Governance Agenda Set for Tucson

Walter Eisenhauer, MEd, MMSc, PA-C
Chair, Governance Committee

Members attending the PAEA Education Forum in Tucson will have many opportunities to discuss current issues in PA education and the progress and future direction of PAEA. This will be especially true of the debate on motions at the business meeting. Many of the motions put forward by member programs this year represent issues at the forefront of PA education, including clinical doctorates, adequate numbers and preparation of PA faculty, and reimbursing preceptors. The Governance Committee has made some slight changes in our governance procedures that will hopefully allow for a smooth process and as many opportunities for debate as possible. These changes are detailed below and will also be communicated through other means to be sure that the process is clear to all.

Motions

Motions that will be entertained at the annual business meeting are published in this edition of PAEA Networker. As reported previously, that process changed slightly this year. The deadline for new motions was moved back to 75 days in advance of the meeting. This was to allow the PAEA Finance Committee time to complete a financial impact statement, which is available for members to consider along with each motion. Motions were also reviewed at the Governance Committee’s September meeting and in some cases suggestions were made to strengthen the language. These changes are intended to provide members with as much information about motions as possible, so that debate can be well informed.

Members are encouraged to begin to collect their thoughts and opinions related to the issues expressed in the motions so that a meaningful dialogue can take place at the meeting. This will occur at the business meeting, and also at the PA Educators Open Forum on Thursday, October 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This session will include one hour for discussion of motions prior to the business meeting on Saturday. The remainder of the session will be devoted to updates from the board on the strategic plan and other initiatives and time for members to ask questions or raise other issues for discussion.

Two Business Meetings

Another change is the division of the business meeting into two sessions, as we used to several years ago. These will be titled Business Meeting #1 and Business Meeting #2 in your program, but will technically be part of the same meeting, which will recess at the end of the first session. The reason for this change is that, as was pointed out at last year’s business meeting, in recent years there has been no clear opportunity provided for nominations to be made from the floor, as is required by our bylaws and by standard parliamentary procedure.

The session entitled Candidates Forum will now formally become Business Meeting #1. The content of the session will actually change very little. At this session, members will have an opportunity to hear the platform statements of the candidates for president elect and director at large and to ask them questions prior to voting. This meeting will conclude with a call for additional nominations from the floor and the close of nominations. The balloting process will begin on Saturday, October 27, prior to the start of Business Meeting #2.

Voting

The most significant change to note is that voting representatives will be required to turn in their voting cards when they leave the business meeting; they will not be able to hand them to a neighbor as has been the practice. If a voting representative leaves for a short break, he or she will be entitled to retrieve the voting card on returning to the meeting. The Governance Committee and the board believe that voting members should be present throughout the testimony in order to cast a well-informed vote, and that a proxy vote should only be given when there has been an opportunity for thoughtful discussion.

Program directors will be receiving proxy forms and information about voting from PAEA staff in the next few days. Program directors who will not be able to attend the business meeting are encouraged to complete a proxy form, designating another faculty member at their program as voting representative. If no one from the program will be attending the business meeting, the proxy vote may be given to someone from another program — though not that program's voting representative. No person may have more than one voting card.

Policies and Procedures Manual

Over the past year the Governance Committee has also been diligently reviewing and developing policies for the Association, and a final draft of the Policies and Procedures Manual is set for board approval at the conference.  I would like to thank the committee members — Sal Barese, Tony Miller, Richard Rahr, and Christina Robohm — as well as Dawn Morton-Rias, Dana Sayre-Stanhope, and Steven Lane for their hard work on this document.  The creation of a Policies and Procedures Manual has taken many years to come to fruition.  Very soon members will be able to review all of PAEA’s policies in one location on the Members Only section of the Web site.