This month, I would like to begin by thanking one of our perennial conference sponsors for their exemplary generosity. Our friends at Trimble, Inc. demonstrated their ongoing commitment to the
future of the profession by making a substantial contribution to our scholarship fund, despite the absence of this year’s conference. The ongoing success of our profession is dependent on the efforts of all of us, and we are grateful to have the partnership of Trimble, Inc.

I would also like to thank our friend Knud Hermansen for his presentation of a well-attended live online seminar last month. We were looking forward to seeing him in person at this year’s conference, and we really appreciate his gracious willingness to adapt to evolving circumstances. We have heard from some of our other scheduled conference speakers who are also willing to present online and we will be announcing more details about those seminars soon.

Speaking of continuing education, our Immediate Past President Dianne Collins has been playing strongly against the stereotype of the Past Presidency being a year of resting on one’s well deserved laurels. She has been working hard to coordinate the revision of some of our most popular correspondence courses and we hope to start rolling some of the newly revised courses in a month or so. Thanks, Dianne!

Although the public health situation has precluded our in-person chapter meetings, I had the pleasure of attending online meetings for several chapters during May. I would certainly prefer to be in the room with everyone for these meetings, but the remote meetings do allow the chance to attend meetings that physical distance would otherwise preclude. If your chapter is going to do an online meeting this month, please let me know and I will do my best to attend! If your chapter needs assistance in setting up an online meeting, contact the FSMS office and they will be happy to help.

The arrival of June also ushers in the annual return of a challenge we are all too experienced with. The Atlantic hurricane season has been preceded this year with two named storms and all indications are that this will be an active storm season. Please take advantage of the relative calm we have now to prepare for the predictable possibility of tropical impacts before the panic buying begins. With the added chal- lenge of ongoing pandemic, some jurisdictions have been

suggesting that it is advisable to be able to sustain your household without assistance for one week rather than the typical 3 days. In the words of the Scout motto, Be Prepared!

Until next month, stay safe!