An Important Note to Clinical Congress Attendees

As we all know, the state of the economy is having a negative impact on many sectors of our society and on the business community across the country. Not-for-profit professional organizations like the American College of Surgeons are not immune from these national economic trends.

For more than 90 years, the College has been one of a very few medical societies that has been able to offer its members annual meeting attendance at no cost. In past years, the ability to offer free registration for the Clinical Congress has been possible because revenue from exhibitor fees has, in large part, offset meeting expenses.

Unfortunately, financial constraints on commercial entities that exhibit at national conventions like the Clinical Congress, coupled with rising labor, convention space rental, audiovisual, and other meeting costs, are resulting in declining revenue and are affecting the bottom line for this premier national educational event.

As a result, after careful and thoughtful review of current trends and their negative impact on the College’s ability to continue to offer this outstanding educational opportunity, the Board of Regents, in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors, has decided to apply a nominal registration fee to partially offset rising meeting costs. The new registration fee will be implemented for the first time for the 2010 Clinical Congress.

The fee structure for Fellows and Associate Fellows is:

The fees for other attendees will be increased and are listed here. Surgeons who will be initiated into membership in the College, however, will not be charged a fee.

Fortunately, given the scale of the Clinical Congress, the registration fee structure is very modest and substantially less than fees at other national meetings. This new policy will allow the College to continue to provide the highest quality educational programming possible for members and other attendees at the Annual Clinical Congress.