This is the beginning of another busy year for ABRF members. Our second independent meeting, ABRF '97: Techniques at the Genome-Proteome Interface, was a great success, thanks to the prodigious efforts of Jack Shively and Lloyd Smith, the meeting organizers. We also thank Elizabeth Fowler and Audree Fowler, for their dedicated behind-the-scenes efforts on the technical and financial details without which these meetings could not take place, and all the ABRF members who contributed to the vital and dynamic scientific sessions. Al Smith and Mike Rohde are already hard at work organizing ABRF '98: Meeting the New TomorrowTechnical Challenges of Characterizing Complex Systems, to be held March 21-24, 1998 in San Diego, CA.
Although Elizabeth Fowler has now stepped down as President of ABRF, we are fortunate that she remains on the Executive Board to help guide us. Beth presided over a period of growth and transition for the ABRF, when many important and exciting, but potentially risky, activities were undertaken and successfully navigated. This year she will coordinate our efforts to explore mechanisms to convert our current two layers of membershipvoting Laboratories and non-voting Associatesto a single type of membership. When sufficiently developed, this proposal will be presented to the membership as part of a formal vote to change our bylaws.
Another important change will now take place in this very forum. The ABRF News is not just an official document providing updates on organizational activities and communications among members; it has become a vital source of information on current and emerging technologies, both at a philosophical level and at a more detailed, technical level. David Speicher was the first Editor of ABRF News and was succeeded by Kenneth Williams; both made great strides in developing our newsletter as a scientific and information resource. When John Rush became Editor in 1994, he built on this strong foundation to expand and strengthen the Editorial Board, actively promoted our new electronic communications forums, and helped start the ABRF WWW Homepage. Beginning with the June 1997 newsletter, Clayton Naeve will become Editor of ABRF News. We look forward to his continuing our tradition of an informative, educational, and creative newsletter, and to the innovations he will bring to this vital forum.
Effective communication and information exchange are important to ABRF members, as evidenced by the variety of mechanisms that we have embraced: the ABRF News, the electronic mailing list, ABRF WWW Homepage, the Selected Communications Homepage, and our independent and associated meetings. At ABRF '97, Jack Shively announced yet another way to communicate with each other and inform ourselves: The Journal of Biomolecular Techniquesthe Official Methods Journal of the ABRF. As described in more detail in this issue, Jack will be Editor-in-Chief of our new, fully electronic journal, which has innovative mechanisms for submitting and reviewing methodological articles. We hope that you will submit your best techniques and methods to this new endeavor.
Ruth Hogue Angeletti
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