At the outset may I say that I am deeply grateful for the honor and privilege of serving as president of this society. I keenly appreciate the heightened responsibility which these changing and troubled times place upon me, even as they do upon each of you. The forty-third annual meeting of the American Proctologic Society finds our society at a critical period of its development in the most critical period of our country’s history. I say a critical period of our development because to the present time the founders and builders of this society have given us a position of leadership in our specialty and what we do with this position of trust and responsibility in a rapidly changing world has much to do with the future progress of proctology as a recognized specialty. The gains attained have been through the efforts of a comparatively few men, but the fullest development of our opportunities and possibilities and will require the efforts of many.