Winter Board Meeting Minutes

New York State Society of Radiologic Sciences, Inc.

MID-YEAR BOARD MEETING Treadway Inn Owego, NY April 16, 2010

Meeting called to order at 5:08 pm on Friday, April 16, 2010.

PRESENT: Paulette Peterson - President Ken Martinucci - President-Elect Steven Herrmann - 1st Vice-President Ann Verschuuren - 2nd Vice-President William Brennan - Secretary

David Finaldi - Invited Committee Chair

EXCUSED: Barbara Neumann - Immediate Past-President Linda Condon - Treasurer Frank Marter - Director

I. TOPIC: Reports

A. Secretary - Minutes from the 2010 Winter Board Meeting accepted.

B. Treasurer – Total assets are $9438.74 at this time.

1. It should be noted that this is mainly due to student memberships.

2. Treasurer Condon can now access PayPal to effect transfers of funds from online renewals.

3. Treasurer Condon filed the Society’s taxes.

4. President Peterson reminded all Board members to submit receipts when required.

1 C. President

1. President Peterson contacted the leadership of all districts and chapters to update them on the ASRT subordinate requirements.

2. President Peterson drove to White Plains to meet with the hotel management of the Crowne Plaza to discuss the October conference. Among the topics of discussion were:

a. The use of the Ball Room for the Student Bowl due to the lack of space in the room previously used. b. There will be no charge for room rentals this year. c. The use of PA systems will be at a rate of $100.00 per room/per day. It was decide that Secretary Brennan will donate the use of one PA system to provide sound for the main room thus reducing costs.

3. President Peterson drove to Albany to meet with Alex Damiani of the Department of Health.

4. President Peterson prepared the annual report which has been printed and will be mailed to all members.

5. 3000 NYSSRS Postcards have been printed and will be mailed out to prospective members that are technologists licensed by the DOH but not registered by the ARRT. It is hoped that an announcement regarding the need to now accrue CE credits to maintain their licenses might prompt them to attend the October conference.

6. President Peterson has asked several experts to review our website for security issues.

7. The website host and domain name have been renewed for the next two years.

8. President Peterson worked on the website to update conference information.

9. President Peterson asked for reports from all committee chairs.

10. President Peterson represented the NYSSRS at the AERTSNY meeting.

D. Membership

1. At the time of this meeting, renewals are still coming in but there are 313 members so far.

E. Legislative Committee - Dominick DeMichele’s report.

1. SNMTS just revised its position on nuclear medicine technologists operating PET/CT and SPECT/CT equipment. Beginning January 2011, the NMTCB and ARRT (N) exams will test examinees on concepts related to CT instrumentation and acquisition.

2. The CARE Bill has not been added to the Health Care Reform Bill.

3. There is a bill pending in Albany that would give PA s’ similar privileges to that of a physician. The bill is expected to pass.

F. Newsletter 2 1. Editor, Eileen Doyle currently has no report but says she will prepare another edition when she gets adequate material.

2. 2nd Vice President Verschuuren suggested that the winning papers from the annual essay contest be published.

3. President Peterson said she would like to see old newsletters archived on the website.

4. 1st Vice President Herrmann suggested that he would speak to a former student member that he hired and suggest that this technologist write an article outlining the importance of networking through the NYSSRS.

G. Education and Scholarship

1. Committee chair, Dave Finaldi will revise the student Bowl questions. Committee member, Eileen Doyle has made a list of outdated questions that should be reviewed.

2. Charlie Drago (committee member in charge of the poster contest) has been informed of the policy change regarding the appropriateness of subject matter for the poster contest. Notices will be mailed out soon to the schools. There seems to be a great deal of interest in the poster contest and a grading rubric has been created.

H. Public Relations

1. Committee Chair, Hildy Oberstein is looking for vendor support.

2. 11 hospitals in the vicinity of the October conference have been identified and will be targeted for marketing.

I. Nominating

1. Acting co-chairs, Ann Verschuuren and Frank Marter have nothing new to report.

2. Currently the slate is as follows: a. President-elect – Ann Verschuuren b. Vice President – Ann Verschuuren c. Treasurer – d. Secretary – e. Nominating Chair – Charles Drago f. Other interested parties include – Eric Lobel and Zoya Vinukur

Meeting was recessed at 7:07 pm for dinner.

Meeting reconvened at 8:10 pm.

J. Conference

3 1. Program template reviewed.

2. Crowne Plaza met with President Peterson.

3. Website has been updated to include conference info.

4. Program Chair, Barbara Chakmakjian reports that she currently has 5 probable speakers and one definite (Alex Damiani from NYSDOH).

5. Dave Finaldi has been asked to give the President’s lecture and he has accepted.

6. President Peterson has written to the ARRT requesting that they send a representative speaker. Thus far, there has been no response.

7. Program Chair, Barbara Chakmakjian created a conference flyer and handed it out at the AERTSNY meeting.

8. President Peterson has asked Ms. Chakmakjian to have the formal conference flyer finalized by June.

9. President Peterson prepared a comparative conference analysis which was reviewed.

Meeting was recessed at 8:45 pm to reconvene on 4/17 in the President’s suite.

