Dear Western ABC members,

I am stepping into the role of a regional VP for the ABC Western Region (2018-2022) with great excitement.  It is a privilege and an honor to serve such an accomplished group of colleagues!  I got to know some of you during my years at ABC and had a joy of working with some more closely in a virtual collaboration project (VBP) for the last 4 years. You are creative, passionate, and inspiring colleagues.

My goal as a regional vice president is to build our network, share information and ideas, and build collaboration and partnerships within the region. Our Western Region is represented by over 200 regional members from 11 states. The unique strength of a regional network, in my view, is our proximity to each other and the potential synergies it can create.

With that in mind, we are starting our Western ABC Bulletin that will come out twice a year, in the spring and in the fall, to keep us appraised of our colleagues, schools, new ideas in the discipline of business communication, latest research and hot topics moving towards publication, and our regional conferences.

We are focused on making the Western Region a true powerhouse of collaboration and community-building. We all look forward to the ABC annual conference in Detroit in October 2019 and invite you to attend our regional meeting to learn what we have planned for the Western Region.  I am pleased to announce that we signed the contract with Carnival Cruises to hold the first ABC Western region Baja Mexico cruise conference on March 1-5, 2020. You will be receiving a call for papers in May.

Finally, please expect to see a Western region member survey coming out in August to help us learn more about our membership and ways we can contribute to sharing our expertise and passion for business communication.

I want to thank Sushil Oswal, Western ABC Bulletin Editor (University of Washington), Mikel Chertudi, Content Manager (University of Arizona), and Sabrina Pasztor, Membership Manager (University of Southern California) for serving on the Western Region Membership Committee. Please welcome their first issue of the Western ABC Bulletin!