2009 ASRT Annual Governance and House of Delegates Meeting Marriott Uptown Albuquerque, New Mexico June 11 – 14, 2009 Nancy L. Hersey, R.T.(R) Vice President MSRT As part of the process of maintaining Affiliate Society status with the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, the MSRT sends two delegates to the annual meeting in Albuquerque, each June. As long as we, the MSRT, meet all of the requirements set forth by the ASRT for Affiliate Societies and the delegates themselves fulfill qualification, attendance and reporting requirements, the expense of travel and lodging is borne by the ASRT. This year’s meeting was attended by Nancy Hersey and Heather Gould. There are two categories of delegates, those from Affiliate Societies and “Chapter Delegates” elected delegates representing the various modalities: Bone Densitometry, Nuclear Medicine, Radiography, Cardio-vascular – Interventional, Sonography, Mammography, Quality Management, Management, Radiation Therapy and Medical Dosimetry, Education, MRI, CT, and the Military. Blue skies and warm weather greeted us on our respective arrivals. The weather held through the four days, though we got to see very little of it. The meeting which used to be held over the course of a week has now been condensed to a very busy, intensive three day event. It lead off with a Delegate and Non-delegate check-in and welcome reception with “Pin Exchange” (attendees bring pins that are representative of their states or areas, to exchange as they mingled and met their fellow delegates, ASRT officers, committee members and Staff) on Thursday evening. Bright and early Friday morning found Heather and I meeting for a quick breakfast before check-in and attending our first class of the day at 0730, called “Who is Robert and What are His Rules All About” lead by Speaker of the House Cathie Kukec, Vice Speaker of the House Donna Thaler Long and ASRT Parliamentarian Betsy McUne. This was an, at times, light hearted review of Robert’s Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure. The rest of the morning was also spent in classes, two of which, “ALARA Principles in Pediatric Imaging with Dr Sue Kaste and “Healthcare Economics: Current Realities, Future Trends” with Dr. Geoffrey Joyce, gave use 2 CEU’s. The last class of the morning was “Compliance and Governance”, a summary of Affiliate Societies’ “rights and responsibilities”. This presentation was made by Liana Watson and Dana Aragon from the Governance Division of the ASRT. They highlighted the “Soup to nuts”, incorporation to tax issues requirements to be an active Affiliate Society of the ASRT. Following a break for lunch, we checked back in, at which point the delegates were issued electronic voting devices and then we were seated for the First Seating of the House of Delegates, which was immediately followed by an update from the ASRT and the JRCERT report. The “First Seating” was called to order by Cathie Kukec, Speaker of the house, followed by presentation of colors by delegates from the Military Chapter and the Pledge of Allegiance. This was followed up with a report from the Committee on Credentials. They reported an attendance at that point of 144 Delegates, several expected delegates were delayed in their travel due to adverse weather conditions in the mid and south west and amended reports would be given upon their arrivals. We moved on through adoption of HOD Meeting’s Standing Rules and Adoption of the agenda to the Delegate’s Orientation by the Speaker of the House. Orientation included Introduction of those seated at the head table and guests, Introduction of the Committee on Bylaws, Committee on Credentials, the Sergeants-at-arms, the Tellers and the members of the Commission. The Student Interns were introduced as were the ASRT Board Members and Staff. This was followed by a Memorial Resolution where those 41 members who were known and verified to have passed away since the last annual meeting, were remembered. A courtesy motion was made by Ginger Griffin to Recognize and congratulate Sal Martino who is the new CEO of the ASRT. Support this motion was made by a rising vote of the HOD. Reports: Linda Holden, President of the ASRT presented the Annual Report of the ASRT. She cited the 2008 – 2009 year to have been a historic year for the country as well as for the ASRT, and that the board worked hard to keep with-in perspective. • Lynn May, former CEO retired in December and a search began for a replacement. They had many candidates for this position, many of which were themselves RT’s. This ended in the hiring of Sal Martino who has long been known for his contributions to the field of Radiography and to the ASRT. • There has been a focus this year on Forensic Radiography with an investigation of the