Final Convention Thoughts and Planning for the 2011-2012 Fiscal Year

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

The next Board meeting will take place this November at Bastyr University in Washington.

It’s hard to believe it’s September already! After a very busy summer leading up to the AANP convention in Portland, it’s been nice to wind down and catch our breaths before moving into Fall.

For those of you who joined us in Portland, it was a fun and busy week. Great presentations, great food, great friends - our 25th convention/celebration met all of our goals as we looked back on what we’ve accomplished and look forward to our future. Some of the highlights spots for me were:

• Hearing Dr. Jim Sensenig, our 1st AANP President, speak to our community at the banquet.
• Learning from Dr. Steve Austin about nutrition updates.
• Laughing with Jacob Schor, ND, and Rena Bloom, ND, in their Gelotology presentation.
• Celebrating with a few hundred of my closest friends and colleagues.
• Reflecting on our history with Dr. Jared Zeff and Dr. Joe Pizzorno.
• Getting a glimpse of the big picture from Josephine Briggs, MD, Director of NCCAM.

There were many moments like these for all of us. As usual, I returned home reinvigorated, refreshed and ready to apply the lessons I learned in my practice.

Results of our elections were announced and I am pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Cronin as our next President-Elect and Dr. Joe Pizzorno, Dr. Holly Lucille, Dr. Keri Marshall, Dr. Cindy Breed, and Carrie Runde, ND (Cand.) as our new Board members. Their terms begin January 1, 2011. I am extremely impressed with the knowledge, professionalism and experience these doctors bring to the AANP Board, and look forward to working with all of them over the next few years.

As you know we had the first competitive elections for President-Elect in the AANP’s history and were fortunate to be able to choose between two well-qualified candidates, Dr. Michael Cronin and Dr. Tim Birdsall. I want to congratulate Mike for his campaign and election and will work closely with him as he takes on a greater leadership role, and I want to acknowledge and thank Tim for his service to the profession and his leadership over the years. We are fortunate to have these doctors representing naturopathic medicine and serving our profession in the many ways they do.

Our outgoing Board members Bill Benda, MD; Tabatha Parker, ND; Michelle Clark, ND; Sara Thyr, ND; and Lise Alschuler, ND, have given so much to the AANP and the naturopathic profession during their time on the Board, their accomplishments are too numerous to mention here. Dr. Benda is a bridge-builder who sees the big picture of where we need to move forward and reminds us of how to live this in our daily lives. He has truly been the soul of our Board. Dr. Parker reminds us of the global impact of our medicine and the opportunities we have to affect true healthcare change; she has been our visionary. Dr. Clark is our expert on state licensing and political trends; she has guided us in politics and policy. Dr. Thyr has organized and guided the educational offerings at our conventions and has thus served as our teacher. And finally, Dr. Lise Alschuler has been the heart of our Board. Through her term as President and all of the various roles she’s played, Lise has been steady, reliable, dedicated, and impassioned to see the naturopathic profession become a credible piece of the health care system. We have been so fortunate to have these people step up for naturopathic medicine. They will be sorely missed and we wish all of them well in their future endeavors. Please thank them for all of their hard work and dedication the next time you see them.

Now that the dust has settled, we get back to work. This Fall, the Board and staff will focus on the AANP work plan and budget for 2011-2012, evaluating and improving internal processes as we prepare for 2012. The work plan and budget are key areas where the Board and staff work together to plan for and prioritize our near-term goals. The Board sets the strategic vision and goals, emphasizing areas to focus our intention upon. The staff takes this input and translates it into action steps with budget allotments. There is much back-and-forth in this process, and it is some of the most important work we do in our annual planning process. Our next Board meeting will be at Bastyr campus on November 13-14th.

2010 Year in Review

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

The AANP turns the page on another year. Image by andy.brandon50 via Flickr, used under the Creative Commons License.

As we approach the final days of 2010, I find myself in a reflective frame of mind, looking back at the past year as well as ahead to 2011 with hope and anticipation. Personally this represents my halfway point as AANP President. It’s been an active, exciting and challenging journey so far, and my suspicions have been confirmed that being in this position in the AANP is an opportunity for growth. I think all of my fellow officers and Board members past and present would agree.

The Board and Staff have just completed the work and budget planning for the next two-year cycle and it has made me think about the present state of the AANP and naturopathic medicine.

