Tenth anniversary of the Society of Family Planning. - eScholarship

Contraception 92 (2015) 279 – 281 Editorial Tenth anniversary of the Society of Family Planning This issue of the journal celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Society of Family Planning (SFP). The society has grown from 18 Founding members and 33 Charter members (all named below) at its founding in 2005 to 591 members in 2015. How did we get here? The long-standing belief of two endocrinology leaders, Leon Speroff and Dan Mishell, was that the clinical science of contraception did not receive adequate attention by either the Society for Gynecologic (now Reproductive) Investiga- tion or the American Society of Reproductive Medicine; this concern prompted a letter from Dr. Speroff to Uta Landy, the National Director of the Fellowship in Family Planning, and Philip Darney, the founder of the first fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, encouraging the establishment of a new subspecialty society. Further, in 2001, Leon Speroff encouraged Mitchell Creinin, Anita Nelson and Carolyn Westhoff to consider how to form an academic society related to family planning. The ensuing launch of SFP resulted from the commitment and vision of the Fellowship in Family Planning and the Fellowship Directors. This group first explored creating a liaison with existing organizations but concluded by 2002 that we needed to create a separate, interdisciplinary society. Such a society could give graduated fellows an opportunity to pursue their research interests in abortion, for which there was scant funding available, and contraception, funding for which was dwindling from both private and public sources. Several fellowship directors volunteered to start working on forming the new society; members of the initial working committee were Mitch Creinin, Philip Darney, Melissa Gilliam, Jack Sciarra and Carolyn Westhoff. A very brief history follows: In 2002, the Family Planning Fellowship officially endorsed moving forward with a new society that could become a home for the growing number of Fellowship graduates, and the Fellowship Directors agreed to serve as the founding members. Dr. Mitchell Creinin drew up the first blueprints for the society in 2003. The Fellowship Directors and additional volunteers (in particular, Drs. Phil Darney, Teresa Depineres, Eleanor Drey, Michelle Fox, Melissa Gilliam, Bryna Harwood, Roxanne Jamshidi, John Jain, Laura MacIsaac, Dan Mishell, Antonia Nicosia, Deb Nucatola, Jodi Steinauer, Mimi Zieman and Nikki Zite) worked to refine the plans for the new society, and Dr. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2015.08.005 0010-7824/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc. Sharon Hillier, then President of the Infectious Disease Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, provided guidance. In 2004, the Fellowship Directors adopted the first by-laws of the society and approved the first Board of Directors — that first board included Phil Darney as president, Mitchell Creinin as President-elect, Carolyn Westhoff as Secretary and Jack Sciarra as Treasurer. Additional members of the initial Board of Directors included Paul Blumenthal, Melissa Gilliam, Marji Gold, Allan Rosenfield, Lee Shulman and Mimi Zieman. The new Society had a logo and officers, but not consistent funding or any staff. Because of its genesis in the Fellowship, Uta Landy volunteered the manager of the fellowship at the National Office of the Fellowship in Family Planning to be the initial SFP administrator, who would design and maintain the SFP Web site (www.societyfp.org), solicit memberships and communicate with members about dues and meetings. The election of Jack Sciarra as the treasurer was critical to the successful beginning of SFP — Jack solicited generous initial donations from all of the founding and charter members; this early funding allowed Jack to open the first SFP bank account, incorporate the society on January 14, 2005, and obtain 501c3 status for the new society by June of 2005. This work and his guidance on all matters were essential to move the infant SFP forward. The founders’ contributions got SFP started, but more support was needed. Some founders, led by Allan Rosenfield, did not want support to come from the pharmaceutical industry. Allan was able to arrange a generous contribution to SFP from the Packard Foundation, which further funded the account Jack had started. Dr. Robert Miller’s evaluation of the Fellowship in Family Planning recommended establishing competitive postfellowship research funding. Subsequent funding ob- tained for research and for SFP administrative support ensued, making it possible to hire Pat Anderson as the first full-time SFP administrator with office space at San Francisco General Hospital. Pat created SFP’s first research review panels and a funding system. After funding for research became available, SFP membership grew rapidly. In September 2005, SFP held its first annual meeting as a concurrent meeting with the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) National Medical Committee.