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NEBRASKA SOCIETY FOR RESPIRATORY CARE BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING Unapproved Condensed Version May 25, 2007 St. Elizabeth Hospital, Lincoln The meeting was called to order by President Bruce Campbell at 1:00 P.M. The agenda was presented and reviewed by Bruce. ROLL CALL - MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Campbell, President Darcy O’Brien-Genrich, President Elect Candy Ryan, Vice President Jill Sand, Vice President Elect Mike Twait, Secretary Dave Patterson, Treasurer Jeff Gonzalez, Delegate Jenny Bush, Delegate Keith Luedders, Board of Directors Bill Bonner, Board of Directors Tim Kelly, Board of Directors Shannon Zinnel, Membership Committee Chair Christie Lebsack, Election Chair Jay Snyder, guest Absent: John Wright, Past President Megan Lofgren, Nominations Chair Sheri Trindle, Publications Chair Kathy Geier-Craft, Public Relations Chair Jane Matsui, Summit Award Chair MINUTES: Mike reported. The minutes from the May 9th, 2007 BOD meetings were reviewed by the BOD. A motion was made by Keith and seconded by Jeff to approve the May 9th BOD minutes, the motion passed. Budget Report: Bruce reviewed the 2007 – 2008 proposed budget, the attached budget is the approved amended version. Dave stated that the line item regarding the Treasurer’s supplies would not be enough and recommended increasing the dollar amount. Bruce changed the Treasurer’s supply amount per Dave’s recommendation. Jeff inquired about the allotment for the AARC video rental. Jeff stated that this program had been discontinued. Bruce removed the video rental allotment. Candy asked if we had budgeted for the student sputum bowl team’s registration fee to the national convention. The adult sputum bowl team’s fee was included in the budget but the student team was not listed. Bruce added the student sputum bowl team fees to the budget. In addition, the board agreed to only reimburse the student teams once they have submitted their national conference registration confirmation form to the Treasurer. Bruce will notify the student team from Immanuel regarding our reimbursement policy. Keith questioned if the additional cost for the website upgrade had been included in the budget. Bruce stated that he had added the increased cost for the website upgrade in the budget report but will need the board’s approval to do so, which will be discussed later in the meeting. Jeff stated that under the PACT Committee expenses that Bruce can decrease the postage costs due to the increase use of email correspondence. Jeff made a motion to accept the budget as amended and was seconded by Keith, the motion passed. Bruce stated that he will email a copy of the amended budget to the board members. Committee Chairs: Bruce asked if there were any comments regarding the Committee chairs, see attachment. Keith questioned if all the new chair members were AARC members. After discussion by the board it was determined that all committee chair members were current AARC members. Bruce called for a motion to approve the Committee Chair members, Dave made the motion to accept the Committee Chair’s and was seconded by Jeff, motion passed. Treasurer’s Report: Dave reported. Jeff asked if the cost of an audit had been added to the 2007-2008 budget. Dave stated that the cost for an audit had not been included and recommended adding the money to cover the cost for an audit. Jeff made a motion to revise the amended budget to include the amount for an audit, motion was seconded by Dave, motion passed. Dave discussed the board’s current account balance. Candy questioned our account balance regarding the balance regarding our board being a non-profit group and suggested that we use some of the money to better serve the therapists here in Nebraska. Jeff discussed that over the past few years that our society has been fortunate with our finances. We’ve been able to cover the operational expenses of the state meetings and been able to make some profit. In addition, we’ve been fortunate in the CD money market. Bruce discussed he had budgeted additional dollars so that Jane & Jenny can provide a 4 CEU tele-conference for therapists here in Nebraska. Jenny discussed that the tele-conference would also be free to any AARC members. Bruce stated the society should try to do more for our therapists and that we also needed to be move visible as a society. Tim suggested that if our goal is to try to increase membership that we could use some of the budget to reduce the initial cost of the membership fee. Bruce added that that we also have 16 vouchers remaining to aid in increasing our membership. Bruce inquired if there were any additional questions regarding the Treasurer’s report. Jeff asked if all the bills had been paid. Dave stated that he currently has one outstanding bill remaining which regarded reimbursing Bruce for his trip then all bills will have been paid. In addition, Dave stated that he recently received a check from Masimo to deposit then all the vendor money has been accounted for. Darcy added that she also has money from the NSRC T-shirts sales to give to Dave. Jeff suggested that Dave review the treasures report to verify that all the revenue sharing checks have been accounted for. Dave stated that he would confirm that all the checks were accounted for. Jeff made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report as written, motion was seconded by Candy, motion passed. Program Committee Report: Candy discussed that she had received the state meeting evaluations today from Elisha. Candy stated that she will review and tally the comments from the evaluations and discuss them with the board at our next scheduled meeting. Candy also mentioned that we had a total of 180 registrants attend the state meeting. Bill discussed an issue from the state meeting regarding how institutions / hospitals sponsor a lecture and who also supply the speaker from that same institution. Bill recommended structuring a contract form for the institution / hospital to compete if they would like to sponsor a lecture. Then we would use a separate speaker contract form, that way we can separate the speaker’s fee from the vendor’s fee. Bill also suggested that we increase the price for vendor booths and then use that addition money to decrease the cost of student registration. Candy stated that