NAQC is seeking to fill three vacancies on the Board of Directors this year and with your help, we have identified five highly qualified nominees. You will receive a listing of the nominees later this month. I would like to encourage all NAQC members who are eligible to vote for the Board (ie, all organizational members) to review the nominees’ statements and cast your vote for the three persons you deem most qualified. We only have 75 organizational members, so each and every vote can make a real difference in the outcome of the election. For any questions about the election, please contact Wayne Tormala (Nomination Committee Chair) or Linda Bailey (President and CEO) at Board@NAQuitline.org.

The future of quitlines is an important topic for the Board and the quitline community. Quitlines are ever-changing and ever-progressing in terms of services, modes of communication, and populations reached. At the upcoming NAQC Conference 2012 (August 13-14 in Kansas City, MO) the Board will ask you to share your vision for the future of quitlines and to discuss how NAQC can help us achieve the vision. We will provide more information on this topic in July. In the meantime, please give some thought to this topic and discuss it with your colleagues. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at Board@NAQuitline.org.

At its recent teleconference meeting on April 30^th, the Board discussed and took action on a variety of issues. Our normal business items included review and approval of minutes; the financial reports; the fundraising report; and a number of governing policies including code of conduct, ends focus of grants and contracts, conflict of interest, CEO succession and communication to the board of directors.

We also discussed a report on the future of quitlines and NAQC’s mission. These reports have helped the Board prepare for our discussion with the membership at the NAQC Conference 2012. The Board approved the Audit Committee’s recommendation to do an audit (in lieu of a financial review) this year. We also approved the slate of nominees for the Board election. The meeting ended with updates and discussion on a process for this year’s review of the CEO, timing of meetings for the next Board year, opportunities to meet at the NAQC conference and an evaluation of our most recent meeting in January.

I would like to end by extending my best wishes for every success to the provincial quitlines as the new graphic health warnings come into full effect and to the state quitlines as the National Tobacco Education Campaign heads into its last few weeks. NAQC exists to help you succeed in efforts like these, which help a growing number of smokers quit.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Board,

Penny Thomsen
Chair