Meeting reconvened at 9:17 am.

II. TOPIC: ASRT Issues

A. The following Board members will be attending: Peterson, Herrmann, Brennan, Martinucci and possibly Verschuuren.

B. This year, the ASRT is charging non-delegates $150.00 to register for the meeting. The legality of charging rank and file members to attend a business meeting needs to be challenged.

C. The 2010 Resolutions were not yet available on the ASRT website so only those submitted by President Peterson could be discussed.

1. A Bylaws amendment that would eliminate Chapter Delegates from the House. 2. A resolution stating that the ARRT Board “shall be” comprised of Technologists. The ASRT found this resolution to be out of order because of the words “shall be”. The reasoning behind the rejection was that the ASRT cannot tell other organizations how to comprise their Board. 3. A resolution the formation of an Ethics Review Panel was submitted. 4. A resolution regarding the qualifications for educators in radiologic technology was submitted. This would require a portion of the CE credits educators receive to be in educational methodologies. The ASRT found this resolution to be out of order because the ASRT cannot tell other organizations (ARRT) how to administer their CE requirements. 5. President-Elect Martinucci suggested that all future resolutions be brought to the Board for input prior to their submission in order to avoid these “out of order” rulings by the ASRT. It was noted however, that time constraints do not always allow for this review. 4 6. President Peterson will follow-up with the Speaker of the House to get input on the best way to get these resolutions heard.

III. TOPIC: Chapters and Districts

A. President Peterson contacted the leadership of the NYSSRS subordinates and has learned that many of them will be unable or unwilling to meet the requirements of the ASRT compliance list. The Niagara Frontier, Rochester Mammography, and Central NY societies are among those that will not comply. The Rochester Society is not incorporated, which is a violation. The Nassau-Suffolk Society has not been heard from. The Capital District is attempting to comply and the AERTSNY is in compliance.

B. 1st Vice President Herrmann suggested that the NYSSRS continue to recognize our affiliates even though the ASRT does not. It was noted that these affiliates will be required to pay for their CE credit approvals.

C. The Rochester society feels that the NYSSRS is not representing their interests well enough in regard to the PA issue, (allowing PAs’ to perform fluoroscopy). They think that the NYSSRS could communicate better via the website on these issues. President Peterson reminded the Board that the last issue of the newsletter contained an article on the topic. The newsletter is available on the website.

IV. TOPIC: Old Business

A. Mailing to LXTs’

Mailing lists from the ARRT and DOH were obtained. Secretary Brennan, after converting the lists to the same format, combined them and was able to come up with a list of about 3800 technologists that are on the DOH list but not the ARRT list. This list will be further compared with the NYSSRS membership list and finally a mailing of 3000 postcards is planned to market the October conference. The cost will be about $800.00. Secretary Brennan will make mailing labels and 1st Vice President, Herrmann will see that the cards are labeled and stamped.

B. Posters

1. President Peterson wants to create posters that would advertise the NYSSRS. These would be given out to members to hang in their workplace. It is the president’s intent to have these available at the October conference. 2. President-Elect Martinucci will come up with some possible designs which include a bulleted list of reasons to belong to the NYSSRS.

Meeting was recessed at 12:40 pm for lunch.

Meeting reconvened at 1:56 pm.

C. Motion to Change Membership Year

At last year’s meeting a motion was submitted by a member for the Board to consider the advantages of prorating the 2010 membership rate through October 15, 2010 and to make membership renewals October 15th through October 14th the following year in order to coincide with the annual conference. After careful debate and consideration at the Post-Conference Board meeting, it was decided that the membership year would remain the same. The maker of this motion has since requested that we speak to the Membership Chair and get his input on the subject. President Peterson has agreed to contact Bob Geiser for his opinion. 5 Mr. Geiser was contacted and it is his opinion that the membership year should not change. His reasons include: Memberships are not processed at the annual meeting as this can potentially cause issues, particularly in an election year. In addition, payment by check is not always insured as some do bounce and this cannot be addressed until it is discovered.

D. Action List – The outcome of the Action list from the Winter Board meeting is outlined in red below each item.

Paulette Ken Steve Linda Bill Investigate cost of annual Possible dates for carnival Contact ASRT to ask how Investigate recurring Try to edit conference security screening of Company has not they expect the immediate $12.00 monthly charge video files website responded to numerous implementation of policies Pending Just received the files at Still Pending requests that require bylaws this meeting changes. Spoke to Vice President of Send conference video files Governance and Member Investigate the cost of Investigate email software to Bill for editing Services – Liana Watson hiring tax professional Initial investigation reveal Problems with file size. and Speaker of the House Linda did the taxes. legal ramifications Given to Bill at this – Donna Thaler-Long. It is meeting the ASRT position that Contact affiliate subordinates that do not Try to sort ARRT and leadership to inform them comply will be required to DOH mailing lists of new ASRT pay for the evaluation of Done. requirements CE credits Done Invite ARRT to conference Done Contact Bob Geiser to get his take on Membership year change Done Add emeritus registration to conference brochure Done Investigate hiring a manager So far, people approached show no interest.

