallace A. Reed, M.D., Phoenix, Arizona
2001 Paul F. White, M.D., Dallas, Texas
2002 Herbert D. Weintraub, M.D., Bethesda, Maryland
2003 Raafat S. Hannallah, M.D., Washington, D.C.
2004 Beverly K. Philip, M.D., Boston, Massachusetts

Rebecca S. Twersky, M.D., Brooklyn, New York, is the 2005 recipient. This Award will be presented during opening ceremonies of the SAMBA 20th Annual Meeting on May 12-15, 2005, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Nominations must include a cover letter, a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae and no more than four letters of support of the nomination. Nominations must be received at the SAMBA office by no later than August 15, 2005.

NEW CME PRODUCT AVAILABLE - TOP

The journal Anesthesiology is offering a new CME product. Each month, the Anesthesiology CME Editor will choose an article and write thought-provoking questions associated with that article. The article, questions and learning objectives, along with an explanation of the program, will appear each month in the printed journal. Participants in the program can earn up to one hour of CME credit per month.

All interactions (subscriptions, questions & answers and CME credit) will be completed via the Internet. All Anesthesiology readers - ASA members and nonmembers - are invited to participate in the program. A participant may choose to sign up for a year's subscription or for one month at a time. Further information is available at www.asahq.org/journal-cme.