BOARD OF DIRECTORS – 2008
Executive Committee:
President Ruth Swiggum
President Elect Melony Carlton
Past President Marge Patzer
Secretary Lynn Hemrick
Treasurer Muffy Ratto
Directors at Large Mariann Cosby
Karen Juncker
Karen Orcutt
Anne Noder
Marilyn McDonald
Newsletter Editor: Ruth Swiggum
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
The New Year has arrived and I wish everyone a happy and prosperous year. I am looking forward to serving as GSAC president this year and to the activities that are already planned and in the planning stages. The 2008 Board of Directors will be meeting informally on January 5th to review our plan of direction for 2008, brainstorm additional methods to educate the legal arena about Legal Nurse Consulting and set specific goals for the year.
Thanks to Marilyn Mc Donald and her team, our educationals are well underway for 2008. This is the first year that our calendar is actually full, so we will continue to complete these plans and get started on commitments for 2009.
We have all been busy with Holidays and families, so I hope you can now send in your 2008 membership renewals.
I encourage those who have not already done so to consider participation on a committee. We will be shoring up our committees at our next board meeting on January 16th and I look forward to seeing everyone there! We will be meeting in Galt for this meeting, which will hopefully prove to increase attendance, as it is a more central location for our many members who do not reside in Sacramento.
Ruth Swiggum
President, GSAC - AALNC
GSAC-AALNC COMMITTEES
Bylaws:
Chairperson: Marge Patzer
Finance:
Chairperson Muffy Ratto
Holiday Party:
Chairperson:
Membership:
Chairperson: Melony Carlton
Nominations:
Chairperson: Marge Patzer
Policy and Procedure:
Chairperson: Melony Carlton
Public Relations:
Chairperson: Ronni Cline
Publications:
Newsletter Editor: Ruth Swiggum
Web Spinner: Tracy Albee
Education:
Chairperson Marilyn McDonald
Miscellaneous
GSAC’s BRN number is available for $25.00 per class session for those who are in need of offering contact hours for their instructional event.
Please remember our GSAC Members when you are in need for assistance with your cases, as many are just starting out and will appreciate the business.
PAST EVENTS:
October 13, 2007
“Discovery in the Electronic Age”
Arlene D. Klepatsky, ESQ, RN
This was a wonderful presentation by Ms. Klepatsky on The Delta King in Sacramento. Ms. Klepatsky informed us about numerous avenues for Electronic Data Discovery, such as information obtained from computers, video surveillance, emails, instant messages, cell phone communications, computer records from medication carts, global positioning systems, etc. We had a great turn out for this educational event. Many thanks to Marilyn McDonald for organizing this event and ensuring that all went smoothly.
MEMBER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Three of our chapter members: Mariann Cosby, Tracy Albee, and Karen Preston, attended the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals (IARP) 2007 Forensic Conference the first week of November in Las Vegas. Since the International Academy of Life Care Planning (IALCP) was recently integrated with IARP and is now one of the sections of the organization, the Forensic Conference offered the life care planning track which no doubt was the draw for these attendees. In addition to attending the conference, the three of them were also involved in very early stages of planning the event as the initial members of the newly formed IALCP education committee. Tracy was instrumental in collating member feedback which was used as a starting point in the planning process. As the months rolled by Karen provided input and direction to the planning committee in her role as the IALCP Board Chair. Mariann became the IALCP liaison and member of the Forensic Conference Education Committee, and assisted in the conference planning and execution which ultimately was a huge success. A good time was had by all, which included some time for networking and learning and time for play.
Mariann Cosby
UPCOMING GSAC EVENTS:
GSAC Board and General Meeting
January 16, 2008 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Come hungry as we will be meeting for pizza at: Round Table Pizza
1067 C Street
Galt, CA
Phone: (209) 745-5500
GSAC Dinner Educational: Followed by Board Meeting
February 2, 2008 12 noon
Litigation in Pain Management:Under treatment and Over treatment of Pain
By Chris Pasero, MS, RN-BC, FAAN
Chris Pasero is a pain management author, educator, and clinical consultant from El Dorado Hills, California. She is a co-founder and past president of the American Society for Pain Management Nursing and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Chronic Pain Association. Chris is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, board certified in Pain Management Nursing, and the recipient of numerous pain management education, journalistic, and clinical practice awards.
Scott’s Seafood
545 Munroe Street
Sacramento
(916) 489-1822
This is an event that you do NOT want to miss!! You may sign up at our website or email Marilyn McDonald for a flyer @ (916) 257-9775
Additional Dates to Reserve:
May 3, 2008: Luncheon Educational
June 18, 2008: Board Meeting and mini educational
UPDATE FROM NATIONAL:
By Tracy Albee, AALNC Board of Director
Registration is now open for the 2008 National Educational Conference, Journey to Excellence, April 9-12, 2008 in Tampa, Florida. For registration and detailed conference information please go to www.aalnc.org/conf/2008/. Also look for the 2008 Advance Program in your mailbox! Start planning your travel arrangements now and don’t miss out on the valuable educational and networking opportunities!
As part of AALNC’s initiative to have Chapter Leaders utilize the e-Communities as a great resource tool, we reached out to the Central Virginia Chapter to spearhead the month of November with the topic of Conflict. We would like to thank the Central Virginia Chapter for sharing their Best Practices with us and showing leadership through this drive. To access these documents, please visit the e-Communities, and then click on Chapter Leaders. We would like to thank everyone who is contributing and sharing their valuable information!