The AANP is in a very good place. Unlike many associations struggling in these economic times and tapping into their reserves to continue to function, the AANP ended the year with a balanced budget. We are living within our means, in no small part due to the vigilance and management of our executive director, Karen Howard. The AANP is fully staffed as we close out the year, having hired a new marketing and membership associate (Mandisa Jones) and state government relations director (Eugene McGill). In the coming year you will see more resources dedicated to state licensing, inclusion in the federal healthcare system, and benefits to support our membership, among other things.

The AANP Board continues to grow and evolve. This month we say “au revoir” to our departing board members Lise Alschuler, Michelle Clark, Bill Benda, Tabatha Parker and Sara Thyr. We thank you for your service and dedication to the naturopathic profession and wish you much success and happiness as you move on to other opportunities and challenges. On January 1, 2011, we are welcoming Holly Lucille, Joe Pizzorno, Carrie Runde, Keri Marshall and Cindy Breed to the Board as they begin their two-year terms. We are very excited to welcome these new members who bring a wealth of experience and willingness to serve the association and profession. Michael Cronin begins his term as President-Elect in 2011 and is taking on a greater leadership role within the Board as he prepares for his presidency.

As a profession, I believe that naturopathic medicine is in a better position to “take off” and serve more people than perhaps it has ever been. More states are on the cusp of licensure and, with the help of Gene McGill, I hope to see new licensed states soon. We are making inroads on Capitol Hill as Congress and regulatory agencies begin to implement healthcare reform, and I look forward to seeing ND inclusion in federal programs including loan repayment opportunities. Our DC FLI event in May is growing every year and we are now known in D.C.

As I write this it appears that CNME will be re-accredited by the US Department of Education for the next 5 years, the longest time allowed under the rules. Enrollment in the naturopathic medical schools is growing with plans for new schools in the next few years, and more NDs are graduating and bringing naturopathic medicine into their communities. Science and research opportunities are increasing with new NIH grants awarded to ND researchers, and the founding of Naturopathic Physicians Research Institute (NPRI), led by Carlo Calabrese, which will focus on developing studies to examine whole-practice naturopathic care. The Naturopathic Post-Graduate Association (NPGA) is up and running, coordinating residency opportunities amongst the colleges to increase the number of residencies offered and matching residency sites with candidates to improve the residency experience.

Our state naturopathic associations are becoming more sophisticated and active, developing marketing as well as continuing education programs to serve their membership. Better communication and coordination between AANP and state associations is occurring. Rick Marinelli, ND, was recently appointed to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on advancing pain research, care and education, the first ND on any IOM committee.

So 2010 has been a good year for naturopathic medicine and the future looks bright. We have much to be thankful for as we take stock of 2010 and look forward to 2011 and beyond. As always, it comes down to the people who make things happen and the relationships we form—with each other, our patients, other like-minded groups and organizations, our local, state and federal representatives, and so forth.

YOU are the AANP; YOU are the profession. Everything the AANP does is filtered through the question: How does this serve our membership? As 2010 comes to a close, I want to thank everyone reading this for all you do, great and small, as every step moves us that much closer to realizing our dreams and goals for our profession and for the health and vitality of the communities in which we serve.

Have a joyous holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2011.

Reflections from the Board of Directors

By Sara Thyr, ND

Bastyr University. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved.

I was in Seattle in November for my last meeting with the Board of Directors of the AANP. It was an unusual mix of emotion for me. I have felt ready to be free of the substantial time commitment for some time now, but felt the melancholy creep in well before the end of the meeting.

The largest change in the years that I have been on the Board is moving from a reactionary board to a visioning board. Rather than putting out fires and throwing money at the crisis du jour, we are looking into the future and planning in a way that can only benefit the growth of our profession.

All of the governance documents are available for your perusal on the AANP website (you must be logged-in to view). If you haven’t already seen what we’ve been up to for the last few years, it will be worth your time to take a look. Your voice and involvement in your national association makes it all work. It should be evident from the ends and measures that we have set forth that we do this work for everyone in the profession (actually, everyone in need of healthcare in our country).

Looking at the future and where the Board sees the profession down the road is quite exciting. Everyone in the United States will know what a naturopathic physician is and have the opportunity to utilize naturopathic medicine for their healthcare. Can you see it?

