View from Stone Mountain

Brenda Bagwell

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Stone Mountain, Georgia, where spring (and pollen) are in full bloom! It was wonderful to see some of you at the recent African-European Conf. on Travel Medicine in Cape Town. I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty and history of Cape Town and must make it a point to return there when I have time to explore!! The trip was especially fun for me as my mother joined me on her first ever international journey. She has now been bitten by the travel bug and is making plans to join us in Lisbon for CISTM9! By the way, she did see an ISTM member before traveling and followed their advice to the letter – a model traveler!

I want to welcome the 50 new ISTM members from the Cape Town meeting, the Intl. Conf. on Infectious Diseases, and the Wilderness Medicine meeting. As you read this I am attending the Scandinavian Travel Medicine meeting and look forward to welcoming more new members there. Remember that membership materials are always available for you to distribute at any conferences you may attend. Simply allow enough time for shipping the materials to your destination.

For those of you who have requested an ISTM Membership Certificate, these will be forthcoming very soon. I ran into a design dilemma for the certificate, but that has been solved and I should have these out to you within the next 2 weeks. Thank you very kindly for your patience.

I know many of you also are interested in purchasing a membership and/or Certificate of Travel Health lapel pin. The pins should be ready for distribution in the next few weeks ($5.00 US each) and will be available through my office or at any meeting where ISTM has an exhibit booth. I will contact each of you who expressed an interest in the pins during my survey to see if you wish to purchase one.

Until next time, remember – when we long for a life without difficulties, oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure!