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NEBRASKA SOCIETY FOR RESPIRATORY CARE BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING Unapproved Condensed Version March 30th, 2007 Nebraska Heart Hospital, Lincoln, NE Meeting was called to order by President John Wright at 10:25 A.M. Agenda was presented by John ROLL CALL – MEMBERS PRESENT: John Wright, President
Jane Matsui, Past President – via speaker phone
Elisha Pueppka, Vice President
Candy Ryan, Vice President Elect
Mike Twait, Secretary
Gil Smith, Treasurer
Jeff Gonzalez, Delegate Jenny Bush, Delegate
Bill Boner, Board of Directors
Frank Freihaut, Board of Directors
Keith Luedders, Board of Directors
ABSENT: Bruce Campbell, President Elect
Chris Hamilton, Publications Chair
Megan Lofgren, Membership Committee Chair
Shannon Zinnel, Membership/Elections Chair
MINUTES: Minutes from last BOD meeting on 2/2/07 were not addressed during this additional meeting. OLD BUSINESS: The agenda for today’s additional meeting concerned resolving the open discussions. The topics discussed were completed in no discernable order. - The audio / visual equipment for the State Conference,
Elisha reported that Jeff was able to get Bruce to be in charge of the audio / visual equipment for the upcoming state conference for Wednesday evening and all day Thursday. Elisha stated that on Friday we would have to pick up the equipment and bring it back once the conference concluded. Elisha stated that Bruce would also be bringing the electronics for the sputum bowl with him but we would be responsible for the equipment once the contest had ended. - Status of Dana Oakes and his book offering,
Elisha stated that Dana contacted her last week and had inquired on how many brochures he should send. Elisha estimated that we would need two hundred brochures for the conference. Elisha stated that she gave Dana her address but currently had not received the brochures and currently had not heard back from him. - President to accept Jeff’s four motions regarding the voting results from the BOD ballot.
- Motion one, to accept the ballot as counted by Megan and her elections committee.
- Motion two, to forward the ballots to the Secretary and hold for 60 days to address any disputes that may arise; after 60 days the ballots would be destroyed.
- Motion three, John to contact all winners by phone and inform them of the results.
- Motion four, John to contact all non winners and inform them of the results and to ask them to be involved on a committee for 2007-2008 period. In addition, John to provide this information to the President Elect, in writing, along with the individuals contact number.
These four motions were seconded via email by Frank on 3/21/07. John accepted these motions and called for a vote via email on 3/23/07. Voting on these motions had been postponed until today’s meeting. John called for a vote regarding all four motions, all four motions passed. John stated that he would notify all the applicants regarding the voting results by no later than April 6th. - Approval of the State Conference agenda and adding that info to the website.
All BOD members were in approval of the State Conference agenda and approved to have the agenda added to the website. No formal vote was called. - Communication to NSRC members,
BOD members discussed various options for improving their communications to its members regarding existing issues. Frank made a motion that the President add an article to the website, three to four times a year, summarizing the businesses of the NSRC. The motion was seconded by Jeff. Frank then added a second motion that the President send that article to the AARC instructing them to forward the letter out to all NSRC members via email. This motion was seconded by Jane. Frank amended both motions by adding that the President sends out the articles within one month after each BOD meeting. John called for a vote regarding Frank’s first motion, motion passed. John then called for a vote on Frank’s second motion, motion passed. - Who should receive the mailing regarding the State Conference agenda?
Jeff discussed that the agenda would be mailed to all AARC members, hospital RT depts., RT schools, vendors, honoring members, and long term care faculties; which brings the total number of mailings up to 913. If the BOD wanted to mail the agenda to all RT’s within the state then we would need to add another 761 mailings based on a list that Shannon provided to Boomer’s on Monday, 3/26. After open discussion the BOD approved mailing the agenda to all RT’s. Jeff recommended, that after licensure in June 2008, Bruce have finances budgeted to update our membership contact list by purchasing the list of RT’s from the State of Nebraska Health and Human Services and also from the AARC. - Clarify the contact representative for Boomer’s printing?
Jeff is still the main contact person for Boomer’s - Is the bonding of Treasurer and President complete?