nature of Forensic radiography in the United States. Representatives traveled to England where they reviewed the British Forensic Curriculum and evaluated that modality there. • Another area of concentration this year was the formulation of a volunteer task force for Professional Development Skills Assessment. They will beta test a self-assessment tool in the near future with a prospective launch date sometime in 2010. This tool will be available free to members of the ASRT and at a fee to non-members. This assessment tool will focus on 9 areas: Anatomy & Positioning, Pharmacology & Drug administration, Ethics, Leadership, Radiation protection & biology, Patient care, Digital imaging, Rad. Equipment operation and Radiological procedures. • Membership growth is an area of focus with the understanding that “Members come first”. • They sought to strengthen Affiliate relationships with an affiliate re-focus. • They supported Legislative Advocacy efforts through R.T. in DC, MIPA, and the CARE bill which we should all strive to insure its passage. • Sought to build solid industry relationships and alliances with imaging associations. • This years incoming elected officers were then introduced: o Diane Mayo, R.T.(R)(CT) President o James Temme, M.P.A., R.T.(R)(QM) President Elect o Dawn McNeil, B.S., R.T.(R)(M), RDMS Vice President o Victoria Maxey, R.T.(R) Secretary – Treasurer • Linda concluded her report with a quote from Abe Lincoln: “Whatever you are, be a good one” The ASRT Education and Research Foundation Annual Report was given by Cathy Parsons, Foundation Chairperson. • This year this year 300 people were aided with just under $1.4 mil awarded. • $190,000 was spent on ODIA (Online Digital Imaging Academy) • 49 scholarships were awarded • 1 in 10 are funded • Research grants and International speakers • They will be launching a Virtual Symposium on Research this fall, with Abstracts, Posters and Webinars. This is modeled after a Program of one of the National Museums. • How can you support the Foundation? o Donate o Buy annual drawing tickets The floor was opened for nominations for Speaker of the House and Vice Speaker of the House for next year: • Speaker: o Donna Thaler Long • Vice Speaker: o Sandra Haydebn o Bill May o Paula Young There was a call for introduction of Late Main Motions and there were none at that time. A reminder that any received after that point would require a ¾ vote to be heard. Announcements were made of the Advocacy Awards. Linda Holden and Christine Lung announced these awards. • Affiliate Award went to the Ohio Society • Individual award went to David Hill "Both Mr. Hill and the Ohio Society of Radiologic Technologists were selected for the award based on their high level of grass-roots advocacy activities and ongoing efforts on issues affecting the medical imaging and radiation therapy profession," said ASRT President Linda Holden, M.S., R.T.(R)(QM), RDMS, FASRT. In 2009 the OSRT worked with the ASRT, the American College of Radiology and the Ohio Radiological Society to successfully enact licensure for radiologist assistants. The OSRT also met with lawmakers to ask them to cosponsor and pass the Consistency, Accuracy, Responsibility and Excellence in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy, or CARE bill. Hill has been a member of the ASRT Committee on R.T. Advocacy for several years. He is currently serving as the Committee’s 2009-2010 vice chairman. He also hosted facility visits from federal lawmakers and secured their support for the CARE bill, particularly from Vice President Joe Biden, who was then a senator from Delaware. The Ohio society will receive $500 and a plaque recognizing its service. In addition to a plaque, Hill will receive $250. Sal Martino, CEO of ASRT since January, gave the ASRT update. • As with everyone else this year, money was lost, mostly through capital investments, resulting in a loss of about $1.4 mil. The ASRT is though, debt free. • Cuts were made o Staff training o Scaled back marketing promotions and advertising o More communications will be made via the website occasioning a cut in paper/postage use • Contracts with vendors were re-negotiated • 3,000 members were added this year. Key groups targeted for membership: o CT Technologists o Mammographers o Those recently certified o Students at a rate of $30/year • New benefits of membership were added: o 50 new CE products o 20% discount at www.shoe.com o 10% discount on uniforms with uniform advantage o 20% discount on textbooks o Added a Vacation Rewards program o Check the website for the complete list of benefits!! • The ASRT Scanner was revamped and redesigned, making it more modern and easier to read. • ASRT got stronger: o Strengthened it’s relationships with key allies o RA Licensure