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Home > Behind the Scenes .:
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Winter 2008
First of all, we would like to express our heartfelt apology to AMPHL’s website visitors for the very late “President’s News” and “Behind the Scenes” website updates. AMPHL has been going through a rough time which is part of the reason for this late update. In terms of conference planning, initial plans to have a West Coast conference in San Diego, CA fell through. Fortunately, AMPHL has been in touch with Wendy Osterling about having a joint conference in Salt Lake City, UT with the Utah Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (UTRID) with a focus on building professional relationships and good communication. The conference is a reality and set for Saturday, April 12, 2008! All new conference details will be posted online as they become available, so check the website regularly! We are all excited about the upcoming conference in Salt Lake City. We hope to have a turnout to top our last conference in Washington, DC in 2005.
Another issue AMPHL faced this past year was the lack of applicants for our Fall 2007 election. We had one application for Vice President from someone who had never participated in AMPHL before, and no applications for the positions of President, Secretary, or Treasurer. Moreover, we only had one applicant for a board of director position out of the many positions that were open for elections. An emergency discussion ensued on the future of AMPHL. The applicants for the board position and the Vice President spot were notified that the elections process was halted and we thanked them for their interest and invited them to participate in AMPHL in other ways.
AMPHL President Candie Corriher was struggling with wearing too many hats. She had already taken over as subscribership chair and was not planning to run for another term as President. Without a prospect for the President position, with no possibility of becoming Immediate Past President, with the Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary ready to step down, and with Candie getting ready to move from Virginia to Oregon, she had no choice but to resign from all of her AMPHL duties including her position as Immediate Past President. Vice President Sam Atcherson was not yet ready to take over as AMPHL President due to being very busy in his personal and professional life as well (moving from South Dakota to Arkansas). When Candie officially resigned in mid-November, Sam took it upon himself to stay on as Acting President to put AMPHL back on track.
Sam has been doing a great job so far as AMPHL Acting President. Last December, he gave the remaining officers and directors a choice of whether to stay on as part of AMPHL or resign. The Secretary and Treasurer and five of the nine board members agreed to stay on. The current officers and directors are now charged with revisiting and redefining the vision, mission, and goals of AMPHL. We believe that change can be good!
In January 2008, Sam asked Candie to consider returning as AMPHL’s Immediate Past President and to participate in the board discussions on AMPHL’s future. Candie accepted, and she is now part of AMPHL again as an officer.
Every organization runs into rough spots over the years, and AMPHL is no exception. We ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as we attempt to restructure AMPHL into a more effective organization that will continue to inspire and encourage medical professionals and medical professional students with hearing loss. We welcome all comments and suggestions for how to reorganize AMPHL and its website to better serve everyone (E-mail president@amphl.org).
On a more positive note, AMPHL has had some wonderful accomplishments for 2007. We added the respiratory therapy profession as an AMPHL recognized profession. We put out the best issue of AMPHL PULSE ever in September 2007, thanks to Philip Zazove who has done a great job as the new AMPHL PULSE editor. Another issue of the AMPHL PULSE will soon be out. Philip also spearheaded the effort to create a mentorship page for the AMPHL website. Now AMPHL subscribers have access to a listing of medical professionals by their profession and region (national or international). What better way for potential and current students to seek out someone who can mentor them (either by e-mail communication, or by externship opportunities)? We have also created a one-fee system for AMPHL subscriberships for both professionals and students. This eliminates the need for students to provide proof of student status and allows them more immediate access to the AMPHL Forums after their payment is received. It also makes renewal much easier for both subscribers and our subscribership manager, Danielle Rastetter. While supplies last, Danielle would have you know that new and renewed subscribers can receive a free AMPHL T-shirt, sweatshirt, mug, or keychain.
We both hope AMPHL is going to have its best year in 2008 after some restructuring and reorganizing. We have the Salt Lake City conference coming up in April 2008, which we are all excited about. We are optimistic AMPHL is headed in the right direction and is making some much-needed changes that will benefit all of us. Stay tuned for updates on our website and we look forward to meeting many of you at the conference in Salt Lake City!
