Greetings to CHPPD colleagues across the country and beyond. Section Council has been busy on several fronts since the APHA Annual Meeting.
The major change is that we will realign our budgeting process to allow for funds to be available to the section for the period in between conferences. These funds may be applied to ongoing learning and dialogue sessions on major planning and policy matters. We will shift funds from events and items that only benefit those who attend the conference to provide for broader benefit to all, while simultaneously becoming proactive in policy dialogues. Soon we will issue a blast e-mail to solicit a work group for these learning and dialogue sessions that may be delivered via Webcast, podcast, threaded and moderated discussion boards, or good old-fashioned conference calls.
We will also use the business meetings at the Annual Meeting in 2007 for independently facilitated sessions for visioning and for establishing the mission, goals, and objectives of Section activities. Such steps are needed in order to formulate a work plan – a new APHA requirement. They are also needed to inform the budgeting process which is now, by virtue of section manual changes, a Section Council process, not a chair prerogative.
Additional changes to the member manual have streamlined committees, making many of them functions or time-limited work group assignments. These manual changes will be posted to the section Web site by the end of July with a 30-day comment period for general membership.
We are also moving to create a system for mentoring those who wish to advance policy. It is my expectation that we provide leadership or major support to critical policy propositions in each and every year we operate.
We have established a "whip" for our Governing Council who also serves as chair of the Policy and Resolutions Committee. Congratulations to Shari Kinney, who will be first to assume this role. Look for opportunities to provide substantive comments as we work to prepare our governing councilors for many important votes at the Annual Meeting. We will be issuing blast e-mails and/or posting these opinion surveys online prior to the meeting.
Priti Irani has done an outstanding job transitioning the leadership of the Communications Committee into new, very capable hands – Renée Wilson-Simmons and Brad Wright (student).
Under Emylou Rodriguez’s direction, the Membership Committee has been aggressive in reaching out to undecided members, handling local arrangements, and taking on booth and member social responsibilities. Anyone interested in these areas should contact Emylou.
Our students (as you can see) continue to be vital contributing member-leaders across the board in this section. Amy Carroll Scott has joined the Governing Council, helping us transition to having student liaisons in strategic positions.
Lastly, we modified our call for abstracts, taking advantage of our trans-disciplinary strengths in work force development and emergency preparedness, among others. We had an increase of approximately 25 percent in submissions, with a fairly low number of low-scored submissions. This was a competitive cycle, indeed.
Your Section Council strives to create maximum benefit to maximum numbers of members, while becoming increasingly proactive in planning and policy arenas. We’re moving in the right direction.
With warm regard,
Sue Myers