Gil stated the currently he and John are not bonded. Gil discussed that with only 40 days remaining on his and John’s terms that it would be not be worth the cost of bonding. However, if the President Elect and Treasure Elect would like to be bonded after the May State meeting, they would have to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Frank questioned the concerns of wanting to bond the Treasurer and President; and recommended that we not bond. John also agreed with Frank’s recommendation for not bonding. Frank made a motion that we not bond the Treasurer and President, the motion was seconded by Mike. John called for the vote on Frank’s motion not to bond, motion passed. - External audit on Treasurer’s Report
On 3/27/07 a motion was made by Bruce via email to have an external audit done on all finances prior to Bruce taking office as President, motion was seconded by Jane via email on 3/28/07. Gil stated that the NSRC’s accountant audits our finances and taxes on a yearly base, which was last completed in October of 2006. Gil mentioned that the accountant did not find any issues regarding our finances & taxes during his audits. After an open discussion by the BOD, John called for the vote on Bruce’s motion for an external audit, motion failed. Jeff rescinded his earlier motion that he made via email to have the BOD members review the financial records and made a new motion that the executive board review the financial records and report back to the Board at our next meeting in Kearney, May 9th 2007. John called for the vote regarding Jeff’s new motion, motion passed. - Does the desire still exist to bring the resolution forward to the HOD regarding flipping the Forum and Congress meetings?
Frank suggested that Jeff & Jenny forward this question to other state delegates and see what interest there might be. Jeff recommended that instead of making a resolution for flipping the meetings that he & Jenny bring to the floor this topic during the open microphone session at the next HOD meeting to see if there is any interest in doing this and also to determine possible state allies to assist in creating this resolution. - Is John comfortable in having his name as a contact regarding possible press questions with the DC PACT release?
John stated that he was fine with having his name as the contact person and that he had forwarded this release to the Omaha World Herald but up till today had not seen anything regarding this press release in the paper. - What is the status of the vouchers?
A total of forty vouchers were purchased. The vouchers are also dated and will expire in October of 2007. Currently five vouchers were given out at the last Respiratory Fest in Omaha and another five vouchers were given out at Children’s Fall conference that INO Therapeutics’ had purchased. The remaining vouchers can be obtained from Megan, the Membership Committee Chair. Gil stated that he would contact Mike Morgan to add information to the website regarding the discounted vouchers and how therapists can purchase them. John discussed that at our last BOD meeting in February we had decided that it might be worth looking into opening our Practice Act. John stated that even though now we do not have the time pressure of opening our Act to meet the needs of the Perfusionist’s. Frank suggested that a committee be formed to move forward with looking into our Licensure and compare it to see where we are now and what possible changes we might want or need. That way we are better prepared when the time does comes to open our Act. Jenny discussed that we should bring forward the information we have regarding our assignments in researching other states Licensure Acts and give that information to this committee. John stated that we will bring our state summaries to our next BOD meeting in May. The key points that we would need to have in our state summaries are: definitions of scope of practice, access to care, temporary licenses, stratifications and limitations. John was appointed chairman of the committee to oversee the state license comparison and potential opening of our license. - Topic of Perfusionist’s possibly joining our BOD
Jeff stated that he met with the Perfusiontist’s yesterday and that they are currently looking into having their professional board be their BOD. Their committee is in the process of reviewing this. - Do we want to stay informed with the CRNA’s wanting to expand their scope by adding fluoroscopy?
Frank mentioned that he received a letter regarding if the NSRC BOD would want to be an interested party regarding the CRNA’s process of adding fluoroscopy to their scope of care. After open discussion by the BOD the consensus was made to continue to stay informed with the CRNA’s process. Frank stated that he would send Bruce’s contact information to the CRNA regarding future mailing updates. - Is the Disaster and Pandemic Planning Committee a formal NSRC committee?
