HISTORY OF THE SGSU
In the early years of the annual military urology seminar, which was named after James Kimbrough in 1957, the standard practice for decades was that the SGSU leader for that particular year was the chairman of Urology at the sponsoring military institution for the upcoming Kimbrough meeting. This individual, who functioned as “the President”, was called the “Course Director”, although occasionally there were “Co-Course Directors”. This tradition continued until approximately 2010. It was around this time that the broader military leadership became concerned about the public appearance of military individuals soliciting from sponsoring corporations, to fund scientific meetings. Ultimately the decision was made to change the structure of the SGSU leadership, creating a Board of Directors (BOD), that was composed entirely of civilian, rather than military, urologists; although usually retired military. The SGSU BOD made the decision to separate the military “Course Director” away from leading the formal activities of the SGSU board. At this point, the elections included a military course director and a civilian (typically non-active duty military) President. The decision was made to place civilians within the formal SGSU leadership to minimize the exposure of the military urologists to potential financial conflicts of interest.
When the Urological Society for American Veterans was brought into the SGSU as an affiliate organization in 2017, then USAV VA representatives were also allowed to be included in consideration for the Course Director(s) and President positions. Thus, the current SGSU BOD is able to execute the business and financial considerations of the organization with full transparency. In the earlier years of the SGSU, commonly the person who signed the tax return was the treasurer, however it could have been the incoming course director, or another member of the SGSU Board of Directors, but not necessarily the course director.
During the years the SGSU was managed by Tibby Stevenson, and to a lesser degree by Preston Littrell, the organizational processes were less rigorous than the current ones, especially related to financial matters, like the signature on the annual IRS filings. Preston Littrell began working with the SGSU in 1961 and attended more than 40 Kimbrough Urological Seminars. In 1992 he became the Administrator for the SGSU and served in that capacity until 2009, when the Weiser Group took over the administration. The DeSantis Management Group replaced the Weiser Group in 2014 and continue to serve in that capacity as of 2025.
Of note- Meeting # 38 in 1990 was cancelled at the last minute due to the mobilization for Desert Storm. Meeting #42 was run by Dr James Auman in Charleston SC in January 1995 (as it was supposed to be the 1994 meeting, but had to be delayed due to a scheduling challenge with the hotel). A second meeting was held in 1995 as meeting #43, run by Dr David McLeod, and was held in Washington DC in November 1995. The November 2003 meeting was moved to January of 2004, so there was not a meeting in 2003. After this Kimbrough meeting time change, it was decided to always have the meeting in early winter to reduce any potential scheduling conflicts with AUA section meetings which typically are in the fall, and with the main AUA meeting always being in the spring.