Editor’s Page

I have just returned from the annual meeting of the Society in Toronto. This was a very interesting meeting for me. As the new editor of JNMT, there were several technologist section meetings that I attended for the first time. I have always known there were many technologists that volunteer to do work on behalf of the rest of us, but I did not understand the scope of their work or their concern for their fellow technologists. The meeting is very long for these individuals, because all of the Technologist Section meetings must be completed before the Society committee meetings begin on Friday. Many of these individuals arrived on Tuesday or Wednesday to attend a single committee meeting, even though the categorical seminars were not until Saturday and the meeting did not start until Sunday. I think all of these technologists should be applauded.

I also learned that the Technologist Section accounts for 55% of the membership in the Society. This information came from Jonathan Links, the immediate past president of the Society. Although technologists did not constitute 55% of the attendance at the annual meeting, we did have a strong representation, comprising about 25% of the professional attendance. As usual, this is a wonderful place to meet new people and catch up with old colleagues. I was very happy to run into old classmates and coworkers that I had not seen for many years. I had the opportunity to become reacquainted with a classmate that I had not seen since we finished nuclear medicine technology school 23 years ago. I am amazed that we recognized each other!

The editorial board was very busy during the meeting, listening to talks and reviewing posters presented by technologists. There were 38 papers and 39 posters at this year’s meeting. It was my goal to have a member of the editorial board hear each paper and review each poster. I will be contacting the authors of work that was particularly interesting to encourage them to submit their work to the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology as a scientific article. In addition, Dan Koller and I presented 2 sessions on how to write a scientific article with the hope of increasing the number of submissions to JNMT. Dan’s great presentation on his experience as a first-time author and how to get started with a literature search was particularly helpful. I hope to repeat this course at future meetings.

I was very impressed by the work being done by technologists presented at this year’s meeting. You will read about the award-winning papers and posters in the “Technologist News” section of this issue, but the technologists who did not win awards for their papers and posters should also be commended for their fine work.

By now, you should be getting the idea that there are a lot of individuals active in the SNM-TS. However, volunteerism is the core of a society such as ours, and we always welcome more help. There are many ways that you can contribute that do not require much time. Besides contributing to JNMT, there are a host of other things that can be done at the local and national level. The Society Web site (www.snm.org) is a great resource and will tell you how to contact the chair of a committee that interests you, serve as a reviewer for JNMT, or become involved in your local chapter. These efforts will not only make our society stronger, which helps all of us, they will help you personally by expanding your professional network and experience.