has passed in 23 states and is pending in 3 others o MIPA for CT, MRI and PET for medicare patients (does not yet cover x-ray and fluoroscopy) o Re-introduction of the CARE Bill o Conducted a Forensic Radiography Survey o Reported a 3.4% vacancy rate in Radiography • The ASRT got gentler: o The Image Gently campaign to decrease the dose to children Joined by 34 organizations Website: www.imagegently.org • 2 downloadable brochures for parents • downloadable record form for parents to keep history Current focus is CT, to rollout to fluoro, nuclear medicine, interventional, and CR/DR in the future. • More CE on line o GE: 33% discounts on TIP’s Courses o ODIA o CT modules went to the ASRT store on June 11, eventually can use these modules to gain CT advanced certification o Introduction of ASRT @ RSNA with Category A+ credits. A tract of CE being run at the RSNA for technologists. Connie Mitchell, Chairman of the Board of the ASRT then spoke to us about an infraction of election rules that had occurred during the last election. An affiliate society posted support of a candidate on their website. This was in violation of a current position statement. The position statement prohibits this type of activity, but does not define the consequences for it. The candidate was not censured; the affiliate society was sent a letter of censure. What do we want to do? Change the position statement to allow for campaigning? Would this increase participation in the election process? o It was suggested that we expand the limit on the number of words that a candidate can use in their position statements. o Suggested setting up blogs where you could open it up to be able to ask candidates specific questions. o Find some way to have “controlled campaigning” It was referred to the board to look at these suggestions and see what could be managed fairly. The Florida Society reported that it is down to 96 members. They asked if the ASRT could provide email addresses to them to help. They cannot do this due to privacy questions. The ASRT was asked to report back on the CE success at the RSNA. Who actually ends up attending? Management only? Staff technologist? Those from the immediate geographical area? The first Seating of the House was adjourned a bit before 1800. The Friday evening activity was a poolside ASRT Education and Research Foundation Fundraising event. Saturday’s meeting started at 0730 with an open forum on Bylaws where the proposed bylaw revisions were presented by Jeffery F. Vaughn, Chairman of the Committee on Bylaws and Laura R. Zastrow, his Student Intern. It was decided that a revision of the bylaws was in order since it was a more efficient method of making multiple, scattered changes to the bylaws. Many areas needed simple language changes to reflect current terminology. With a revision, the HOD would not be required to vote on each of these minor editorial changes. By bringing the language up – to – date, it was hoped that a more stable set of bylaws would be created that will not need to be changed again for several years. Each article was presented, any proposed changes were described, the rationale behind the proposed change was offered, and an opportunity was given for discussion. Addition wording changes to better improve consistency and flow were discussed. No voting action was taken at this time, it would be brought out for vote at the Second Seating of the House on Sunday. The Forum on Bylaws, was followed by the Commission Forum. The Commission was presenting a Consent Agenda with revisions to Position Statements. The consent agenda included all of the motions presented by the Commission for approval by the HOD. The bundling process allowed the House to handle items efficiently, while ensuring that substantive topics received the time that they deserved for discussion. Any delegate could request an item be removed from the consent agenda for any reason. Removed items were placed on the regular HOD agenda for debate and voting. Items not removed would be voted on as a block, without debate on the individual items. The consent agenda consisted of 81 items. There were two “motions”, one Adoption of a position statement, twenty nine Position Statements proposed to be “sunset” due to out – dating or redundancy with the Practice Standards, and forty nine amendments to the language and/or re-titling of a Position Statement, to bring them up to date or to improve consistency within the document. The agenda and its motions were presented by Mary St. Peter, Chairman of the Commission and Michael Marrocco, her Student Intern. We were given the opportunity to discuss and to ask questions. Anyone wanting to pull an item from the agenda, for individual discussion, would do so at Sunday’s meeting. Following a box