Nearly all of the NARST Committees are working through virtual collaborative spaces and communicating through virtual video-conferences.  The NARST Board of Directors (BOD) is able to meet more often with the required quorum by using GoToMeeting and other communication tools.  In addition, the uniform adoption of Survey Monkey as a tool for forms, nominations, and committee voting means that less retraining of new BOD and NARST Committee Members is necessary. Overall, we are steadily moving forward as an organization to better serve the needs of members through a stronger electronic presence.

As in the previous 3 years, the Annual Meeting Program will once again be available in electronic form this year.  Although the traditional hard copy of the program must be purchased with conference registration, conference attendees continue to be offered a free electronic version of the program.  Like last year, it will be available in multiple formats—the most popular being the full-featured iBook.

Several members have requested archived copies of past Annual Conference Programs.  These continue to be posted and archived at this NARST Electronic Resources website so that members may document their participation at this international event.  This year the electronic program will be available to the membership at least a week prior to the Annual Meeting to facilitate advanced planning.

We will once again record and rebroadcast the Presidential Plenary Sessions, described in the Message from the President.  The slides and composite videos from these events, available on the NARST YouTube Channel, can introduce new graduate students to the organization or assist members in professional development events.

The NARST Board, Presidential Team, Committee Leadership, and I are excited about upgrading our tools of communication and working towards a more open and collaborative environment. We value your feedback and hope you will participate in efforts to provide guidance that will direct our future efforts.