We hope that all of you are settled into 2014, and are in the midst of making plans to join us in Baltimore, Md., for this year's annual conference. While celebrating 75 years was a highlight of 2013 and this past conference, 2014 is poised to begin the next chapter in NCFR's present and future by building on our strong past. One such way this will happen will be the continuing efforts to strengthen NCFR's role in influencing family policy. Given that, the Board wanted to take a few moments to provide an update on some of the exciting opportunities related to policy that are shaping up to become an even more vibrant part of NCFR's next 75 years.

Many periods throughout NCFR's history focused on exploring, defining, redefining, and acting on our organizational roles regarding family policy. For example, at the 1968 annual conference the Family Action group was established and then given section status. The section's first work was to prepare a position paper called "The Effect of the Vietnam War on Family Life in Southeast Asia and the United States," which was sent to President Nixon and the press. This section was highly active and made NCFR more publicly visible through its efforts. These efforts also included other quite controversial topics, such as an NCFR position supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and women's access to abortion services, to name a couple.

At the same time, the diverse views of members were valued and professional conversations continued even after the position statements were passed by the Board and made public (see The NCFR History Project for more information and relevant documents, www.ncfr.org/history). We believe this encouragement of the expression of diverse views has been, and is, one of NCFR's strengths. This section operated until 1990 when it became the Family Policy section. Since then, the Family Policy section has remained strong and moved NCFR and the field forward in many ways.

We believe the examples above demonstrate a strong and vibrant family policy history. Over the past years, some believed NCFR should renew and strengthen our engagement with family policy to incorporate our past and present policy efforts, thereby charting a new path into the future. Two years ago when Dr. Elaine Anderson began her term as president, she established three sub-committees, one of which focused on strengthening NCFR policy efforts. Since then, the sub-committee has sought input from members, the policy section officers, and staff. These efforts also examined the policy work and procedures used by NCFR and similar organizations to produce organizational policy statements, policy and research briefs, etc.

The Board also spent a great deal of time reflecting on our organizational identity standards (e.g., to be the premier professional association for the multi-disciplinary understanding and strengthening of families), our mission, the role of policy in the Global Ends, and importantly, NCFR's Definition of Diversity. There were a few questions that continually came up during these discussions.

• To what extent can NCFR call itself a premier association when we are virtually silent (as a group) regarding the interpretation of research for use in policy at the same time other organizations are doing this and citing research by our members?
• Under the current tax codes for nonprofits, in what activities can we engage as an organization?
• To truly make an impact and strengthen families as defined by our definition of diversity, should we promote individual-driven policy efforts, organizational policy efforts, or both?
• Last, and most important, how can we enhance our policy presence and at the same time continue valuing and giving voice to the diversity of views our members hold?

A few things have become clear. First, we have a wealth of policy expertise in our many members, and this expertise can be used to strengthen families in more impactful ways moving forward. To do this, we need to promote both individual and organization efforts. Second, a process for creating organizational policy efforts that are based on strong research (e.g., policy briefs, research briefs) merits updating. Third, for NCFR to be a premier association with a goal of strengthening families, we must be active and visible about the ways in which we do this and promote the use of a clearly defined "family lens." Finally, we need to balance organizational statements about the research and their potential use with a continued commitment to ongoing dialogue on potentially difficult topics and an unwavering respect for diverse views. Currently, the committee is finalizing the draft of a policy process for NCFR that incorporates everything above. The draft then will go to the Board for discussion and approval.

In the coming months this new process will be put into place. We sincerely hope it will empower each of you, and will make NCFR's voice more relevant to family professionals and policymakers than ever. Although the process is still in the drafting stage, we are committed to it being inclusive and member-driven. The result of this process will be research/policy briefs or other policy-relevant documents on topics that affect families. We believe that these products will allow NCFR to disseminate knowledge about the best ways to support and strengthen families. As we develop a process for enhancing the contribution of NCFR to family policy, we will welcome and value ongoing dialogue with members. We hope all of you are as excited as we are.

Given the Board's recent statement supporting ASA's amicus brief related to same-sex parenting and marriage, we particularly welcome and value ongoing dialogue. We also suggest using the new process, once available, to develop our own briefs on this and other topics that can strengthen all families. To be sure, while the specific controversial topics are different today compared to other decades in NCFR's history, controversial topics will always exist. In fact, they often are the most interesting and produce thoughtful dialogue, albeit sometimes heated. This reminds us of family, and NCFR is our academic family. Like most families, through healthy dialogue and collaboration we continue forward and strengthen our own ties. This renewed emphasis on NCFR's role in family policy is another conversation that will do just that as long as we remain mindful of our past, present, and future.