First, let us be thankful and briefly reflect that we all are sufficiently healthy and well-functioning to continue our extremely important work for the next generation by pursuing our tradition of training young physicians to treat their young patients with expanded proficiency, commitment, and compassion. Our pedagogical supervisory tasks are daunting in this era of an ever-changing landscape of competing interests within “big medicine” and the fast pace of medical and scientific discovery. But we carry on! We have much important news for you.
The Boards of the CNS and PECN, both with long and rich histories, believe that it is in the best interest of both organizations to merge. The logistical and economic advantages of this merger are obvious: Our consolidation of resources will reduce administrative costs, redundant support staff, and the need for separate elections for PECN Board of Directors, as well as the extra fees and restrictions currently in place for PECN members. If the members of PECN and CNS approve the merger, PECN will function as one of the committees of the CNS. The leadership and members of the newly formed PECN CNS committee will continue functioning as they are, doing all the important work for the training and education of our trainees. More to come regarding this topic and your input, with town hall sessions to be provided before voting on the merger, which will occur in several months.
To increase transparency, diversity, equity, and inclusion as they may affect any important national educational-related work in our field, PECN has started working with the CNS to advocate for expanded open public solicitations to enable and alert interested and qualified members to apply for any openings to serve on various important committees of national organizations.
Our young and energetic Directors at Large of PECN, Kathryn Xixis and Adam Wallace, are working on solidly restructuring and defining collaborative work for PECN subcommittees, giving particular attention to the changing landscape of the culture and educational curriculum of child neurology. We will be calling for interested subcommittee members to participate very soon. Please stay tuned!
Lastly, some of you have read Steve Roach’s commentary: A half‐century check‐up for child neurology training – Roach – Annals of the Child Neurology Society – Wiley Online Library (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cns3.20015). Please be assured that the leaders of the CNS and PECN are looking into the best possible solutions to address these concerns and provide the best training for our trainees at all large and small training programs. As always, we invite your participation in the dialogue. As these things take time, please keep in mind that “Patience (and diplomacy) is a virtue” Breathe deeply and keep repeating that mantra as you become impatient with the slowness of change when it comes to entrenched positions defending historic practices. Breathe in, breathe out. Keep going.