It’s my privilege to enthusiastically report that we have had a banner year at TAA in 2023!

Thanks to the tireless efforts of our amazing new Executive Director, Kim Pawlak, and our two other new full-time staff members, Sierra Pawlak, and Kiley Thornton, TAA has been flourishing and the future looks brighter than ever. I’m proud to report that we ended 2023 with a record 3,020 members!

Allow me to highlight some other important accomplishments this year. We sent out a membership survey that revealed that thirty-one percent of responders said they joined the organization for our benefits and services. The top three benefits rated as most valuable were:  (1) educational webinars (31%), (2) our annual conference (18%), and (3) our monthly print newsletter, The Academic Author (14%). With the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), we formed an AI Committee and sent out another survey to our members. Forty percent of responders reported using AI for various purposes. In response to the question “How have you used Generative AI? ”, the top three responses were: (1) to make my writing process more efficient (48%), (2) to improve the quality of my writing (35%), and (3) to write a first draft (30%).

In our fundraising efforts, Michael Sullivan amazingly donated $100,000 to fund a lecture series at the annual conference. This is the largest donation that TAA has ever received. Thanks so much, Michael! With the help of an attorney, we also updated our policies and procedures, bylaws, and standard forms to be sure that we are in compliance with what other 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations are doing. In late January, we held a Council Member-Staff Retreat in Nashville to discuss and plan for the future of TAA. Most importantly, we are also very excited to be preparing for our first in-person conference since the pandemic! It will be held in Nashville in June of 2024 and we hope to see you there. We have a fabulous conference planned and the schedule is already posted on our new and improved website.

My hope is for TAA to remain true to its mission while also being at the forefront of all issues related to academic and textbook authors. It is truly inspiring to work with such a talented and dedicated group of leaders on TAA’s Board of Directors. We make a wonderful team and I am excited to do my part to make TAA even better.

Sincerely yours,

Paul A. Krieger