While I am on that subject, I'd like to share my observations about the Congress schedule revisions this year. The length of the event was shortened by 1 day, undoubtably for economic reasons. While I appreciated the economic benefit, I admit that, as a Congress veteran, I had the old schedule firmly implanted in my memory, and I had a tough time making the necessary adjustments. It seemed like I never knew what day it was or where I was supposed to be at any given moment. (Jet lag and the change to Daylight Savings Time on the first day didn't help at all.) For me, the biggest changes were the switch from two Forums to one, and the revised Exhibit hours.

  We ran out of time to discuss important issues in the Forum, despite careful planning of the agenda and skillful, good-natured leadership from the President. I actually expected a motion to extend the meeting by 10 minutes or so, but I wasn't prepared for the affirmative vote to extend by 30 minutes. That meant that I would be late for a commitment that was scheduled for the original time to end the Forum. But I appreciated the need of many attendees to voice their opinion or to ask questions about the agenda items that were scheduled for discussion. I expect that next year we will still have just one Forum, but that it will be scheduled for a longer time period.

  This year, the Exhibit schedule was changed in several ways. Instead of a Tuesday morning ribbon-cutting, the Exhibits opened on Monday evening with a reception in the Exhibit hall. I heard praise and grumbling about this change from both attendees and exhibitors. I think that we will have to wait until the Congress evaluations are analyzed to know if it was successful for the vendors before this change becomes permanent. Another change was that education sessions were scheduled concurrently with Exhibit hours. The purpose of this change was to offer more options for attendees who needed to complete as many contact hours as possible at Congress. However, some of the sessions that I wanted to attend were offered only once and during Exhibit hours, and I didn't want to choose between two equally valuable activities. Again, I'm sure that Congress evaluations will yield useful information to guide decision-making for next year.

  My favorite General Session was presented by David Gergen, who spoke about the health-care challenges faced by the Obama administration. In my opinion, he gave a very balanced picture of what led up to the political and economic context of the health-care debate, the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approaches, and the abilities of the Administration to carry out the resulting plan. Having worked in the adminstrations of 7 U.S. Presidents, Mr. Gergen was well informed about his topic, and he was an excellent, even humorous, speaker.

  As always, one of the high points of Congress for me was seeing old friends and meeting new ones in eChapter. This year, I was lucky to finally meet Carole Mayes, with whom I had been carrying on an e-mail conversation about a research project that she is interested in conducting. (I made that sound like I just stumbled upon her one day; actually, Terri Goodman worked hard all week to get us in the same place at the same time, finally succeeding at the Second House of Delegates!) I also had the pleasure of meeting several young (or at least younger), tech-savvy Chapter members--Kristine Mastrodonato, Oliver Gross, Dawn Whiteside, and Mary Dalessandro--who responded to my invitation to discuss some suggestions from the AORN Journal Editorial Board. Joy Dawn Baker joined us for a brief discussion after our Chapter breakfast. I will be following up soon with each of those young members, but I am confident that they represent the future leadership of AORN and so proud to call them colleagues in eChapter.

  I'm already looking forward to the 2011 Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--my home state. I hope to see many of you there.