Are You Ready for Change?
That was the message that I delivered to the board of directors in my welcome to Iowa message to the AABP Board of Directors for our Spring meeting. Of course, I was actually referring to Iowa’s weather, which par for the usual course, went from mid 60’s on Wednesday to tornado warnings on Saturday afternoon, and cold and snowy on Sunday. In this message, I’d like to share some of the highlights from our meeting.
For the first time since the Spring 2020 board meeting,
the entire board, minus one due to illness, was able to
assemble in the same room, which made for a very
productive meeting. Simultaneously in the same hotel was
one of AABP’s Manage Your Rural Practice for Success
Workshops. This allowed the board members to interact
with the workshop attendees and lurk in the back of the
practice management room if they wanted. Funded
through a USDA grant, these two-year workshops are free
to attend for veterinarians who have graduated since
2012. Based on the success of previous workshops and
requests from membership, the Veterinary Practice
Sustainability committee submitted a proposal to hold a
workshop for practitioners who have been out of school
longer than ten years. This was approved, with the first
one tentatively planned for October of this year. Look for
the announcement on how to register later in this
newsletter.
AABP’s mission is fulfilled through the efforts of its
volunteers, and I want to thank all of you for your
contributions to committees and task forces over the last
six months. It was very rewarding to hear all the activity
that you’ve accomplished since the last annual meeting. As
most of you know, mental health amongst our profession
is a major concern. To help address this issue, the Mental
Health Task Force was formed to develop resources for our
membership. One of their early achievements was an
association with the Veterinary Hope Foundation (VHF), a
group with a mission towards supporting mental health
through small group counseling sessions for veterinary
professionals. These groups provide resources,
information, and community to better handle the unique
stressors of our profession. To support their efforts, the
Mental Health Task Force asked the board to support VHF
financially. The
board stepped up
and committed
$12,500 to VHF.
The money has
been placed in an
AABP Foundation
account, with an
ask to our
membership to at
least match the
board’s
contribution to VHF
through individual
donations through
the AABP
Foundation. If you would like to contribute to this
important cause, you may do soby contributing directly to
the AABP Foundation and specifying that it goes towards
the mental health fund at
http://aabp.org/foundation/donate.asp
The board also selected the slate for this Fall’s Vice-
Presidential election. First of all, thank you to all who
agreed to have your nomination considered this year. We
had a large pool of excellent candidates, making it a
challenge for the Nominations Committee to pare it down.
Through their work, the committee submitted the names
of, and the board approved, Dr. Jessica Gernhard and Dr.
Callie Willingham to the ballot. Look for more information
from them throughout the summer and at the annual
meeting. Congratulations and good luck to both of you!
One of the biggest topics of discussion at every Spring
BOD meeting is the organization’s budget. Due to the work
of prior board members, AABP has a solid financial policy
which requires the holding of reserve funds in case of
unforeseen circumstances, such as pandemics and social
uprising. Due to this foresight, the organization has been
able to come through these last two years in a good
financial position but with the current economic downturn
in the US, maintaining this financial standing is going to
continue to be challenging. Given the current economic
environment, and the uncertainty of conference
attendance in the future, the board decided to implement
a dues increase for this upcoming year to $225. I
understand that this is likely not popular, but AABP is by
far the cheapest professional organization that I belong to,
especially considering all the benefits of membership.
Year over year, the biggest financial risk that AABP
undertakes are our in-person meetings, especially the
Annual Meeting. To get decent booking rates, AABP is
required to enter into contractual obligations several years
in advance. Therefore, we are currently working on
conference contracts that were made prior to the
pandemic. In these contracts, we must guarantee a
specified number of hotel room stays in conference hotels
to get good prices on other conference amenities. If we fall
short on these rooms, we suffer a large penalty. Another
large expense that we’ve inherited over the last two years
is offering virtual attendance. In Long Beach in 2022, it is
estimated that will cost approximately $250,000. After
much discussion, the board voted to not offer a virtual
option this year to save money and not take the risk of
hotel room attrition. I apologize for the inconvenience that
this might cause, but when we weighed everything, the
board didn’t feel the virtual option outweighed the
financial risk it creates. However, conference sessions will
still be recorded and available on the BCI website after the
conference as in previous years.
As always, I’d appreciate to hear your thoughts about
AABP. Thank you and stay safe!
Dr. Pat Gorden