View from Stone Mountain

Greetings from Stone Mountain where the trees are beautiful this time of the year; well, at least those that are left standing after the hurricanes. If only I could figure out how to keep the leaves from falling!

I always knew that ISTM members were special, but I confess I was honored and humbled by the number of cards, emails, phone calls and flowers I received when my mother passed away this spring. For those of you who were fortunate enough to meet Mother in Cape Town, you know she was quite a unique person. We are still, of course, adjusting to this new stage in life which I know will take a bit of time. My family and I wanted to thank you all so much for all your kind words and thoughts. You were truly amazing. I have finally received the ISTM membership and CTH lapel pins (for those who passed the Certificate of Knowledge Exam). These pins can be purchased for $5.00 USD each. There is a place on your renewal form to order these items as well as a 2005 ISTM membership certificate (which is free of charge).

As always, your 2005 renewal, information update, clinic postings, etc. can be completed very quickly and easily on the Member Services section of the website (www.istm.org). Please be sure to contact my office (istm@istm.org) should you need your username and/or password to access the restricted portion of the website.

I do hope to see as many of you as possible in Lisbon for CISTM9. You can register for the conference on the website. Exam registration materials are included in this packet as well for those wishing to take the Certificate of Knowledge examination. Please be sure to carefully follow the instructions for submitting your application.

Please exercise your right to vote for the President-elect and two counselor positions and return your ballots in the envelope provided. No ballots can be accepted via fax or email. As a note - all of our previous elections have been determined by much less than one-half of the membership. It would be most awesome to have more than one-half of the members participate in the process of selecting the new Executive Board. Will you take the 5 or 10 minutes of time to cast your vote and return your ballot? Please...

As this is the final NewsShare of 2004 - I would like to wish you all a wonderful holiday season - though I confess to still having trouble comprehending Christmas in summer - and a most spectacular 2005!

Brenda Bagwell