ACPM's 4th annual Open Policy Forum will be held Thursday, February 19, 2004 in Orlando, Florida as part of ACPM's upcoming annual meeting, Preventive Medicine 2004 (http://www.preventivemedicine2004.org). The Open Policy Forum is open to all ACPM members.

The session will serve as a forum at which resolutions developed by ACPM members can be discussed and debated. A resolution is a concise statement of the College's position on a particular issue and serves as a call to action for the organization and its members. It describes and endorses a defined course of action directed toward a particular individual, organization, event, or piece of legislation. The guidelines for introducing resolutions can be found at http://www.acpm.org/pol_guidelines.htm. Past resolutions can be viewed at http://www.acpm.org/pol_pastaction.htm.

Following discussion of the scheduled resolutions, the forum will conclude with a 30-minute, open-issue session where any attendee can come to the microphone and present an issue, propose ACPM action, and stimulate debate. Actions proposed at the Open Policy Forum will be addressed by the ACPM Policy Committee and Board of Regents the following day.

Resolutions received by January 16, 2004 will be reviewed by ACPM's Policy Committee and, if recommended by the committee, added to the structured portion of the Open Forum. The Policy Committee's review of each resolution will be guided by the criteria for setting ACPM policy priorities (http://www.acpm.org/pol_guidelines.htm). If a resolution is not selected to be part of the structured agenda, authors or their designees are encouraged to introduce their resolutions as part of the open-microphone segment of the forum. (See http://www.acpm.org/pol_openforumschedule.htm for a schedule of activities related to resolution submission, review, and the Open Policy Forum.)

All questions and resolutions should be sent via mail, fax, or e-mail (preferred) to: Mike Barry, Deputy Director, ACPM, 1307 New York Ave., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005. Fax: 202-466-2662. Phone: 202-466-2044, x106. Email: mab@acpm.org.

You are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to help shape ACPM policy!