lunch, individual Chapter meetings were held. Affiliate delegates were able to attend the Chapter Meeting of their choice. I attended the Radiography Chapter meeting. After introduction of the chapter delegates, the first order of business was to nominate a Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Chapter for the coming year. Heather Moore was nominated to serve as chairman and Norman Hente was nominated to serve as vice – chairman. Both were subsequently elected to those positions. The next order of business was a discussion of the possibility of mandating the ARRT to require a certain number of CE credits per biennium to have to be in CR/DR . It was pointed out that the ASRT cannot mandate to the ARRT. We can only make this a suggestion and to work with them towards this goal. We will make this suggestion to the ARRT at their update. On the question of how strong a position we wanted to take, it was voted to “strongly suggest” vs. “suggesting a mandate” The suggestion was made to ask the ASRT to work towards more directed readings pertaining to CR/DR. The ODIA was talked about, along with the apparent fact that not many radiographers are aware of its existence. We would like to suggest that Affiliate Societies post information on their websites promoting taking advantage of this resource. On the question of why more modalities are not required (as Mammography is) to have dedicated CEU’s, those for mammography are mandated by the government, not the ARRT. Discussion then went on to LMXO licenses. There are still far too many states out there where no certification or education is needed to take x-rays. Some of those states have their candidates take the ARRT’s Limited X-Ray Machine Operator test, but the ARRT only administers the exam for the states, they cannot control what the state does with the result. Many states have set the passing grade at a ridiculously low level, like at 40. We heard horror stories from different areas around this issue. In California, for instance, there is a rehabilitation program within the prison system, where inmates are trained to take x-rays and they can get an unlimited license to practice upon release. This is something that the ASRT & the ARRT have no control over. The only way for this to be stopped is to have the CARE Bill become law, and the states will be force to comply with a set standard. The final item for discussion is the proposal that all associate degreed practicing radiographers, graduating after 2013, should articulate into a bachelor undergraduate degree program. Some people involved with established schools would be hard put to set up this articulation affiliation. It seems that this idea is in the very earliest stages of formulation and is probably not of highest priority at this time. The next scheduled event was the update from the ARRT, presented by Jordan Renner. Other ARRT representatives present were, Kevin Rush, Michael Delveccio, Eileen Maloney and Cindy Daniels. At the time of this meeting, issues reported in the annual report were still open for input from the Registrants at large prior to the annual meeting of the ARRT in July. One such proposal was the one that starting with those graduating in 2015, graduates will need to hold an Associates degree to be able to enter into the field. Mr. Renner announced that: • Cindy Daniels (some of us remember Cindy from her trip to Maine as the ARRT’s representative to our spring meeting a few years ago) has been hired to fill the new position of “Director of Educational Requirements”. • The ARRT’s Royce Osborn Scholarship (for minorities) has now been awarded to 54 recipients. • The ODIA which was funded by the ARRT is up and running. • The ARRT website has expanded to include many more features. Including a CE/RT searchable database of available CEU sources which has been available since March 2009. Go to www.ARRT.org and check out the site and its offerings. • There were 2,079 ethics violation investigations in 2008. The largest number were in CEU subversions and subversions in the exam process. • CQ2011, many have heard the rumor that if you pass a certification after 2011, you will have to re-take the registry every 10 years. This is not totally true, while retaking the registry may be one way to comply with CQ2011, there will be other ways. Including a self assessment process that you can go through and it will tell you what areas you need to study and test out on to show that you are keeping current with the evolution of technology. (Note from me, See the ARRT website and the article, “Much Ado About CQ” posted May 22, 2008 for information and clarification.) This will apply to not only original certifications, but advance certifications passed after Jan 1, 2011 as well. Those already certified prior