she is also investigating into different locations for our next conference. Candy discussed that she has been contacted by the Holiday Inn in Kearney but is also looking into the accommodations in Grand Island and Columbus. Bruce recommended having one or two major speakers for our next conference; possibly asking Dr. Bird or Tony Rodriguez to speak. Darcy also mentioned Tim Myers from Rainbow babies as a possible speaker since he has previously lectured at one of our conferences before. Jeff also suggested Shapiro as a possible speaker since he had also been a previous speaker. Candy mentioned that she was debating whither or not to schedule a 4 hour lecture regarding the topic of sleep. Candy stated that we could offer this lecture during the golf outing; stating that this way we can offer something to those therapists who do not like to golf. Jeff added that sleep technicians now have new licensure requirements and need to acquire 50 CEU’s and by adding a lecture on this topic could result in increased attendance. Delegate Report: Jeff reported. Jeff stated that he and Jenny will be going to Tahoe in the second week of July but they currently had not seen an agenda yet. Jeff discussed that the only topic from our board’s stand point is for Jeff & Jenny to discuss during the open microphone session the feasibility of switching the education meeting from the December date to the summer forum dates. In addition, Jeff mentioned that discussions were also on going about possibly moving the December meeting back into the month of October instead of swapping the dates with the summer forum. However, the HOD would have to evaluate that idea during the time frame when the next set of contracts comes up for locking in the dates. Jenny added that they would also be handing out inexpensive gifts during the next HOD meeting which would symbolize our state. Jenny stated that other state delegates have been giving out small gifts which represented their state and that she was debating on handing out Kool-Aid packets or Baker’s melt away chocolates from Greenwood, NE as our gift. Old Business: Bruce discussed the proposal for the new NSRC website that our webmaster has created. Bruce added that there was going to be a one time set up fee then an additional monthly fee to change to the new upgrades. Bruce stated that the one time fee had been already approved to be paid by the board from our previously meeting. Jeff asked if the new website would be open to all therapists or only be available to NSRC / AARC members. Jenny added that with the new site therapists can leave comments in the forum. Therapists only would have to register to log in then their comments would go to someone / webmaster to review the comments before it would be posted in the forum. This way we can valid the therapist that is logged in before their comments can be posted to validate that they are therapists; and could possibly be another way to request email address from therapists. Jenny questioned who would be responsible for auditing the comments to make sure that there were no inflammatory or use of bad languages. In addition, these comments in the forum would probably have to be checked everyday so that they weren’t posted weeks later. Bruce stated he liked the new site but did not know who would be responsible for approving the comments; and that reviewing the comments would require multiple persons to aid in reviewing the comments before they were posted. Candy mentioned checking with the webmaster to see what options might be available on the new site regarding on how best to manage the message board. Jeff recommended moving forward with the new website and making it available for all therapists to use even though he is a proponent of not providing a service to an individual that does not pay for the service and that by doing so detracts from the value of being a member. In addition, we could start the forum by having 3 simple questions for therapists to give their input on such as where should the next state meeting being held. Jeff added that at the top of the forum board we have a disclaimer stating that responses left by the logged in user will be answered / posted in a 24 - 48 hour time period. Bill suggested that we also add in the disclosure a statement that if you need an immediate contact then the user should be directed to the board contact screen to find a board members and their contact information. Jeff made a motion to approve the month additional fee and to move forward with trying the new website and the forum. In addition, that we also add the disclaimer at the top stating of the forum that any pertinent clinical questions that would need direct attention that they access the contact screen to contact a board member. The motion was seconded by Candy, motion passed. Bruce discussed the topic of the NSRC bylaws to see if there were any recommendations or amends to the bylaws since our last modifications in 2004. Bruce recommended that the board review the bylaws regarding their position and make any recommendations to the bylaw committee to review by the end of June. Jeff mentioned that under article 7, the nominations/elections committee needs to have some minor changes made to it. Bruce also mentioned that under article 10, the standing committees listed have not always been filled in the past. Bruce added that we need to follow these standing committees or are we better to change our bylaws to follow our current practice to stay consistent. Bruce discussed that he has assigned chairs members for all these standing committees. Bill stated that since the standing committees are now filled that we need to define them to make sure that they know what their expectations are rather than changing the bylaws. Jeff suggested that the board members review their duties and send any recommendations for changes to the bylaws committee by June 30th. Then the bylaw committee has time to review or make recommendations / changes and have them forwarded to the AARC for their review and potentially voted on in December. Keith stated that board members send him their suggestions for changes for their duties so he can review them with Jeff and the other committee members by the end of June. Candy added that the under Article 10 in the bylaws that there was to be an Awards committee but we had no one currently assigned to that position. Jeff