As a reminder, AALNC offers all our members access to the membership directory. As you use this directory to look up other AALNC members, please remember these helpful hints: You may use as many or as few of the search fields as you wish. The fewer criteria you enter, the more names that will be returned from your search. Example: If you are looking for Jane Doe in Tennessee, then only enter Doe, Jane into the Last, First box and TN in the State box. If you do not know how to spell a last name but you know that it starts with "J", just enter the "J" into the Last, First box. Unless you are certain that the person you are looking for is a member of their local chapter, do not use the Chapter/Region search box at all. If you want a list of all AALNC members in a specific state, use that state as the only search criterion.
If names are not returned using the appropriate searches, it is possible that the individual has requested not to be listed in the directory for privacy reasons.
AALNC has listened to your feedback regarding attorney awareness of legal nurse consultants, and has made a priority of promoting the role of the LNC to attorneys. Included in our Attorney Awareness Campaign is an initiative to continue to make attorneys aware of the LNCLocator as a means to locate an LNC nationwide. Because of this new awareness campaign, we anticipate attorneys' use of the LNCLocator will increase. Therefore, we encourage every AALNC member to ensure your member profile is up-to-date. You may do this by logging into the AALNC website and accessing your member profile. Since the LNCLocator is connected to our membership database, your information will automatically be updated here at Headquarters, and will be reflected immediately in the LNCLocator.
Membership
Our membership numbers remain steady at the 3,600 mark. Do not forget that membership dues can be submitted online at any time for renewals. As you are aware, AALNC is switching the membership dues process to a calendar year. Therefore, all member dues that expire before September have been prorated, and all member dues that expire after September will be long-billed. This means that each member whose membership expired in January to August 2007 paid a lesser dues amount than the normal $145 for 2007. These memberships will expire on December 31, 2007, and were invoiced the full $145 dues amount for 2008. For memberships expiring September to December 2007, we invoiced the pro-rated dues amount for 2007, plus the full $145 for 2008 dues in a combined invoice. Therefore, these members will only receive one invoice and will be paid through December 31, 2008. As of July 1, the membership fee for new members is $75.00. This will make tracking member renewals less time consuming and allow for campaigns for member retention. In turn, this will make the local chapters tracking of active membership much easier and streamline your ability at the chapter level to know a member has renewed their dues for any given year. Should questions arise within your chapter, I encourage you to contact myself or your Director-at-Large.
Please remember, all Active and Associate chapter members must be national members of AALNC. Sustaining members do not need to be national members; however, this membership category is meant for local vendors, attorneys and other non-nurses interested in your chapter’s activities. Use the online membership directory or contact us to verify membership statuses.
e-Communities: Hopefully you have already had the opportunity to view and utilize AALNC’s membership benefit, e-Communities. As an AANLC member, you have the ability to subscribe to the Members Only community and more. Within these communities you will be able to participate in various Discussion Forums, such as AALNC Member Community, Becoming an LNC; LNCC Prep Package Group; and LNCCs Only, by posting and responding to messages and downloading information. When you login to your e-Communities page of our website, it should be listed just below the Becoming An LNC community. If you do not see this in your record, email info@aalnc.org and ask to be added to this community.
Bookstore
AALNC bookstore link: http://www.aalnc.org/edupro/profresources/landing.cfm
The AALNC Online Bookstore is an excellent source for legal nurse consulting publications.
ALL 8 Modules of AALNC’s Legal Nurse Consulting Online Course are available on the online bookstore.
Tracy Albee
AALNC Director at Large
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES:
Educational opportunity for GSAC chapter members:
GSAC has available for continuing education credits a home study course courtesy of Medical Legal Adventures. This legal case study is for use by GSAC members on an individual basis. Contact Kim Digardi if interested @ ddigardi@sbcglobal.net
Wound Care Challenges
January 15, 2008 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Rancho Cordova, CA
Presented by PESI Healthcare
Go to www.pesi.com for this and other opportunities.
Forensic Expert Witness Association:
January 24, 2008 6:00 pm
Jury Selection…Where is the Truth
Delta King, Sacramento, CA
Go to www.forensic.com for additional information.
Forensic Expert Witness Association Annual Conference:
Expert Witness Summit
March 27-29, 2008
Newport Beach, CA
Go to www.forensic.com for additional information.
2007 National Educational Conference CD-ROMs are available for purchase! The CD-ROMs contain recordings of conference sessions, including pre-conference workshops and general sessions and features LIVE audio and PowerPoint slides that can be printed out for easy reference (audio is fully synchronized to PowerPoint presentations). The CD-ROMs are available for purchase at http://www.softconference.com/270425. You may also access this link through AALNC’s home page at www.aalnc.org.
RN's may now preview the online course to learn more about course formatting and content. You will also be able to view specific content from one of the modules and will be introduced to several of the learning activities that are incorporated throughout the course. To preview the online course, go to: http://www.aalnc.org//onlinelearning/pricing.cfm.
OTHER IMPORTANT DATES:
January 31, 2008
Chapter Renewal Deadline
April 8, 2008
LNCC® examination for certification: LNCC
Application deadline is February 12, 2008
April 9-12, 2008
AALNC Conference in Tampa Florida
April 9, 2008: Chapter Leadership Forum
http://www.aalnc.org/
Other Exam Dates: Postmark Dates:
May 3, 2008 March 8, 2008
October 11, 2008 August 16, 2008
For LNCC exam resources, please visit the Certification Resources section of our online bookstore at http://www.aalnc.org/edupro/profresources/landing.cfm#cert.