Dear Colleagues,

When we started working on this issue and the article on snowmobiling, we had no snow and it looked like we may not get any at all. We still wanted to do the article, so we referenced our lack of snow and went forward. Well, by the time we are now ready to go to print, we have plenty of the white stuff and we needed to change the article or look pretty dumb to our readers. Now you might be thinking, "Where is she going with this¼"

I have been thinking lately that everything happens in a context. Events are shaped by the context and the context shapes events and the context can change very rapidly or very slowly. For instance, in this issue of Impact! there is an article on Social Marketing, that is, using marketing strategies to attain a public health objective. So what is the context here¼ In the world today, we have to be able to use clever, well crafted messages in order to even get anyones attention in order to help persuade them to make better health decisions. Will this context be the same next year¼ And then what do we do as a result¼

Another article talks about holding adults responsible for underage alcohol access. This is a shift in thinking. The context for this discussion has changed. It seems that we can really ask the question, "Well, where did they get the alcohol¼ What can be done to stop adults from giving alcohol to teenagers¼"

Context is very important to what we are doing in prevention. We need to be constantly scanning the context of what we do, is it relevant¼ Have circumstances changed¼ Have we adapted to the change¼ What is today's context¼ We need to keep asking ourselves, "Is there snow on the ground when we are talking about snowmobiling¼"