It is an exciting time of year for me as a Section Chair, and I am already sort of sad that the term of this position is only for two years because, now that I am getting used to my duties as chair, they will soon be over. The call for proposals and request for reviewers have gone out, and it is exciting to see the ideas that have already been put forth for symposia and other papers for the Section. I am constantly amazed by the creativity and dedication of our Section members when it comes to the presentations they have in mind for the upcoming conference. I am also delighted to hear that there are already a lot of people in our Section who have come forward to volunteer to read the proposals that are coming in. Once again I am reminded of the group effort that is required to create such a dynamic conference.

By the time this newsletter comes out the proposals will be submitted and the reviews should be done. We have some exciting ideas for the Section meeting in November. Silvia Bartolic of the University of British Columbia, who organized the resource exchange at last year's Section meeting, suggested that we include the resource exchange as a more formal part of the conference, which would require people to submit proposals for their contribution. The benefit of this to members is that these would then be considered peer reviewed and thus eligible for inclusion in vitae, which is crucial to many of our section members. Silvia and I were impressed with the quality of the work that was shared at last year's conference, and we want to enhance the status of this work.

At the 2016 conference we will again have a separate business meeting for our Section and then a shared meeting with the Education and Enrichment Section during which we will host the resource exchange and the roundtable presentations. These were so successful last year, with such great attendance, that we wish to continue this event. We are hoping to avoid conflicting with some of the focus group meetings, which ended up drawing some of our Section members away from our meeting.

I really look forward to seeing how the conference schedule comes together. In April I will attend a face-to-face meeting in Minneapolis with the other Section chairs where we will discuss the outstanding work that has been accepted for the conference, and then we and the amazing NCFR staff will put together a cohesive program.

I am pleased that there were quite a few new people who have stepped forward to run for officer positions for the AFS section. I think that the year or so that I have been involved as Section Chair has been so good for me professionally, and I recommend it for everyone. With help from the NCFR staff, I have been able to stay on track task wise and have learned to appreciate all of the work that goes on behind the scenes to create the conference. I really look forward to being in Minneapolis in November to see the fruits of our collective labor.