The 14^th World Congress of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy afforded Jennifer and me the opportunity to speak in person for the first time with both the Preeclampsia Foundation and its British counterpart APEC.

The three organizations had some long and meaningful discussions about each group's best practices, future plans and goals.  We had some preliminary discussions about how we might collaborate on some projects.  We talked about a shared website, shared brochures and joint conferences just to name a few.

The trip to Vienna was trying, exciting, fun, interesting, worrisome, entertaining, enlightening and educational.  It was a considerable investment in time and money but well worth it.  We met many new doctors, future supporters, solidified old friendships and alliances and created new friendships and alliances. 

We returned from the conference reenergized with new ideas and a fresh sense of direction.  You probably have seen how we have put these ideas into motion.  We have totally upgraded and replaced our website.  We think it is more professional looking and more visually appealing.  It also has new functionality like a message board, printable survey and the ability to make credit card donations to the organization.  We have asked for renewed commitments from our state reps and thanks to Terri Andrews of North Carolina we are on our way to putting some real structure to the state rep positions.  We are also working on creating an on-line survey that can be downloaded directly to a database.  Lastly, we have created two new forms of recognition to accompany our Founders' Award.  We have established the Judy Pyle Award for outstanding service and the Christian Madvig Memorial Award for outstanding giving.

TO BE CONTINUED…