What have you been up to?

In addition to constant POA and AOA activity, coaching my kids’ teams and enjoying the play of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time in almost twenty years, I have sprinkled in some patient care this summer. I know many of you have been just as busy because I have fielded many questions about the outcome of the POA and AOA Annual Meetings and special sessions from colleagues who were not able to attend. I want to provide a mid-term State of the Association for you and review some of the things you may have missed.

The POA Congress with the Annual House of Delegates in State College in May was a success. We had broad representation of the local societies and a productive House. I would like to thank Dr. John Alexander, chair, and his Resolutions and By-Laws Committee for their work. One duty of this committee is to periodically review old resolutions. From this review, I was directed to set up a committee to review the association’s Code of Ethics. This committee has been chosen, the members are being invited to participate and their report will be presented at the 2012 POA House of Delegates in Bedford Springs.

We also had a great presentation from the Ad-Hoc Committee to study POA Voting at the AOA House of Delegates – thank you to Drs. Tony Diecidue, chair, Bob Bittel, Scott Goldberg and Harvey Hanlen. Their presentation sparked discussion and provided clarity regarding the membership’s representation from the individual through the local society, the POA and on to the AOA. The committee’s PowerPoint presentation is now available on POA’s website in the About the POA section for your review.

Under Open Microphone, Dr. Jim Paulson provided a legislative update and a lengthy discussion ensued – thank you to Jim and his committee. There has been significant activity on HB 838 since Dr. Paulson’s report, and I encourage you to visit POA’s Legislative Priorities page regularly to be kept up-to-date.

In addition, I would like to thank Secretary/Treasurer Dr. Mark Margolies for his work with Joyce from the POA office regarding the 2012 budget. It was presented, discussed and adopted. We also considered the recommendations of the Nominating and Evaluating Committee for the slate of officers for 2012. As a result, elections were held and the Board of Directors is set for next year – thank you Dr. Diecidue and your N&E Committee.

Finally, we had a nice presentation from our AOA Board of Trustees representative. Thank you again to Dr. Sam Pierce for attending and participating in our meeting and for enduring the golf outing with Charlie and me. We had significant rain and that’s what I’m blaming my performance on!

I also had the pleasure of spending five days in Salt Lake City, Utah, for Optometry’s Meeting. It is a very clean city with good public transportation, great hotels and warm June weather with beautiful snow-capped mountains in every direction.

In addition to elite continuing education, a great exhibit hall and top-notch entertainment and friends, we also had a very productive AOA House of Delegates. There were a total of fourteen resolutions submitted for consideration by the Resolutions Committee. Seven of them were withdrawn by their sponsor, including Resolutions B (Optometric Education Curriculum), C (Access to Vision Care for Children), E (NBEO Clinical Skills Exam Testing Site), I (Candidate Status for ABO), J (Affiliate Legal and Defense Fund), K (Evaluate Workforce Statistics) and M (Initial Requirements for ABO). Five Resolutions were passed by vote on the House floor, including Resolutions A (Affiliate Legal and Defense Fund), D (APHA Membership), H (Vision Care for Children), L (Licensure Renewal) and N (Healthy People 2020). Two resolutions were defeated on the House floor including Resolutions F (Feasibility Study of Membership Voting) and G (Support for ABO). Please take the time to review what occurred in greater detail via AOA’s website.

There was also a substantive motion that was made from the House floor regarding accreditation of providers of continuing education instead of individual courses. It was discussed and tabled on Friday and reconsidered on Saturday. It passed as amended and there will be a presentation at the 2012 House in Chicago, Illinois.

Finally, I would like to thank the individual members who actively fought against HB 838 in the House of Representatives. We lost this vote in the House and need your participation to defeat this predatory legislation in the Senate. Please refer to the other articles in this Keystoner regarding HB 838, contact your Senator, give additional money to POPAC and attend Optometry at the Capitol Day. It will require all of our efforts to defeat this bill. Thanks again for the absolute privilege of being your president and for lending me your ear.

Daniel F. Russell, O.D.
President
Pennsylvania Optometric Association

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