The BOD had an open discussion regarding this topic. The BOD had previously voted to have this as a standing topic but we had not made it a committee. The BOD decided that we would not need to make this a formal committee but we would need to have a responsibility party or an ad-hock committee that would monitor this topic as we move forward. Jenny will continue overseeing the Disaster and Pandemic Planning until her term ends. Bruce can then assign this to someone else. - Information on the scholarship,
Elisha stated that currently she had not received anything yet. Elisha mentioned that she sent out a note to Lea Blake at Metro and to Chris Hamilton at Methodist. The note was to remind students about the scholarship and to send their forms to Elisha. Jeff also mentioned that he notified Charlotte at Southeast in Lincoln. Candy stated that she will forward the scholarship info to the Immanuel RT School as well. Elisha discussed that she included the nomination for therapist of the year on the conference registration flier that will be mailed out to all RT’s. Elisha will tally the mailed in nominations and have the results for the BOD for their approval by their next meeting in May.
- Is the PR membership manning the booth?
Elisha stated that here will be an NSRC booth and that Thursday will be the main day that we would need volunteer’s to sit at the booth. Frank, Jeff, Candy, Gil, and Mike offered to man the booth. Bill added that we would have a golf credit to spend at the club house from the tournament. Bill proposed that we use the golf credit to buy a golf bag and then raffle the golf bag as a prize and the BOD can decide how we want to use the money raised by the raffle. The BOD agreed with Bill’s suggestion to use the credit to raffle off a golf bag. John stated that this idea was never formalized and with very little time left until the State conference, that we consider planning this event during RT week or possibly at next years State Meeting in 2008. The BOD agreed with John suggestion. Jane stated that she was would help with the international fellow and that the BOD would recommend to Bruce that we move forward with applying for an international fellow. John handed out the draft letters that Megan and Shannon had created regarding membership contact information and a nominations letter for the BOD to approve before they mailed them out to all the RT departments in Nebraska. Shannon’s letter regarding membership was requesting RT departments to send us their contact information so we can add this information to our website. In addition, the membership letter requests information regarding their total number of therapists in their department and what percent of their staff are NSRC/AARC members. There were two modifications made to Megan’s nominations letter. Jeff suggested changing the term of nominations to applications and Keith recommended adding the phrase “if elected” to the sentence stating that the Board member will attend all NSRC meetings. The BOD approved the modified letters. John will notify Megan & Shannon the BOD changes. John inquired if there were any discussion remaining. Keith inquired about the status of the LB395 Bill regarding the Clean Air Act. Frank stated that the Clean Air Act would require work environments to be free of tobacco smoke. An amendment to this bill was added by two state elected officials which would allow an “opt – out” clause that would allow cities or counties to disregard the smoke free work environment. Frank discussed that the American Lung Association has taken a stance to the amended bill and has written letters to all our state senators stating that they are in favor of the original bill but not the amendment. The amended bill did move forward in the Unicameral and is now currently awaiting a response from the Attorney General stating if it is legal to have an “opt – out” clause for a law. Frank suggested that everyone send a letter to the elected official approving the original bill and not approving the amendment. John stated that he will send a letter representing the NSRC and suggested that individually we all do the same. Keith also questioned the email that Megan sent to the BOD inquiring if she needed the BOD approval to destroy any previous election ballots that she currently has from the past several years. The BOD determined that Megan does need the board’s approve to destroy election ballots. Jeff made a motion that any previous ballots be destroyed by Megan and the motion was seconded by Gil. Motion passed.
TREASURE’S REPORT: Gil stated that to his knowledge all expenses have been paid except for a bill from Choice Printing for having additional checks printed. Gil discussed that he also had not received Jenny’s expenditures that she had sent via email. Gil instructed Jenny to email him again today her expenditures so he can issue her a check and mail it to her by tonight. Candy mentioned that Bruce also had not been paid for his expenditures from his trip to the President Elect meeting in Dallas and that Darcy also needed to be paid for her trip to D.C. Gil stated to have them either call or email him their bills so he can pay their expenditures. Gil also suggested that the BOD need to have their meetings planned out a year in advance so members can schedule their work around the meetings. Frank recommended that this topic be added to the agenda to the May NSRC BOD meeting. Frank made a motion to accept the Treasure’s report and was seconded by Candy, the motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 1340 Respectfully submitted by Mike Twait, NSRC Secretary
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