to that date will be exempt unless you allow your certification to lapse and have to re-certify. • Another proposal that was to be discussed at the July meeting was one that beginning Jan 1, 2011, CEU’s earned through applications training, no matter how many credits you were given, be it 10, 12, 15, 18, etc for apps training, only 6 of them could count towards your minimum 24 required to meet continuing education requirements. The rationale behind this is that some people were attaining all 24 credits through apps training and were not receiving the variety of education deemed appropriate to keep you current with what is happening in the field. I have not been able to find out if this was passed at the meeting or not. The ARRT update was followed by a ceremony where Polly Story, R.T(R), FASRT was recognized for her lifetime of contributions to the field of Radiography and to the ASRT by being given a Gold, Life Member Award. In the same ceremony, Sharon Wartenbee, RT (R) (BD), CDI was elevated to the status of Fellow of the ASRT. This was a very moving ceremony as both of these women exemplify true commitments to the advancement of their field. The ceremony was followed by a reception to meet and congratulate these two inspiring women. The entire day Sunday was taken up with the Second Seating of the House of Delegates. This was the main workday of the weekend. Following the Call to Order and the report from the Committee on Credentials, we got down to the business of revising the Bylaws of the ASRT. After much hard work and further re-writes to make consistent and updated language, the Bylaws were passed unanimously by the full house. Because the posting of the revision was included in the Meeting information and notice on the ASRT website, and this met the advance notice requirement, the new Bylaws went into effect immediately. Go to www.asrt.org to view the newly updated bylaws. The attention of the House then turned to the Consent Agenda. Members of the House requested that 21 of the items be pulled from the consent agenda, for individual discussion and revision. The remaining 60 items were then adopted by a unanimous vote of the House. Through a slow laborious, process, each of the 21 removed items were then brought up for motions, amendments, discussions, votes, in some cases re-motions, re- amendments, re-discussion and re-votes. The agenda projected this meeting to last from 8 AM until 5 PM, five o’clock found us still hard at work hammering out the details of these items pulled from the consent agenda. Some people had travel arrangements for Sunday evening. It was announced that they had the choice of getting on the phones with the airlines and trying to change there flights, or they could leave, and they would not have met their obligations as a delegate. A very few of the Delegates opted to leave. We were then told that we needed to be finished by 5:45 to enable the hotel staff to set up for the Instillation of Officers and the President’s reception, scheduled to take place from 7 until 9. If we were not finished, we would have to re-convene the meeting after the reception. Sal Martino was able to arrange with the hotel for us to continue until finished and then the hotel staff would be given one hour to get the reception set up. We then finished up the work on the consent agenda. You can see the changes made to the Position Statements at www.asrt.org, Click on “News” on the left hand side, under “ASRT News Releases” select “archived releases” and read the release dated 6-18-2009 titled “ASRT House Adopts Bylaws Revision and 78 Motions” . The next order of business was to re-open the nominations for Speaker and Vice Speaker of the House for next year. Hearing no further nominations from the floor, the nominations were closed and a vote was taken. Donna Thaler-Long was elected as Speaker and Sandra Hayden was elected as Vice-Speaker. There then was a call for any late-late motions that Delegates wished to have brought before the House. One motion was withdrawn and a second that was brought, regarding the issue of “Qualifications for Practicing Radiologic Technology”, the House declined to hear at this time. A resolution was brought to show our appreciation to the Speaker and Vice- Speaker of the House and that was acknowledged with a standing ovation. A couple of last minute announcements were made and the House adjourned at 6:07 having put in a 10 hour day. The installation of officers and the President’s reception was held at 8 PM. Heather and I both agreed that it had been an intensive weekend, but a very interesting one. We both look forward to repeating the experience next year. |
| Maine Society of Radiologic Technologists |
ASRT Convention:
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