Words from the President
Joe McDonald
Since every other type of news medium is running "End of the Millennium"
specials (even though we all know the next millennium does not officially
arrive until Jan. 1, 2001), why should the IARPE be any different? We do
not have so long a history that we can speak of our greatest accomplishments
during the last hundred years, but we can look back proudly upon our
accomplishments since the formation of the Section. We have grown in
membership and in influence within the Health Physics Society. We have
established and continued to publish this newsletter. We have encouraged
membership of our foreign colleagues. We have obtained the ability to
recommend our own selection of a delegate to IRPA. We are about to submit
a Section member for nomination as an HPS Fellow. Last year, we had our
first invited Morgan Lecturer for our session at the annual meeting. This
year, we will continue that tradition, and invite another speaker as a
Morgan Lecturer. It will not be long before we start arrangements for the
Workshop on Accelerator Radiation Protection in Erice, Sicily.
The year 2000 will undoubtedly provide us with many challenges that
optimists refer to as "opportunities". The Department of Energy has again
had budget difficulties, not to mention security difficulties, and these
affect our abilities to travel and to communicate with our overseas
colleagues. Nevertheless, I think we all agree that such communications and
direct interactions with European and Asian colleagues are crucial to the
continuous improvement that we strive for. I would recommend that the best
course for us is (to paraphrase Isaiah) beat our challenges into
opportunities. Let us wish each other well for our endeavors during the
actual last year of the millennium that is about to begin.