I hope you are having a good summer. This is the first in an ongoing series of monthly updates for members of the Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses, and Refractive Technologies.

I want to remind you that the meeting at the Orlando Marriott World Center is just around the corner. Please register for the meeting as well as make hotel reservations if you have not already done so. We will have our annual candidate orientation breakfast on Wednesday, November 11th from 6:30-8:00AM. Anyone who is a candidate for the Diplomate program or interested in becoming a candidate is encouraged to attend this function. Have you applied or are you considering applying to pursue the Diplomate process? The application can be found here. You still have time to complete a case report and ­if accepted - be eligible to take any or all of the examinations in Orlando including the Practical examination (Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Joe Yager¹s practice), and the Written and Slide examinations to be held Thursday morning from 8-Noon. The exactschedule and room locations will be forthcoming soon. If interested in the Diplomate program you can contact Diplomate Award Chair, Clarke Newman, at cdnewman@earthlink.net. In addition, the Case Report Chair is Cristina Schnider (cschnid1@its.jnj.com). A complete list of Section Officers is available here.

We will unveil a series of member benefits in Orlando through the efforts of committee chair Loretta Szczotka-Flynn and many Diplomates who have served on one or more subcommittees to assist in the development of these programs and resources. I want to thank the Section members who completed an online survey several months ago which assisted the Section leadership via ideas for future programs, resources and position papers while also identifying individuals wanting to be come more involved in Section activities.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at (314) 516-6258 or ebennett@umsl.edu if you have any questions or desire more information. I look forward to seeing you in November.