suggested have the awards committee fall under the program chair. Keith stated that suggestions regarding their improvements or changes for bylaw’s duties be sent to him so he can review them with Jeff and the other committee member by the end of June. New Business: Bruce stated that he will be using one of the vouchers for our medical director. Bruce added that he has a verbal agreement from Dr. John Spensor to be our Medical Director. Bruce mentioned that two weeks ago he had sent a letter to Dr. John Spensor reminding him of the obligations of the position but currently has not heard back from him. Bruce discussed that he will contact Dr. Spensor to affirm that he is still interested in the position. Candy added that if Dr. Spensor declines the position, Dr. Trumper from Childrens Hospital would be interested in the position. High school career program, Bruce discussed that he had sent out an email regarding the program. Bruce stated that he did not think it was the NSRC’s responsibility to recruit these new individuals and that this would be a good project for the schools to look into. Jenny mentioned possibly placing a promotion on our website on what it means to be a respiratory therapist. Candy suggested that we add some photo’s or ask therapists to share stories on the website of what they are doing in their community. Jeff mentioned that we could also post something on the website regarding if their high school or class is interested in having someone come and discuss to them the role of an RT during their career day they could contact members of the BOD. State spirometery testing, Bruce discussed that Kathy had created a letter that he would be sending out soon via email to all the NSRC members soliciting their help to man the spirometry booth on 8/28 & 8/29 from 0800 to 1330 at the State Fair. Bruce stated that Kathy was able to have the AARC mobile spirometery unit come during those dates. The AARC stipulated that they would like to have 6 experienced therapists, not students, run the booth and that they be preferably CPFT’s or RPFT’s. Bruce discussed that he would like to have two therapists man the booth for two hour shifts. Bill discussed that he was concerned that 8/28 & 8/29 lands on a Tuesday and Wednesday which will make it hard for anyone outside of Lincoln to help. In addition, if a therapist wants to drive in from outside the Lincoln area they would probably want to help for more than just 2 hours. Bruce stated that he wanted to make sure that we can staff the booth and would like to know who would be interesting in helping with the booth by the end of June. Candy questioned if we had updated our contact list of RT managers throughout the state. Shannon stated that the contact letter for the managers was drafted and approved by the board but she was instructed not to mail them out until the new board members were in. State consultant letter from the AARC. Bruce discussed that AARC president Tony Rodigurez is soliciting all state boards their opinion on an new project that would involve having consultants be available to help affiliates organize their: operational - business planning, educational programming, public relations activities, grass root governmental organization on approval of the president. Jenny mentioned that many of the smaller affiliates have been passing on initiative stating that they would not use this but the larger states have been stating that this would be useful. Jeff stated that it is hard to give a response when we don’t know what the end product will be or what the cost involved will be. Bill questioned the board’s benefit of it. Jeff stated that there should be more information regarding these consultants within 6 weeks with the next HOD meeting. Bruce moved for a motion to see if we are interested in this product, dependent on cost. No motion was made but the board agreed to have Bruce respond that Nebraska would be interested but will be dependant upon cost. NSRC letter writing. Bruce discussed the email letter that was sent from the AARC regarding the Capital connection use of sending email letters to elected officials in D.C. regarding the different issues. The letter listed the 5 states that had the most emails letters sent, with Pennsylvania taking honors as sending the most letters at 5,401. Bruce added that Nebraska made the list as sending only 67. Jeff added that 4 out of those 5 top states all have members on that committee so they know the process and importance of sending emails out. In addition, there are other unseen letters & emails that are also being sent that aren’t being counted. This list from the AARC only counts the letters if they were sent via the capital connection. Jeff stated that he would also like to see the PACT team directors have their public members use the capital connection and then also print a copy of that letter and mail it in as well. Jeff stated that the Perfusion bill did pass without any opposition. Candy questioned what the qualifications were for this year’s Therapist of the year award. Jeff discussed that the nomination for Therapist of the year was open to all therapists. This year’s prerequisite for Therapist of the year award was to have the conference attendee write down one therapist’s name as their choice and the reason why they are nominating them on their registration state conference form. Candy recommended that we needed to do additional PR and advertise this award by adding it to our website. Then therapists can nominate a candidate via the web. Bill also suggested adding the nomination for Therapist of the year to the BOD ballets and then take the top five nominated names and place them on the conference registration form for therapists to vote on. Candy suggested adding a group picture on our website of the board members to add to the NSRC website, the board agreed. Bruce also suggested that Sheri and he have access to the new website so that they could make alterations. Jeff inquired that if Mike, as the webmaster is completing all the postings / modifications to the site why should we have anyone else have access to alter the site? After open discuss by the board the board decided that the Webmaster should be the only one to make alterations to the website The meeting was adjourned at 1535 Respectfully submitted by Mike Twait, NSRC Secretary
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