Welcome everyone! I am excited to present to all professional members an exciting new look and feel for PINES, while still retaining our excellence in professional identity as sports nutrition professionals. Our mission is to grow the global community of sports nutrition professionals through communication, education, networking and leadership.

I am interested in the voice of the membership and last year I surveyed you to understand the priority areas for the future of PINES. Thank you to those who completed the survey. The feedback suggested that we could do more to communicate regularly and connect globally.  Hence, we are looking at new means of communication with our members via e-news, our website and social media connections. Our new look website has many exciting features including a member directory. Our new monthly e-news will keep you up to speed with the latest conferences, research and major events. We have also created Facebook groups lead by experts in various areas of sports nutrition research and practice. This strategy will help us to become the leading global organization in sports nutrition.

To connect globally, we need your help. We have expanded the roles of the global coordinator and global representatives, and I encourage anyone who is passionate about advocating for sports nutrition locally and globally to apply. A number of new subcommittees have been created that will ensure operational success of PINES. These include membership, communication, partnership, sponsorship, education and awards committees all led by members of the board. All these committees are run by volunteers and I would love to see the support and engagement of more of our members, so if you feel you have something to offer one of these groups please contact PINES.

There have been some changes in the PINES board in 2018, and I would like to welcome the new members to the board Asker Jeukendrup (UK/ Netherlands) as Vice President, Jacque Scaramella (USA) as Treasurer, Aurora Leon (Mexico) and Morten Morland (Norway) as sponsorship officers, Petra Lundstrom (Sweden) who is assisting with Education and Sharon Madigan (Ireland) who is helping with partnership. Thank you to Ron Maughan, Liz Broad and Jeni Pearce who have given valuable service to PINES who have now departed from the board. There are some familiar faces returning to the board including Nancy Clarke (USA), Louise Burke (AUS), Melinda Manore (USA), Helen O’Connor (AUS), Susie Parker-Simmons (USA), Hattie Wright (AUS) and myself (AUS) all continuing for a 2 year term. It is nice to see a broad international mix, despite the challenges of time zone communication.

PINES continues our partnership with organisations such as the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM – USA), Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutrition (SCAN -USA), and Sports Oracle (IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition).  We also have connections with Japan Sports Nutrition Group and the Canadian Sports Nutrition Group. More recently we have connected with Team NL for their sports nutrition conference and are looking forward to future collaboration with the International Sport & Exercise Nutrition Conference (ISENC) in Newcastle, UK. Finally, we are looking at forming new sponsored partnerships with Unit Nutrition and other organisations that support PINES vision.

I look forward to working with everyone on the continued growth and development of PINES.

Fiona Pelly

President – PINES