Karen Croneis
kcroneis@bama.ua.edu

What's your favorite part of the Annual Conference? Mine is the Early Bird Dinner, anticipating whom I'll see, linking names and faces, meeting new people. It is a great start to what is usually an intense, exhausting, and altogether wonderful experience for me. A brief schedule of events can be found in this issue of the PAM Bulletin. As room information and other tidbits become available, they will be added to the 2003 Conference page on the Web site. The popular subject and PAMwide roundtables are back as is the Vendor Update and a CE course on information resources in physics and astronomy. There are two special programs: "Serials Pricing" with Ken Frazier, Director of the General Library System at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as one of the speakers; and "Professional Development in Developing Countries" with PAM's 2003 IMA winner, Umran Kandemir, as a presenter.

Sandra Kitt will host Thursday's American Museum of Natural History field trip to the Rose Center, Hayden Planetarium, and Perkin Collection. Come to the social and networking events and remember that we're the ones who makes PAM the outstanding group it is, the people who care about PAM, libraries and our users, and each other.

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, PAM can offer this wide variety of programs and activities at the Annual Conference. Check the list of sponsors that appears throughout this Bulletin. Please join me in thanking them early and often!

This is my last column as PAM Chair. I have many, many people to thank for their support, hard work, and friendship. First, my appreciation to all the committee chairs and members who keep PAM humming along. Among the many accomplishments, PAM has a new three-year strategic plan and a beautiful revised brochure. Special thanks to Sara Rutter who is stepping down as finder-of-old-PAM-information extraordinaire, a.k.a. PAM Archivist.

Thanks also to the people who generously volunteered when a specific job needed to be done. The tremendous concern and support for the Prague libraries devastated by floods last year was powerful to witness.

My deepest gratitude (and biggest debt) to the members of the Executive Board: Chair Elect Michael Fosmire, Secretary Laurel Kristick, Treasurer Alison Verbeck, and Past Chair Kris Fowler. Thanks for your patience as I learned the ropes, bailing me out when needed, and your wise counsel. I could not have done with job without your help and support.

To PAM members and friends, thank you for giving me an opportunity to serve as PAM Chair. When I accepted the nomination a couple years ago, I foolishly thought I'd be "giving something back" to PAM for all the years of information, advice, and sympathy that I'd gotten. Instead, PAM has kept on giving, and I've received even more from all of you. It's been a challenging and growing experience, one for which I'm very grateful. And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in June, hopefully at that Early Bird Dinner!