SNMMI Membership Committee Minutes

SNMMI Membership Committee Minutes December 9, 2014

Members in attendance: Vasken Dilsizian, MD (chair), Jon Baldwin, DO, James Galt, PhD, Satoshi Minoshima, MD, PhD, Valeria Moncayo, MD, Helen Nadel, MD, Todd Peterson, PhD, Deborah Wilkinson, MS, CNMT, Mehdi Djekidel, MD, Munir Ghesani, MD, FACNM

Members not in attendance: David Brandon, MD, Bryan Kerr, CNMT, PET, NCT, RT(N)(CT), Aaron Scott, CNMT, NMAA, FSNMMI-TS

Staff: Joanna Spahr, Lauren Collins

I. Welcome and Call to Order Dr. Dilsizian called the conference call to order at 2:00pm. A quorum was established 30 minutes into the call.

II. Review Minutes from September 2014 Conference Call Dr. Dilsizian asked the committee reviewed and approved the minutes from the September 2nd conference call.

It was moved, seconded and voted to approve the minutes of the September 2, 2014 conference call.

III. Membership Report Joanna reported that as of December 3, 2014 Full members were at 64% of their budgeted goal, which is behind last year (81%). Renewals were sent out October 1st this year, which was later than in past years due to the Board of Directors vote to increase dues by 13%.

IV. Tiered Resident Dues Structure Dr. Dilsizian reviewed the proposed resolution to go the Finance Committee and Board of Directors at the Mid-Winter Meeting in January.

 $75 – 17% of total membership fee

 $435 – would be paying full membership fee It was moved, seconded and voted to approve the resident resolution.

V. Emeritus Member Applications The following Emeritus applications were reviewed by the committee: a. R. Carretta, MD, FACNM b. P. Chase, DO c. I. Hayon, MD d. D. Goldenberg, ScD, MD e. H. Zeskind, MD, FACNM f. J. Kalowsky, DO g. N. Alazraki, MD, ABNM, ABR h. M. Habibian, MD i. J. Lasher, MD j. R. Winn, MD k. D. Yuille, MD l. J. Stenberg, MD m. C. Kirsch, MD, PhD n. Lucille Taverna, MD, ABR o. Lars Aldon Eriksson, PhD p. Izzie Boxen, MD q. Robert Boyd, III, MD r. Joan Mack, MD s. Hans Biersack, MD, PhD

It was moved, seconded and voted to approve 19 emeritus applications.

VI. Discussion Dr. Dilsizian gave a brief overview of the Membership Task Force and what the Cardiology Group has been discussing:

o Members are leaving SNMMI slowly – this reflects the trend of people leaving the field and leaving the residencies. This is most likely due to a lack of jobs. o More members are retiring faster than new people are coming into the society.

o The job market for nuclear medicine is better in other countries than in the US.

o We don’t incorporate international speakers as much as we should for the meetings – we should have more sessions about healthcare issues in other countries.

o SNMMI’s main benefit is education – this is the main benefit that people usually call out.

o SNMMI should offer more sub-specialty focused courses for the niches within nuclear medicine (i.e. cardiology) to make it more valuable for those people to become members. o There needs to be more transparency with membership and council/center dues – this will help members understand where the money goes to and how it ultimately helps them.

o The location of the meetings is important, especially to the international community – when it’s in the middle of the US, it’s hard for international members to get there.

o SNMMI needs to find new ways to expand the therapies in nuclear medicine and define who can deliver them and not make it easy for just anyone to be able to administer them.

o SNMMI should partner with other medical societies (not just radiology societies) and start attending their national meetings. At the meetings, SNMMI should put on a session that will be co-sponsored by us and the other society (like the Breast Cancer Society) and make us more visible. Most physicians still don’t really know about nuclear medicine which ultimately hurts our physicians. This is what outreach and the councils should be focusing on. SNMMI needs to be a apart of all of the other medical societies and show how nuclear medicine can work with other specialties.

o It’s harder for more tech graduates to get jobs because organizations would rather hire the more experienced techs that maybe just lost their jobs or had their hours cut.

o Many tech training programs are closing or going on hold status because enrollment is down due to the job market.

o Students do jump into membership because of the CEUs and it’s cheaper with SNMMI than anywhere else. However, there are some companies and vendors that are offering CEUs for free but the quality isn’t that good.

o The job environment influences the tech’s decision as well – if their physicians and the organization don’t care about them being members, then they feel there’s no reason for them to join.

VII. Adjournment The SNMMI Membership Committee conference call adjourned at 3:00pm (ET).