I went to school at Bastyr University and graduated over 10 years ago. Being back on campus and seeing how it has grown in the years I have been gone was incredible. We stayed in the “village” – the LEED-platinum certified dorms on campus. They are beautifully designed and a much-needed advancement over previous dorm life. The herb garden has emerged to be a fixture on campus that is quite a bit more than the little circle of plants that was started when I was there. The students have more tools to study anatomy and other topics. Even though we were just there on a weekend, it was evident that much has improved. And with that growth and change will come great leaders in the profession. Not only do we have a student Board member, but we also had the President of the NMSA (Naturopathic Medical Students Association) present. With their input we can move towards better tools for graduates and our profession. The AANP Board will continue to grow, visioning and leading the profession with the best, most adapted tools that we and our staff can conjure.

The level of reporting on processes, the work plan, the budget and how well we are meeting our goals has substantially improved with changes and additions to the AANP staff over the years. The involvement in state licensing has increased and the connections for all legislative efforts have improved since my earliest days on the Board, largely thanks to the work of Executive Director Karen Howard, lobbyist Jan Lipson, outgoing Board member Michelle Clark, and now, our new legislative liaison, Gene McGill. Let’s not forget the countless volunteers in every state who work exceptionally long hours in order to make it all happen and improve our profession.

What will I miss the most about the being on the AANP Board? Well, I have had the great pleasure of serving with some truly remarkable people in our profession. In my experience from working at the state level from New Hampshire to California, I know of no other profession who has so many brilliant, caring and committed leaders. So I will miss being around these great minds, working arm-in-arm with them, and seeing that powerful impact we can have on the future of naturopathic medicine when we roll our sleeves up and move towards our goals.

I know that I leave the Board in capable hands. It is an exciting time to be involved and to see our profession expand its reach, just as the Bastyr’s herb garden expanded its reach. But as the last minutes of the meeting rolled by, I found myself just a little bit glum that it will be my last one for some time.

The Future of the AANP

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

Fall has been a busy time for the AANP Board. After the dust settled from the convention and things relaxed for a bit, attention turned to identifying goals and priorities for the 2011-2012 work plan and budget.

Sounds exciting, huh? Actually, it’s some of the most important work that the AANP Board does. It requires that Board members think strategically, surveying the landscape for political and social trends, considering the future of healthcare reform, understanding readiness in states close to licensure, listening to feedback and the experience of our naturopathic physician members, and bringing that back to the table as we discuss and deliberate.

While the Board discusses these topics throughout the year, the formal start to our planning began at the August Board meeting. We examined programs that are currently underway and ranked programs such as marketing and public relations, state and federal affairs, fundraising, and others in order of importance to the ends and the goals of the AANP. The staff, led by Karen Howard, took this preliminary feedback and constructed the first draft of our next 2-year work plan and budget, getting further feedback from a Board survey that took a closer look at these initial ranking and programs.

This past weekend the Board held its Fall meeting on the beautiful campus of Bastyr University. Most of our time was spent discussing and debating the various details of the proposed 2011-2012 work plan. All of this, by the way, is done with keen attention to how to best serve our membership.

Let me give you some insights of the Board approved work plan.

Far and away the biggest priority is directed toward membership issues such as member benefits and professional success, programs such as the convention and membership services, and tools and resources for membership support including the AANP website.

State and Federal Affairs are a very big piece of the work plan. Facilitation of licensing in more states, inclusion in federal programs for the naturopathic profession under healthcare reform, engaging in strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations to effect change, and training our physicians and naturopathic students at the DC FLI – all are pieces in this very complex work.

Next, our Executive Director will take the work plan and assign budget categories to each area of emphasis for Board review and approval. This will be a very challenging step. While the AANP has weathered the economic downturn quite well compared with other associations, the economy has nonetheless impacted us. The budget will be very tight, and it will be a challenge to meet all of our goals. It is likely that choices will have to be made based on the key goals, priorities and programs we’ve identified.

I tell you all of this so you can understand some of the work that goes on behind the scenes and see why it is so important to be a member of your national association. The AANP is a member-driven organization that represents you in the halls of Congress and to the American people. It supports state licensing efforts and facilitates communication amongst various organizations within the naturopathic profession. It supports research and data collection to better inform others of our work. It provides top-notch continuing education with many of the thought leaders of our profession. It brings unity to our community of doctors and students in every state in the US and other countries.

Please join us as we move into the future by joining or renewing your AANP membership and letting your voice be heard.