7 V. TOPIC: New Business

A. NYSDOH

1. The AERTSNY would like input from the NYSSRS regarding the State’s plan to dissolve the Radiologic Technology Advisory Board. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done as the legislature is using the budgetary process and not legislative action to accomplish this dissolution. It is suggested that individual letters to legislators might have some impact. President Peterson will write a letter on behalf of the NYSSRS.

2. President Peterson will also send a letter to the NY legislature in opposition to the pending legislation allowing PAs to fluoro.

3. President Peterson has suggested to Alex Damiani of the NYSDOH that the AERT and the NYSSRS form an ethics committee to fill the void left by the dissolution of the Advisory Board. Mr. Damiani suggested that a formal proposal be drafted.

4. President Peterson has suggested to Alex Damiani of the NYSDOH that the NYSSRS become a RECEEM for the review of CE credits for NY technologists.

B. ARRT

1. A newly added Rule 23 identifies several CE subversion activities as ethics violations: a. Providing or assisting others in providing false information to ARRT or an ARRT-recognized CE record keeper; b. Conduct resulting or potentially resulting in a false report of CE completion; and c. Conduct that in any way compromises the integrity of the CE requirements, such as sharing answers to post-tests of CE self-learning activities, providing or using false certificates of participation, or verifying CE credits that were not earned. 2. ARRT is still investigating ways to ensure that long-time technologists remain competent even 10 years post-certification.

C. Bylaws

1. In order to meet ASRT guidelines a Bylaws amendment will need to be put forth this year that requires Board members of all Districts and Chapters be both members of the ASRT and the NYSSRS.

D. Pay-Pal

1. It seems that we have members complaining that they have not gotten membership cards. These appear to be people that renewed online. Perhaps it is because these people fill out the on-line form but do not access PayPal to actually make payment. 2nd Vice President Verschuuren will contact these people and inform them that they must make payment before they can be considered members. E. Facebook

8 1. President-Elect Martinucci has volunteered to make a Facebook page for the NYSSRS.

F. Conference topics

1. A suggestion was made to have speakers at the annual conference include topics on other modalities. Board members were reminded that several years ago this was tried and attendance in these lectures was less than stellar.

G. Student Membership

1. Committee Chair Finaldi mentioned that the ASRT gives student members a discount on their first year of membership when they become technologists. NYSSRS allows a student member to retain their membership after they have graduated until December 31 of that year. It should be noted that the ASRT student membership is $30 per year and NYSSRS membership is $30.00 for two years. Discussion ensued and it was decided that offering discounts at this time might be very difficult to manage. Membership chair, Geiser should be consulted. President-Elect Martinucci will explain to the concerned party the logistical reasons for the current $30.00 fee for two years.

H. Affiniscape Career Center

1. Secretary Brennan has made numerous inquiries with the company that administers the Career Center on our website, Affiniscape. Despite numerous e-mails there has been no response from the company and not a single job has been posted on the site. Secretary Brennan has requested that the NYSSRS agreement with Affiniscape be dissolved. We are awaiting a response.

I. Webmaster

1. Secretary Brennan has recreated the NYSSRS website using an html editor that does not require the knowledge of code. He proposes that when it is complete, that his work replaces the existing website. Management of the site could then be accomplished in a timelier manner by Secretary Brennan as webmaster. Although the initial purchase of the editing software has been donated by Secretary Brennan, the purchase of additional software (at a cost of under $100.00) may be necessary to accomplish this task. The Board has authorized this purchase.

J. Annual Report

1. President Peterson has mailed the annual report to all members this week.

9 K. Going Green

1. 2nd Vice President Verschuuren would like to see that all NYSSRS documents are scanned into an electronic format. To accomplish this it was suggested that the Society pay for a company that specializes in this conversion. Ms. Verschuuren will investigate obtaining a possible grant to pay for this project.

2. President Peterson announced that at the end of her presidency, all documents created during her term will be passed on to the next president in an electronic format.

Meeting Adjourned 5:50 pm

Respectfully submitted by: ______William J. Brennan Jr., MA,RT(R)(CT) Secretary, NYSSRS, Inc.

10 ACTION LIST Paulette Ken Steve Linda Bill Dave Ann Investigate cost of Design NYSSRS Ask former Investigate Try to edit Revise Student Contact people annual security posters on benefits student member to recurring $12.00 conference video Bowl Questions that renewed screening of of membership write article for monthly charge files online but did not website and give design to Imagist pay Paulette Follow-up with Create Facebook See that marketing Compare culled Investigate grant to Speaker of the page for NYSSRS postcards are mailing list with “go green” House on mailed NYSSRS rewording membership list to resolutions remove duplicates Print up NYSSRS Explain to Create mailing posters when concerned member labels from final design is received reason for 2 year list for mailing from Ken student postcards membership Write letter on PA Continue work on issue website Write letter on . Pursue dissolution dissolution of of Affiniscape Radiologic agreement Technology Advisory Board Publish proposed Bylaws Amendment on ASRT & NYSSRS membership requirement for Board of Districts & Chapters