In lieu of its traditional annual meeting, held in conjunction with THETRADESHOW (Orlando, Sept. 12-14), ASTA this year will hold a "town hall" membership meeting. This new format will provide ASTA members an opportunity to not only hear from ASTA on its activities on their behalf, but to become active participants, asking questions of ASTA officials and staff.

"This is a great opportunity for ASTA members to direct questions to those staff members who work daily on the front lines of ASTA's advocacy work as well as myself. ASTA members will get a real understanding of the issues that affect them and their ability to do business, as well as how ASTA is working to help them," said ASTA President and Chair Chris Russo. "Rather than listen to a long list of ASTA's accomplishments, we want this to be an interactive session where members have the opportunity to engage staff on the issues that are most important to them."

The town hall membership meeting will be held Sept. 13 from 3:15pm to 4:15pm. The hour-long session will be moderated by Paul Ruden, senior vice president of Legal & Industry Affairs and will feature Chris Russo, ASTA president and chair, John Pittman, vice president of Industry & Consumer Affairs, Colin Tooze, vice president of Government Affairs, and Ellen Bettridge,  chair of ASTA's Corporate Advisory Council, as speakers.