Members present: Katie Raybuck, Donna Seaberg, Heather Blyth Foss, Bill Smiley, Sheryl Tack, Jeanne Ronk, Allison McClane, Marianne Houlne
Meeting called to order at 0910.
President Heather:
Donna Seaberg voted President-Elect by the board.
Fall Conference
The Fall Conference will be at the Best Western in Couer D’Alene, Idaho. Board members looked over the brochures and discussed the possibility of renting a bus/van to transport board members to the conference and back. Heather and Donna were very impressed with the facility and the meeting rooms, etc. Heather has drafted a copy of a flyer to be sent out to all members to inform them of the details of the conference. She will mail these when we receive a current member list from SGNA. The certification exam will be given on Sunday. Olympus has offered to sponsor the Friday night function/party. Sheryl will talk to Mike Johnson to firm up the details.
Suggestions for topics/speakers include: Dr. Schembre (VM)-“cutting edge techniques”; Dr. Pearce (Southlake Clinic); ERCP- a nurse to present and allow “hands on”- Katie will talk to Jill Ragsdale and Debbie; GI pathologist; mock code/emergencies in the GI lab- interactive session with audience- possibly a good idea to present in the afternoon to refresh the audience.
Discussed if we should return to speakers all day vs. breakout sessions as there was some confusion with receiving the CE’s from the last conference. It might be best to go back to all day speakers without breakout sessions this year and base future decisions on conference evaluations.
2007 is the 25th anniversary of PNWSGNA. Discussed the possibility of having the SGNA/CBGNA President(s) speak at the conference or do a special presentation. We would like to send out special invitations for past presidents to attend. Donna and Jeanne expressed interest in being on this planning committee.
A contact person from the Spokane/ Coeur D’Alene area is needed. Heather and Marianne have contacted a few, including a Nurse Manager from Spokane. A local contact person is needed to “put the word out” for potential speakers, conference volunteers, etc. Sheryl could write a letter to contact people/ facilities in the area to create interest in the conference – she will get the list of offices/endo centers/hospitals from Allison. Sheryl will also give a conference planner book to Jeanne.
Mission Statement
Debbie is working on creating a mission statement for PNWSGNA – what is PNWSGNA about? All board members need to come up with ideas for this statement and e-mail to Heather. Bill made a motion to e-mail ideas to Heather within two weeks- seconded and approved.
Fall Conference 2008
Planning ahead for conferences in Washington in 2008 and Oregon in 2009. Jeanne suggested Ocean Shores for 2008.
Heather reminded all board members that they could contact her at anytime with questions or concerns.
Marianne:
Marianne suggested that the board follow CBGNA’s “strategic planning” lead. Copies of a plan were shown to board members – it defines how CBGNA gets things done and an “action agenda” defines who is responsible for doing what and in what amount of time.
Treasurer report by Heather:
PNWSGNA will pay 50% of the cost of lunch for the VM GI Potpourri. The President and President-Elect will attend the SGNA national conference in Baltimore. Two board members to attend the leadership conference in Chicago in October – Donna and Allison verbalized interest in attending. Shanna is working on expenses for 2007.
Membership Chair Allison:
Allison is in the process of doing a mailing to approximately 200 endo centers/ hospitals/ GI clinics in our region to provide them with information about SGNA and PNWSGNA. She showed a sample of the letter to board members. Allison will include a copy of the membership application with the letter and will eventually use the list to get a contact person from each facility. The board decided that all board members needed to have business cards- Costco business center suggested as having the best prices. All board members need to e-mail Allison with their information that they want on the cards and she will order. Membership lists are mailed from SGNA every three months – Heather last received a list in June of 2006. She will check with Debbie for the lists from September and December of 2006.
President –Elect and Vendor Coordinator Donna:
Ginger Esty RN will hopefully be working with her to take over the position of Vendor Coordinator. Donna states that vendors were happy with the last Fall Conference and she would like to add some “niceties” to give to vendors in the future. She would like suggestions.
Vendor Sponsor Sheryl:
Dianne Spanski is very interested in the Vendor Sponsorship position, but family matters may prevent her from taking over.
Scholarship Chair Katie:
The Andy Gilmore Scholarship is no longer a nominated scholarship and will be presented at the GI Potpourri and not the Fall Conference. Four Betty Schulenberger Scholarships will be awarded this year. Katie will be creating a flyer/postcard to send out as a reminder to all members to apply for the scholarships. Applicants may apply on-line. To order mailing labels, board members can go on the SGNA website – go to region 58 and they will give you two formats with labeling capabilities. Or call SGNA and request labels for mailing.
Website Coordinator Bill:
Bill requests copies of minutes to post on the website. He would also like to post forms such as expense reports, re-chartering, bylaws, and policies and procedures. Also needed is bio information from each member for the website- please e-mail to Bill. He would like board members to review the website – what works and what doesn’t? Do we need to make changes? Bill would like to know if there was ever closure to the Fall Conference, i.e. evaluations, attendance, numbers that took the test, etc. He would like to post this information on the website as well.
Need to work with Directors at Large and decide how we can include them more in PNWSGNA. Their roles need to be more defined. Could PNWSGNA work with them directly to organize mini conferences in their areas? Bill suggested sending a representative from the board to Alaska to discuss with Tim Hilts. Jeanne was nominated and will look into this.
Marianne and Bill will check into the possibility and feasibility of hiring someone to do busy work for the board because board members do not have enough time in the day to follow through with all their ideas.
