From the President  

Hello to all of our CRB members - 

As the new president of CRB I really want to take a moment to thank Mark Dow for the amazing program that he delivered.   For those readers who were not present at the 18th Annual CRB Symposium held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas in May, you missed a great learning opportunity.  Mark and his committee delivered a two-day hands-on trophectoderm biopsy course in addition to three days of plenary lectures, oral abstract presentations, poster presentations and round table luncheons.  The entire menu of activities was top-notch as evidenced by the increased attendance at this meeting.  Additionally, the Red Rock Resort was a terrific venue for the meeting.   Kudos to Mark!

Our current meeting chair and former president, Marina Gvakharia, and her committee definitely have big shoes to fill in the execution of the 19th Annual CRB symposium, which is slated for May 2015 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.  As I suspect, Marina will manage this task in the same fashion as she managed her CRB presidency, and we will be offered an imaginative learning opportunity.

At the beginning of one’s tenure as CRB president, one is to identify a pet project designed to promote and expand CRB.  Marina took on the CRB newsletter as her pet project and deftly executed timely and regular newsletter publications.  Our bi-annual newsletters serve as a recap of past activities and announcements of future activities for our readers.  Under Marina’s leadership, the entire executive committee participated in the newsletter production.  This job will now fall on Stanley Harris, the newly elected chair of the publications committee.

I have decided to take on Social Media for the CRB.  We would like to establish an active Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feed for the College of Reproductive Biology.  However, as part of a larger organization, a carefully crafted plan must be presented to the AAB board for approval before we “go live.”  To this end, I will be soliciting input from all members of the CRB and readers of this newsletter so that a plan can be delivered to the AAB board during their November 2014 meeting.

Our main goal of embarking into social media will be to foster relationships that will transform membership goals into reality. 

Additionally, we would hope to prioritize learning opportunities for our members by listening and reviewing feedback from our social feeds.  Ideally, our annual conference can be modeled to more closely meet the needs of our membership by monitoring our membership needs through social media.

In an effort to make our social media strategies a reality we will need to carefully craft a plan that defines our strategies of messaging and content.  We will need to identify tactics and techniques to maximize our social media goals.  Additionally, membership will have to have defined rolls and responsibilities to establish a strong presence in the reproductive community.

To this end, any reader that has suggestions, comments, or wishes to volunteer to participate in CRB’s social media presence, please feel free to email me at CChapman@teamrmi.com. ​

Carli Chapman, BS, ELD/TS(ABB)
CRB President