Over the course of the past year, the Rules and Regulations of the Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves have undergone a much needed revision process. These revisions were orchestrated by the Rules and Regulations Committee, which is chaired by Mark Hadley, MD. This substantial task has taken a full year to complete, and in order to ratify these revisions, a vote of the membership of the Joint Section will take place at the upcoming Annual Meeting in Newport Beach, California, during mid-February.

The revisions to be voted upon have been independently reviewed and ratified by the Executive Committees of both the Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine & Peripheral Nerves and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons as well as by the Board of Directors of The American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

This special edition of the Section newsletter contains the full text of the Rules and Regulations document, as prepared by Dr. Hadley, for review by all Section members.

In each circumstance where revisions have been made, the original language is underlined and the suggested revisions immediately follow in bold print. In accordance with Section 5.10 of both versions of the Rules and Regulations, these changes are being detailed in this newsletter so the vote can occur at the next Annual Meeting. A two-thirds majority vote of approval is required for these revisions to be formally accepted.