The Development Committee agenda has moved forward on several important fronts since the Committee met in November.

Grants and Contracts

• At the last Development Committee meeting, the Committee considered a recommendation from Ron Davis that ACPM develop a proposal to establish a national program to certify tobacco cessation specialists. The Board endorsed moving ahead quickly with this proposal and established a small working group to undertake this effort. As of this writing, a proposal has been developed and will be submitted to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as soon as several final operational issues are resolved. RWJ has indicated it will give serious consideration to the proposal. Development Committee member Ron Davis deserves special recognition for the leadership he has brought to this effort.

• Jonathan Fielding, Mike Parkinson, Hugh Tilson, and Jud Richland met with AHCPR Administrator John Eisenberg to express ACPM’s interest in working with AHCPR on a wide variety of issues. One outcome of the meeting was that AHCPR contracted with ACPM to convene a stakeholders’ meeting in conjunction with a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

• ACPM has submitted a proposal to HRSA to fund a number of activities that would strengthen preventive medicine residency programs, enhance ACPM’s CME program, and support the planning of a new preventive medicine workforce study as well as a study on Medicare GME financing of preventive medicine residency programs. A meeting is scheduled at the end of March with HRSA Administrator Earl Fox and HRSA Bureau of Health Professions Director Vince Rogers to discuss the proposal.

• George Anderson and Jud Richland are scheduled to meet with CDC Director Jeff Koplan at the end of the month to discuss possible collaborative activities between CDC and ACPM.

President’s Society

At its last meeting, the Development Committee discussed the importance of increasing charitable contributions from ACPM members. The Development Committee proposed, and the Board approved, the establishment of a President’s Society to assist in this effort.

Following announcement of the President’s Society through a mailing to the membership and in the ACPM News, fourteen individuals have contributed $500 or more. The result is that charitable contributions already exceed last year’s total by more than 50%.

The first President’s Society breakfast is scheduled in conjunction with PREVENTION to thank those who have contributed and to enable the President’s Society members to offer counsel on how the dollars raised in the Future of Preventive Medicine Fund can best be spent.

Other Activities

Development activities were hampered somewhat by the departure of Cheryl Moore. The major activity that was delayed by Cheryl’s departure was the development of a proposal for the Board’s consideration to establish a corporate