As part of ASCO's Leadership Development Program, the 10 early-career oncologists selected for the inaugural class of 2009-2010 split into three teams to work on assigned projects designed to address specific challenges facing ASCO. The teams presented preliminary reports to the ASCO Board of Directors in June, and their findings and recommendations will be reviewed by the relevant committees before they are approved.

Team 1: Effectively Addressing Young Oncologists' Learning Styles

To help ensure that ASCO remains in the forefront as the provider of oncology education for generations to come, the team researched how learning styles are changing and conducted a survey of oncology fellows.

Currently, 30% of ASCO members are younger than 40 years of age-part of Generation X. They were raised with technology, value social and professional interaction with peers, and prefer straightforward, factual information. Future ASCO members, ages 10-28, are the Millennial Generation-team-oriented, comfortable with technology and multitasking, and easily bored.

Younger oncologists' learning modes call for personal contact (networking) and increased guidance in sifting through and critically analyzing information. According to the team, incorporating more technologic innovations and increasing audience participation at meetings could enhance education. The team suggested gradually increasing the use of social media, including developing an "ASCOpedia"-a wiki website that has information about cancer sites, reviews and updates from leaders, an interactive chat feature, and weekly or monthly case presentations. They suggested increasing social media applications that could be used to query fellows, involve international oncologists in real time, have ASCO Facebook pages by disease site, and provide immediate clinical case feedback.

Team 2: Improving Cancer Care in Developing Countries

After researching the cancer burden and barriers to cancer care in low- and middle-income countries (LMCs)-defined by the World Bank as having an income per capita between $976 and $3,855-this leadership development team outlined action steps to be taken in three areas:

Awareness: Offer a session every year at ASCO's Annual Meeting on challenges in cancer care in LMCs and publish a manuscript based on this session in the ASCO Educational Book.

Practice: Publish resource-appropriate guidelines (beginning with cervical cancer guidelines), create educational curricula for midlevel providers, and partner with government and nongovernment organizations to increase the trained workforce.

Innovation: Establish an ASCO grant for innovation in cancer control in LMCs, and create a cross-functional ASCO Global Health Task Force that could link various ASCO committees to coordinate these efforts strategically.

Team 3: Increasing ASCO Membership Recruitment and Retention

This team analyzed the recruitment methods ASCO uses and attrition rates of ASCO members within several categories: (1) member type, (2) subspecialty, (3) practice type, and (4) ASCO grant recipients. They suggested recruitment tactics such as making brochures, grants, and awareness campaigns more oriented to subspecialties and possibly bundling registration fees for ASCO's Annual Meeting and subspecialty meetings.

The team found that although ASCO's overall membership retention is very high (96.3%), retention among Active-Junior members is lower (88%), with the highest attrition being among academic hematologists/oncologists.

Specific steps suggested to address retention of Active-Junior members are to survey them about how ASCO can serve them better, increase their opportunities for active participation in ASCO through committee appointments, and increase their awareness of the career development track at the Annual Meeting.

The team concluded that Active-Junior members need more opportunities to serve on ASCO committees; ASCO needs to increase activities to address issues specific to early-career oncologists (with a focus on the academic basic science community); and subspecialists need to be made aware that they will be well served by participating in ASCO, including having opportunities to obtain grants.

Participants in the yearlong Leadership Development Program are selected from applicants who have completed their subspecialty fellowship between 5 and 10 years ago. In addition to the team projects, the program includes networking with ASCO leaders and staff, a leadership boot camp where participants gain skills in communication and conflict resolution, and experience in political advocacy. ■

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