President's Message

Excerpt from the spring 2007 Newsletter

It's an honor to be the President of SOMOS. I look forward to the challenge of leading this society for the next year. My thanks to COL Edward Arrington for his excellent service and will rely on his expertise over the next year. Last year, there was extensive collaboration between the AAOS, OTA and SOMOS. This led to the special issue on extremity war injuries in JAAOS. The 2nd Extremity War Injuries Symposium took place this last January and was a huge success. Several military orthopaedic surgeons were nominated to standing committees on both the AAOS and OTA. I look forward to their guidance as we continue the close interaction between SOMOS, AAOS and OTA with the goal of better providing care to severe war injuries.

I would like to congratulate COL Edward Arrington to being selected as our Board of Councilor Representative and LTC Tad Gerlinger as our Board of Specialty Society Representative. LTC Daniel White was also selected as the Second Vice President.

Annual Meeting Update: The 49th Annual Meeting of the Society of Military Orthopaedic Surgeons Meeting will be in Vail Colorado at the Marriot Hotel in Lyonhead. It is the premier scientific meeting for military Orthopaedic surgeons, and offers an opportunity for each of us to enjoy the location, enhance our knowledge, earn CME credit and rekindle relationships with your past and present military Orthopaedic colleagues. Lt Col James Keeney is the 2007 Scientific Program Director and is planning an outstanding program. Abstracts are due by 1 August 2007 and will be done electronically again this year.

Membership: At the 48th Annual business meeting a motion was passed to raise the annual dues to $100 for staff members and $50 dollars for resident members. Please go to www.somos.org to pay your 2007 calendar year (Jan - Dec) membership dues.

Newsletter: This will be the last printed edition of the SOMOS Newsletter. Successive editions will be sent out electronically. Please be sure that we have your correct e-mail address as you renew your membership. As always, past and present editions will be available on the website.

I want to again say how honored I am to be the President of SOMOS, and look forward to the upcoming year. Please feel free to contact me with any issues that you feel should be addressed by the society.

Thanks
Lt Col Craig Ruder
2007 SOMOS President