OK,
Some of you are asking about the meeting. It would have been better if you had been there. Where were you? That's what makes meetings successful.
For those of us who were there, it was a good meeting. Attendance was good. There were more people who registered as well as guests and exhibitors than in recent years of OAA. Looking over the evaluations and hearing comments on the education let us know that the education was some of the best that have ever been presented. I will have to stop here to thank each of the speakers for an outstanding job. Attendance in the classes were good, and participation was good.
The hotel is a good facility for this size conference, and although there seemed to be a glitch in the 800 number telling people that the room block was filled, those of us who were there, liked it. The issue of the miscommunication will be addressed for the future regional SEOC meeting. The hotel staff seem to go out of their way to make us feel welcome.
I'm not going to spill all of the issues of the delegate assembly here, but overall, even though there were issues that we, and let me repeat "we" discussed during the state leadership conference, "we" didn't follow up with. It was not an issue of "they" didn't address them, it was "we" didn't present them in the manner that action could be done. However, the board will take the points and begin work on them. We need to be patient, supportive, and willing to help when called on to do so. This will be a year of repair and rebuilding, and that can only happen with volunteers. This may have been a staff run organization in the past, but it is a volunteer run organization now, and will take a lot of help from us all.
The question may be "what will OAA be doing to help me this year?" The answer is..."What will you, as members of this profession, be doing to help?" The executive board has stated that it will focus on rebuilding and turning it's efforts back to legislation. It will be a tightly run ship and will need all of our help.
The OAA has moved, but you may still reach them at the same phone numbers. 800-443-8997. Remember that it is staff, who answer. They don't make decisions. The membership does, through involvement.
Hope this starts some comments on the meeting.
Diane
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