It has been an absolute pleasure and an honour to represent the UK ASO as the Chair of the Board of Trustees over the past three years. Founded in 1967, the ASO was the first organisation dedicated to understanding, prevention and treatment of obesity globally. So, taking up the position was both an honour and a high level of responsibility.
Not long after I became Chair in September 2019, the world was forced into lock-down due to COVID-19. As a professional society representing the study and management of obesity and the support of people with obesity, COVID-19 had a major effect on our strategic and operational activity. Not only did it have a substantive impact on our membership and planned activities, it became quickly apparent that COVID-19 adversely impacted on people living with obesity, who were deemed as being at greater risk of serious complications. Like many others, we mobilised quickly by linking relevant resources and collaborating on outputs, including a joint paper with Obesity UK and the Obesity Empowerment Network, ‘Obesity and COVID-19: A call for action from the perspectives of people living with obesity during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic’. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020 Aug;8(8):652-654. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(20)30236-9. We also launched a new grant for members to explore the role of digital weight management and repurposed our planned events to deliver a series of on-line events.
Working in partnership with others within the Board of Trustees, I decided to prioritise membership opportunities as a key strategy during my tenure. This involved releasing new grants, offering regular updates with opportunities and free advertising, free webinars, awards and working on a sponsorship policy to enable us to provide high quality meetings and resources without costs being borne by our members. This means that ASO is now in the fortunate position to be able to invest further in its membership and other activities. I’m also very pleased to say that our partnerships with patient organisations have strengthened over recent years and I look forward to seeing how this develops in years to come. Our annual flagship congress, the UK Congress on Obesity ‘UKCO’ 2022, was the first and only meeting that was delivered during my tenure as Chair. Again, we prioritised the membership and delegate experience, including a linked early career researcher workshop, an excellent programme with a varied range of high quality speakers and very popular gala dinner. I’ve always felt that networking is the heart of why ASO is such a renowned organisation, and UKCO 2022 in Lancaster was a shining example of this. It was great to observe the joy of people reuniting and meeting new colleagues throughout the congress.
I am immensely thankful to a host of people who have dedicated their time and energy to supporting ASO activities over many years. It is through the dedication of these people that ASO continues to thrive and remain as the ‘go-to’ organisation within the UK for the research dedicated to understanding of obesity through the pursuit of excellence in research and education, the facilitation of contact between individuals and organisations, and the promotion of action to prevent and treat obesity. I’m also thankful that the role of Chair of the Board of Trustees has now transferred to Dr Nicola Heslehurst. Nicola has been a supporter and Trustee for ASO for many years and I have no doubt that her leadership will enable ASO to continue to grow from strength to strength. She is a passionate advocate of EDI and has already started to consider initiatives to enable equitable involvement in the organisation activities.
I feel privileged to be part of the ASO family and look forward to engaging with the organisation and its wider activities over many years to come.
Professor Maria Bryant
ASO outgoing Chair of the Board of Trustees
I am delighted to be taking over as Chair of the ASO for the next three years and would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to ASO members. I have been a member of the ASO for 18 years and was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2014 and 2017. I have had the roles of ASO Networks Officer and Education Lead, and I led the local organising committee for UKCO 2018 at Newcastle University. I am very excited to be taking the next step in my ASO journey and know I have large shoes to fill looking back over 55 years of ASO history.
One of my first tasks in this role was to work with the Board of Trustees to draft and publish an evidence-based ASO position statement on the then current (now former) Government proposals to scale back their obesity prevention commitments. With the ongoing political upheaval, we are now waiting to see what the new Government plans are for obesity policy, and will be ready to champion evidence-based obesity prevention and treatment.
I have identified three key priorities for my tenure as ASO Chair and will work with the Board of Trustees and consult with members to identify how we can provide more support in the following areas:
- Early career researcher (ECR) development
The ASO had to change how we operated as an organisation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not being able to hold UKCO meant our members - ECRs particularly - missed out on opportunities for networking, developing presentation skills and sharing their research among peers. I will be focussing on how we can provide more support for ECRs going forward, including providing more opportunities to be involved with ASO activities.
- Equality diversity and inclusion (EDI)
I am passionate about EDI. I hold a leadership role within my research institute, as well as sitting on the EDI committee for the NIHR School for Public Health Research, and hope to bring this experience to the ASO Board of Trustees. While I believe the ASO does some great work from an EDI perspective, I will explore how we can be a more inclusive organisation for everyone – including people living with obesity.
- Partnerships with patients and public living with obesity
It is vital that the voices of people living with obesity inform obesity research and clinical practice. ASO has been building our links with patient organisations and representatives over a number of years. I would like to explore how this can become more embedded into how we operate as an organisation.
COVID-19 forced ASO to pause and reflect on how we operate, to try new ways of working and engaging with our members. Prof Maria Bryant and the Board of Trustees rose to the challenges and ASO is fortunately in a strong position. I feel I am stepping into this role at a really exciting time when there are many opportunities to work with the Board of Trustees to contribute to shaping the future direction of the ASO. I look forward to working with all of our members and hope to see you at UKCO 2023 in Belfast!
Dr Nicola Heslehurst
ASO incoming Chair of the Board of Trustees