Dear CRNA Colleagues,

We are now officially into fiscal year 2006, and the year-long celebration of the AANA's 75th Anniversary has begun!

With that in mind, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to visit a special, new section on the AANA website that has been created in honor of this momentous occasion: http://www.aana.com/75th/main.aspx. Visit the 75th Anniversary section of the website often, as information about AANA historical events, upcoming celebratory activities, the 2006 Annual Meeting host city (Cleveland, Ohio), and much, much more will be added to the site throughout the coming months. The highlight of the site so far is an illustrated historical timeline that weaves AANA history with general U.S. history. It provides a fascinating trip through time, and is the basis for the AANA History Museum that will be on display in the convention center only during the 2006 Annual Meeting in Cleveland. The timeline is also represented in part on the Traveling Timeline Walls, which state associations and nurse anesthesia educational programs can order for display at meetings, in state houses, and elsewhere, and also in the oversized pictorial history book that is in development and will be available in July 2006.

We are also looking for "Your Stories" to post to the 75th Anniversary section. Tell us about a significant event that occurred during your career as a CRNA, your first AANA meeting--anything related to the Association's history. Please send "Your Stories" to Web Editor Cathy Hodson at chodson@aana.com.

I hope you enjoy the new section on the website, and hope to see you throughout the year as we celebrate a tradition of quality care and patient safety.

Happy 75th!

Brian Thorson, CRNA, MA
AANA President