Dear SMA member,

in this issue: AAA meetings -- new website features -- call for assistance
-- SMA elections

Outcomes of the AAA Meetings
Well, the 2002 American Anthropological Association meetings have come and
gone. This message is to apprise you of a few important SMA issues
discussed at our business meeting. At the meeting I reviewed the objectives
outlined in my SMA vision statement
(<http://www.medanthro.net/vision.html>www.medanthro.net/vision.html), and
reported on those steps the SMA board has taken to realize these
objectives. A few key decisions made by the SMA board this year were to:
    * Invest in building a high quality, interactive and resource rich web
site;
    * To raise dues slightly to pay for managing the new SMA web site
enabling it to be  constantly updated and responsive to members needs;
    * To extend the tenure of the graduate student member of the SMA board
from two to three years to increase student participation on the board;
    * To form an ad hoc committee of medical anthropologists working in
federal agencies and foundations to help us be better informed about
grants, jobs, and policy issues;
    * To introduce an SMA Takes a Stand agenda to our society;
    * To explore ways of growing our network and fostering coalition
building by reaching out to other sections of the AAA, practicing medical
anthropologists, medical anthropologists in other countries, and scholars
in allied disciplines.

I would like to report on two decisions taken by the SMA board at our
meeting this year in New Orleans.  We voted to:
    * Organize a SFAA/SMA joint meeting in 2004  where has yet to be decided!
    * Create two new prizes: one for graduate student mentoring and the
other for the real world application of medical anthropology.
We have yet to work out the details for the meeting and prizes -- stay tuned!

New Website Features
If you have not yet visited our new website,
<http://www.medanthro.net/>www.medanthro<http://www.medanthro.net/>.net,
launched Oct. 1, 2002, I invite you to do so. You might want to visit
regularly as new items are posted every week. I especially want to call
your attention to the following information on the website:
    * <http://www.medanthro.net/research/index.html>Special interest groups
within SMA.  These groups are looking for new members: professionals as
well as graduate students.
    * <http://www.medanthro.net/stand/index.html>SMA Takes a Stand
background materials associated preparing us to discuss how we see our role
in rendering clinical trials more culturally sensitive, better understood,
and ethical.
    * <http://www.medanthro.net/forum/default.asp>Discussion groups now
being initiated on the site, as well as discussion groups linked to the
site. Check out the topics posted on the medanthro forum and express your
opinion or raise a new issue.
    * <http://www.medanthro.net/breaking/index.html>Fast-breaking News.
Read about fast breaking national and international health news; contribute
news you come across you want to share its easy to do.
Call for Assistance
I would like to repeat my call for assistance in building the SMA website
and making it as information rich and informative as possible, as well as
providing a forum for discussion. Needed are:
    * Relevant course syllabi on any subject broadly related to medical
anthropology, and the health social sciences;
    * Additional web links which other SMA members might find useful;
    * Recent articles and reports by SMA members not published in
mainstream medical anthropology journals (these are easily available already);
    * New books of interest to SMA members;
    * Titles of medical anthropology thesis and dissertations published in
last two years;
    * News items which you come across  and want to share with the SMA
network just send a link to our webmaster!
    * Moderators of discussion groups. If you are interested in starting a
discussion group or being a moderator of a discussion group please contact
us. If  you want to moderate a group, we will make it easy.
  Elections
I would also like to ask your assistance in helping us recruit candidates
for SMA board positions coming up in 2003. We are looking for candidates to
fill the following positions: secretary-treasurer (replacing Mark Luborsky)
and three members of the executive board (replacing Cheryl Mattingly, Paul
Farmer and Catherine Panter-Brick).  Those people will be elected in the
Spring of 03, take office at the end of the meeting of 03, and then serve
03-04, 04-05, and 05-06. Please volunteer or encourage others to do so if
you think they would enjoy serving the SMA. Contact Cheryl Mattingly
<<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>edu>
or Craig Janes
<<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>edu>.

That's it for now
All the best,

Mark Nichter

p.s. -- Remember to update your personal profile on the AAA website,
http://www.aaanet.org/memsrv.htm

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