• July
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF)
Patient & Family Conference
July 9-10
Holiday Inn-Washington International Airport
Linthicum, Maryland

International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH)
33rd Annual Scientific Meeting
July 17-20
New Orleans Marriott
New Orleans, Louisiana

Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
4th Annual Conference
July 18-23
Palais de Congres de Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

• September
International Conference on Advances Against Aspergillosis
Sept. 9-11
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
San Francisco, California

6th Annual Conference on Transplant Contracting, Cost Containment and Reimbursement
Center for Business Intelligence (CBI),
with American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
Sept. 20-21
Allerton Crowne Plaza
Chicago, Illinois

Safeguarding Adult and Pediatric Stem Cell Donors: Basic Science, Clinical, and Ethical Issues
Yale University and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI),
with the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
Sept. 21-22
Sheraton National Hotel
Arlington, Virginia

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Fungal Infection in the Oncology Patient: Update on Diagnosis and Therapy
Sept. 23
Holiday Inn Independence
Cleveland, Ohio

• October
American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
30th Annual Meeting
Oct. 1-6
San Antonio Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas

4th Annual Conference on Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic Stem Cells
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT),
with the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
Oct. 14-16
Wyndham Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana

International Cytokine Society (ICS)
and International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR)
Cytokines in Cancer and Immunity
Oct. 21-25
San Juan, Puerto Rico

American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
57th Annual Meeting
Oct. 23-26
Baltimore, Maryland

American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
54th Annual Meeting
Oct. 26-30
Toronto, Ontario

• November
European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT)
12th Annual Meeting
Nov. 4-7
Tampere, Finland

• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
46th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-7
San Diego, California

American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
44th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-8
Washington, D.C

2005
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and IBMTR/ABMTR annual meetings)
Tandem BMT Meetings
Feb. 10-14
Keystone Resort
Keystone, Colorado

2006
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and IBMTR/ABMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 15-19
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii

A Word from President Armand Keating, M.D.

Several days ago I sent to our officers and Board members a report on “duality of interests.” It’s an annual accounting of the diverse, relevant outside interests and activities of our leaders and senior staff, and is part of our policy of corporate ethics.

If I were the type to be snide, this is the place in my message where I’d have to comment on the contradictory nature of the term corporate ethics, likening it to terms such as jumbo shrimp, unbiased opinion, act natural and larger half.

But I’m not sure how well my Board colleagues would react because they take matters of ethics very seriously. Notorious recent scandals in the for-profit world -- Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Tyco -- have made us all very sensitive to our no-less-important responsibilities as leaders of a non-profit association.

Two years ago, after gathering and studying the policies of a variety of other professional organizations, our Board of Directors adopted a strict Code of Ethics and enforcement requirements. At the time we weren’t having any particular problem -- which made it indeed the ideal time to develop a code unencumbered by troublesome issues or personalities.

The Code governs the conduct and responsibilities of ASBMT leaders, conflicts of interest and a range of potential issues from major malfeasance to careless shenanigans. If you’re interested in taking a look, the Code is posted online at the ASBMT Web site.

As a follow-up action, the Board then adopted disclosure requirements for relevant outside interests. We called these “duality of interests” instead of “conflicts” because an outside interest is not inherently detrimental or wrong. The Society is well served when its leaders and senior staff have diverse interests and participate in many activities outside of the Society.

An active officer or Board member may often have numerous professional and personal affiliations, and undoubtedly some of them cross paths with his or her activities with the Society. The key, of course, is sunlight and candor. Dualities of interest must be disclosed so that, individually and collectively, Board members can determine when an outside interest becomes a conflict on any particular issue.

The annual report on duality of interests that I mailed to our officers and Board members several days ago is, by policy of the Society, available to any member who requests it.

I think all this is summed up rather well in Item 8 of the Code: “The Society is best served when the officers and members of the Board of Directors dedicate themselves to leading by example in serving the needs of the Society, and in representing the interests and ideals of the blood and marrow transplant community.”

Exactly.

- Cheers, Armand