Message from the president (2013)

Terrence Hull

President, Asian Population Association

It is a great honour to be allowed to serve the Association as President for the next three years. We have made a good start with two high quality conferences, a number of productive workshops, and the establishment of the Association office in Thailand. Over the next three years we have an ambitious workplan, and I want to urge all members to take part. This newsletter is the first evidence of the packed program of professional activities that the Association has in store.

Associate Professor Sureeporn Punpuing and her team have been working overtime to update and streamline the website, and you will be contacted soon when it is re-launched. They would greatly appreciate comments from the membership, so if you have any requests for content or comments on format, please let them know. The APA officials are also working to finalize a searchable data base of the membership, including both regular and student members. This will be a resource available for foundations, agencies, and academic institutions wishing to contact experts in population fields for the purposes of collaboration, consultation or participation in professional activities.

The office will contact you to update your professional details once the data base is ready to launch. I urge all members to read the announcements below on Scientific Groups and the Third APA Conference. These are calls for proposals. The Council welcomes participation from all members to contribute to our deliberations concerning the research priorities emerging across Asia, and the Scientific Groups offer a way to collaborate on issues of importance to the discipline of demography and the nations of our region The Groups will be established for a three year term and will be encouraged to organize inter-country collaborations on topics of mutual interest. All groups will also be invited to participate in the Conference, to be held in 2015 in a venue to be determined by the Council later this year.

Please feel free to contact the APA office if you have any questions about the activities being planned. And please send professional news to the Newsletter Editors for posting in future issues.