Ming Li is the new president of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), the largest scholarly organization in the field. The 900-member NASSM promotes research, scholarly writing and professional development. It also publishes an influential quarterly, the Journal of Sport Management, for which Li has served as an editorial board member for the past 12 years.

"Ever since NASSM was founded in 1986, it has been the driving force in the development of sport management as an academic discipline and the professional preparation of sport managers for the sport industry in North America," said Li, who also is a professor of sports administration.

In early August, Li gave a presentation at the 2008 International Convention on Science, Education, Medicine in Sport in Guangzhou, China. Some 2,000 sports educators and practitioners attended the event, which the Chinese government organized with sponsorship support from the International Olympic Committee. Previously called the Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress, it typically is held in the same year of the Summer Olympic Games in the host country.

Li's presentation focused on how to gauge a particular nation's level of sport development, including the criteria used in the assessment.

"Sport development has become a major concern of sport policymakers and managers worldwide," Li said. "But a consensus has not yet been reached by sport educators and practitioners in terms of what it entails and how the status of sport development of a nation should be assessed."