Reporting to the Association: Annual Report to the AAPT Review Board

The Review Board is charged by the Executive Board to receive annual reports from the Area Committees, to review these reports, and to prepare a response. The Committee reports and the Review Board's response are printed in the spring issue of the Announcer and posted on the AAPT website. Because the Review Board needs to complete its work by the time of the Winter Meeting, the reports must be sent to the AAPT Past President no later than November 1 each year.

The members of the Review Board are the Past President (who serves as chair), the President, the President-Elect, one At-Large Member of the Executive Board, and the Executive Officer. The members assume their positions on the Review Board at the end of the Winter Meeting. A directory of the current Review Board is available in the AAPT Organizational Directory.

The Chair of the Review Board assigns each Review Board member the task of reviewing several Area Committee reports. The Chair drafts a general response to the full set of reports and may draft a specific comment to one or more Area Committees. Often the work of the Review Board can be completed by telephone or e-mail. If needed, the Board may meet at the Winter Meeting to finalize their report.

In preparing your Area Committee report, you should observe the following guidelines:

• Describe your Committee's work during the past year and indicate plans for the future.
• The Committee report should contain information about the Committee's activities that would be of general interest to the membership. Long-range goals and activities provide the membership with information about the varied activities of the Association.
• Do not include names of Committee members. These names appear in the issue of the Announcer that contains the Committee reports.
• Do not list names of participants in sessions sponsored by your Committee. These appear in the program for each meeting.
• Be concise. Your report should be no longer than one page, single-spaced in at least 10-point type with normal margins. A one-page report requires approximately one and one-third columns of type in the Announcer.

Communication with the Executive Officer

Area Chairs are asked to keep the Executive Officer well informed on Committee activities. In turn, the Executive Officer will send to Committee Chairs any information which seems to be of interest to the Committee, and stand ready to assist the Committee when necessary and practicable. Area Chairs and the Executive Officer may use the Area Chairs listserv to communicate general information to the larger group.

Publishing in the Announcer

The Announcer will publish any information a Committee wishes, if it is reasonable to do so. When it seems appropriate, the staff will extract information from informal Committee reports for publication. Chairs may submit copy for the Announcer exactly as they wish it to appear, although editorial changes may be necessary to make the article conform to space and format requirements. Deadlines for material to be received in the Executive Office vary and must be checked with the Communications Department. The deadlines are usually 12 weeks before the cover date.