An initial focus of my Presidency has been to lead a revision of the SRS strategic plan. I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with an update on progress towards achieving that goal. The strategic plan has been an indispensable guide for our society since it was developed under the leadership of Dr. Janet Mullington roughly four years ago. It was instrumental in directing.

The strategic plan has been an indispensable guide for our society since it was developed under the leadership of Dr. Janet Mullington roughly four years ago. It was instrumental in directing the efforts of our society led by Dr. Mullington and subsequent presidents, Dr. Allan Pack and Dr. Sean Drummond, which resulted in a number of major accomplishments that have dramatically shaped the SRS. Highlights include: buying the journal SLEEP so that it is now the official journal of the SRS; improving our scientific offerings including strengthening the annual meeting and holding our own SRS scientific meeting; developing and maintaining a strong lobbying/advocacy effort focused on Congress and the NIH; building a patient advocate arm to support our lobbying/advocacy efforts; developing and maintaining an outstanding program of education and support for trainees; and implementing a highly successful fundraising effort, unprecedented in its yield and scope, to support all of these initiatives.

These and other achievements represent significant progress towards achieving many of the goals set forth in our strategic plan. As a result of this progress and because of changes that have occurred over time in our field, there is a need to update our society’s Strategic Plan so that it may continue to serve as a highly effective roadmap for us in the upcoming years. To this end, we planned and initiated a process for updating the plan. In this effort we worked closely with Dr. Mullington to benefit from her experience in leading the prior plan development process. We engaged the Clarion Group to assist us in this process, the same group that helped us formulate the prior, highly successful plan. We systematically reviewed the degree of progress achieved towards accomplishing each of the goals of our plan and mapped out what remains to be accomplished to meet those goals. We also carried out a survey of all of those serving on SRS committees to help to identify unaddressed needs of the membership and to help prioritize those needs. We then held a day long retreat wherein a draft revision of the new plan was formulated which is currently undergoing refinement. Key revisions to the plan include focusing on increasing diversity in our members and our leadership, engaging in public outreach and education, working to form strategic alliances with international organizations, extending our career development activities beyond the current level to better facilitate the transition of our members to independence, and working to sustain the level of fundraising achieved in our current campaign in order to support our ambitious agenda.

It is intended that this plan will serve as a guide for our society for the next four years much as the prior plan served as a roadmap for us for the last four years. I am eager to share the finalized revised plan with you in detail and to get to work on accomplishing the goals set forth in that plan. I look forward to working with all of you in this endeavor.

Andrew D. Krystal, MD, MS
President, SRS