President-elect message.

Redican, Kerry J.

Like most of you, I will be attending SDAAHPERD convention in Virginia Beach. I have seen a draft of the convention program and it is full of interesting and innovative workshops, presentations, and fun activities. The convention program also shows that VAHPERD members are very active. This is a great opportunity to not only network with our Virginia colleagues but also our colleagues from Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Advocacy efforts continue to be a top priority for AAHPERD. SDAAHPERD's Stragetic Goal # 1 is to "increase advocacy efforts." I will be participating in the Advocacy Workshop where I will present an update to our advocacy plans originally presented at the 2004 SDAAHPERD convention. The state plans are all grounded by the best practices within our professions.

I will also be attending the SDAAHPERD Representative Assembly. A review of last year's State Reports from the Assembly shows that we are as active and in many cases even more active in promoting HPERD as the other states. It is clear we do much in light of limited resources. Important information from both the Advocacy Workshop and the Representative Assembly will be included in the next issue of The Virginia Journal.

This is an unusual year since we will have two conventions. SDAAHPERD in March, 2005 being the first and our regular state convention November 2-5, 2005 at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach being the second. We are well into the process of planning our November convention and with that in mind it is now time to submit proposals for the convention. Presentation submission forms can obtained from any Division officer or from the VAHPERD website http://www.vahperd.org Please don't wait--submit your proposals as soon as possible.