Editorial Comment 11/17/2020: A Different Election

My comment this week will be of interest only to ASAM members.  I apologize; it is a narrowing of focus that I normally avoid.

However, we are approaching the interval in which elections are opened for ASAM Officer and Directorship positions.  And as we have been relentlessly taught in recent years, a democracy is only as good as its rate of participation. In fact, these Society elections have been notoriously under-attended by the membership. Not generally a good thing: it may be what caused me to advance to President-elect over three years ago... 

But while the jury is out on that last until 2021, and the candidates in this cycle are all excellent, ASAM members will have no recourse to complaint if they are dissatisfied with their national or regional representation.

The candidates’ current biographies and statements of intent may be found at this link, which we encourage you to review in advance, please:  https://www.asam.org/about-us/about-asam/election

This cycle’s voting interval is 23 November to 07 December 2020.  Notification will be provided, with instructions, to all current Society members via the email addresses they have listed on their respective membership profiles.  Please ensure that these are up to date. 

Editor-in-Chief: Dr. William Haning, MD, DFAPA, DFASAM