Governance Changes Slated for APAP Nashville Conference

By Walt Eisenhauer, PA-C, MMSc
APAP Director at Large

APAP’s 2004 Education Forum in Nashville will usher in significant changes in how business is conducted at the meeting. Traditionally, the organization’s business meeting has been a relatively open forum where member programs brought motions to the floor for discussion and consideration. Motions were often written on the spot and presented to the membership with little time for careful consideration. Due to the marked increase recently in the number of member programs and time constraints on the business meeting, this process left many members disconcerted with the process and feeling that their issues were not adequately considered by the general membership or the organization’s leadership.

Stemming from a defeated motion in Phoenix calling for creation of a House of Delegates-like structure for APAP, the board created a workgroup tasked to address the issue of the organization's governance structure. The group has been active over the past nine months evaluating mechanisms that we hope will lead to more efficient and effective processes. The workgroup has recommended, and the APAP board has approved, the following procedural changes that will affect the annual business meeting in Nashville:

• Seating at the business meeting will be reorganized to promote the role of each designated program representative in the voting process.
• Motions to be brought forth at the annual business meeting must be submitted to APAP staff 45 days before the meeting! For the 2004 meeting this deadline is September 22, 2004. This will allow for publication of motions in the October APAP Update and for members to fully consider motions prior to the annual business meeting.
• Prior to their discussion at the annual business meeting, motions will have been vetted at regional consortium meetings. This sequencing will allow the author of a motion an opportunity to receive feedback, revise or wordsmith the motion, or perhaps decide that a motion is without merit. In essence, the consortia will begin to function as informal reference committees that will allow ideas to be discussed and refined by a smaller audience prior to their discussion at the annual business meeting.
• Business items not following the procedures above will be considered only under new business, subject to the discretion of the convening officer, and to a two-thirds majority vote.

Member programs will be receiving notification of these changes by mail over the next several weeks. The rules of order governing the business meeting and revised rules for the consortium meetings will be published on the APAP Web site in the members’ only area. Plans are being made to conduct a series of open informational conference calls that will offer member program representatives the opportunity to discuss the changes that are to be implemented.

The APAP Board of Directors is optimistic that these changes will result in an improved mechanism through which member programs can discuss and take action on issues of importance to the organization and PA education.

Main