Sincerely,
Candie Corriher, D.V.M., Immediate Past President
Samuel R. Atcherson, Ph.D., President
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Spring 2007
AMPHL conference chair Summer Clemmons Crump presented information to AMPHL's Executive Committee comparing hotels, meeting rooms, food, travel, local tourist attractions, etc between three potential AMPHL conference locations. After discussion and questions, a vote was called and is currently in progress. We should soon have the next AMPHL conference location decided on. The conference date will be discussed and voted on after hotel and meeting room availability is researched in the newly selected location. AMPHL is tentatively planning on the next conference being in summer 2008.
Fundraising chairs Claudia Glenn and Linda Keyes continue to make progress towards the fundraising efforts for the next AMPHL conference.
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January/February 2007
New conference chair Summer Clemmons distributed a survey amongst AMPHL's Administrative staff to give her valuable feedback on what everyone wants for our next AMPHL conference. Summer is off to a great start in her new role!
Fundraising co-chairs Claudia Glenn and Linda Keyes are also very enthusiastic in their new positions. AMPHL President Candie Corriher sent them all the previous budgets, fundraising letters, and company contact information to work off of. They are busy putting everything together to jump start fundraising in 2007!
Under the guidance of Vice President Sam Atcherson, AMPHL is undergoing some serious planning for the future. Recently, a step that has been taken is the development of a dynamic and flexible Strategic Plan that outlines the goals and needs of the organization. The Strategic Plan is broken down into different focus areas, mirroring the different active committees, and serves to outline the short and long term goals in a condensed format. It is anticipated that the Strategic Plan will be evaluated on a quarterly basis and revised at least once every two years. In addition to the Strategic Plan, AMPHL board members are taking a look at identifying volunteer needs and recruitment and re-examining AMPHL vision and mission statement. These efforts are all a part of the need to successfully carry AMPHL into the future. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome and should be directed to Dr. Sam Atcherson at vice-president@amphl.org.
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November/December 2006
AMPHL's emergency discussion with regard to the bylaws resulted in a decision to revise the bylaws to allow us to offer a one year temporary board position to qualified applicants outside their board category, if vacant board positions remain open after elections. This allowed us to welcome Jamie to a temporary one year board position under the support individual category.
AMPHL's Secretary Telemate Sokari presented AMPHL's minutes from the past year. The minutes were discussed and voted on by the board. The minutes passed with certain revisions to be made. Telemate is creating the final version of the AMPHL minutes which will be placed into our permanent files at AMPHL's home office.
Philip Zazove has started working on the March issue of AMPHL Pulse. If you have anything you would like to contribute, please contact Philip. He is always looking for interesting news and articles.
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September/October 2006
AMPHL's board members are currently voting on the board of directors applications. We should soon be releasing election results!
AMPHL's bylaws committee is having an "emergency" discussion related to the elections process. We only have one physician board of directors position open but two very qualified applicants. We are trying to revise the AMPHL bylaws to allow the second candidate to take a one year board term in another board of director category that would otherwise have remained open after elections. Any changes decided on by the bylaws committee will be reflected in changes made to the bylaws listed on the AMPHL website.
Webmaster Faiz Shakir has been working hard alongside subscribership chair Nancy Rennert, Treasurer Bess Veyberman, and AMPHL board member Danielle Rastetter to make it possible for people to subscribe to AMPHL online! Some minor kinks on our end are still being worked out, but things are now up and running. People can subscribe to AMPHL online, and they also now have the option to pay through PayPal. We are very happy about the addition of PayPal since it solves the problem we have dealt with in the past about how to accept payment from international subscribers. We are sure our international subscribers are very happy about this as well! We appreciate the patience on the part of all our international subscribers over the last few years!
AMPHL board member Tina Prout has stepped up to take over the bylaws chair from outgoing board member Danielle Rastetter. We are still searching for someone to take over chair of the board from Danielle. We hope to get that figured out before the upcoming turnover of new/old directors.
We are still trying to find a conference chair and a fundraising chair. If anyone is interested, please let AMPHL President Candie Corriher know! AMPHL cannot begin planning another conference until we have a new fundraising chair and a new conference chair.
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