Greetings, saludos, and a happy month of May to all the NASPGHAN, CPNP and APGNN family!  It is my wish that this correspondence as NASPGHAN President-elect finds each of you and your respective families, staying safe, and in good health!  For those who have been touched by the coronavirus pandemic with a loss of a friend or family member, my heart-felt thoughts and prayers go out to you and your families.

The reason for this brief NASPGHAN leadership message - “public service announcement” - is to share with you important information and get your input on planning for the 2020 NASPGHAN Annual Postgraduate Course and Scientific Meeting currently scheduled for November 05 - 07, 2020 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, San Diego, California.

Most importantly – we do want you to know that the Annual Meeting WILL HAPPEN – in some format to be determined.

We very much want input from the membership – sooner, now 5-6 months away than later, and thus want your input to help us with the optimal format for the 2020 annual meeting.  For that purpose, will be sending a poll out to the membership within the next 2 weeks which we are hoping as many of you will contribute to as possible asking for you to let us know your thoughts regarding the 2020 annual meeting.  The questions that the membership will be asked will be framed around the following, namely; what can/will you be able to do for the November 2020 annual meeting?

1. Attend an in-person meeting (as allowed by governmental and local regulations and adhering to social distancing requirements)
2. Attend a "hybrid" meeting (with a mix of live in-person and virtual sessions), or,
3. Attend a virtual annual meeting (all the sessions will be virtual), or finally,
4. Do you know at this time IF you can and/or are able to travel to San Diego, California based on either institutional and/or personal reasons at this time?

For your information, we have a small task force assembled from NASGPHAN, APGNN and CPNP leadership, as well as the Research Committee and Training Committee which is already working on all of the scenarios mentioned in the questions above. More importantly, Annual Meeting Task Force is working on the establishment of specific deadlines by which decisions can be made by membership so that appropriate logistical planning along with contractual agreements with meeting vendors (e.g. hotel, meeting facilities)  can be achieved and sponsorship obtained to make the 2020 annual meeting as successful as possible.

Please note that the announcement for abstract submission is out – and the deadline has been extended through mid-July.  Thus, for all of the trainees, junior faculty and even senior members who had been planning to submit their work and research to the annual meeting – PLEASE DO.  We urge you to submit your best research to the annual meeting as we will definitely be providing a platform for this research to be presented, and thereby facilitate feedback to be given as well as the interaction that is critical for the propagation of our collective science - whether live, face-to-face or virtual – those abstracts accepted will be presented.

Please feel free prior to or after the poll to email me individually with your ideas and comments.  We the NASPGHAN 2020 annual meeting Task force look forward to hearing your thoughts and/or receiving your feedback, as well as your responses to the poll.  My heart-felt appreciation to all of you!  I believe that our pediatric GI family is strong and united! 

Please stay safe and be well!

Benjamin D Gold MD, FAAP, FACG, NASPGHAN-F

President Elect- North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition