2/1/2010

March 2010 Presidents Message

The first quarter of 2010 is almost finished! What a busy time for the APTA and the RIAPTA.
On a national level the APTA is being very persistent on Capital Hill to continue to be at the table for the health care overhaul. Most recently APTA continues daily work on the Hill to get the CAPP covered until late March and then last week passed the CAPP exceptions process thru to the end of 2010, still waiting for House of Representative vote and then the President. Please continue your emails to the Senators to thank them for the support and the Representatives to encourage their vote and thanks for their help in the past. It continues to be very frustrating that this issue is not totally resolved and our Medicare patients do not live under the CAPP threat to continued care. Our Congressional delegation understands the issue and has voted in support of the stop gap measures of the exceptions process. The actual vote to eliminate the CAPP has never happened; it has only been in this exceptions process.
The Executive Office of RIAPTAhas been busy updating our website. Please do look at it from a consumer/professional and member standpoint and offer suggestions of helpful links to add that you use for yourself in seeking evidence, or links for patients for helpful information.
The Membership Committee is busy helping to establish the student SIG and also reaching out to non-members with benefits of membership. Please continue to encourage your colleagues and demonstrate to your students the value of APTA membership thru its resources and networking opportunities. APTA mentioned RIAPTA again for its membership growth!!
The recent continuing education programs had good attendance. The offerings are helpful to all of us as a means to attain quality CEU’s now that they are mandatory for licensing.. Please keep track of CEU’s for yourself as they may be randomly requested by the DOH. The other important piece for successful education offerings for the chapter is the generation of non-dues revenue. We can not depend solely on dues revenue to support the chapter and it endeavors.
The SanDiego CSM meetings were very helpful for me to gain a greater understanding of the resources the APTA has to bolster the success of the chapters. The Move Forward campaign continues now into stage 2, check the Brand site on the national website. We now have a ‘Brand Champion’, Tom Harrington has volunteered to take that position. Thanks Tom! We would welcome others who love their profession and don’t mind telling others about it! Lots of supports from national in PR. Membership challenges were discussed and the focus is really on new social networking to get the word out about PT’s and also focus on student membership. The RIAPTA is already well on board with these initiatives.
I will be in DC for 2 opportunities in April, first Tamara and I will attend a new leaders program at APTA headquarters and the following week 3 days planning for Hill visits to our Congressional delegation. Pat Wolfe will be attending this year as the Key Contact. Michelle Collie, Don Levine and Tom Romeo continue to be Key Contacts as well. Thanks to all of them for this important role. We are always looking for new people who enjoy the political scene and will welcome the individual Senators or Congressman to there clinics to observe PT in action, or visit them in their home offices to discuss health care in general and specific concerns you see for your patients. Let me know and we can help you arrange these opportunities.
RIAPTA will be hosting the NE Caucus meeting in RI in May and I invite members to attend. More information to come on this.
Thanks again for the privilege of serving you all in this position as President.
Sincerely, Wendy