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CATA
NEWSLETTER
WINTER 2006 EDITION
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
Our
Legislative Quest - Update from LATF
CATA Licensure Effort in Full
Swing!
Get your Award Nominations in
now!
DATE AND SITE OF 2006
co SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED
Celebration of
Athletic Training Contest Winners
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Secondary
Schools
CHSAA
Elections
Revenue
Public Relations
Corporate
Sponsorship
Awards/Scholarships
Student Athletic
Trainer
PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Dear Fellow CATA Member:
I hope this Winter 2006 Newsletter for the Colorado Athletic Trainers
Association (CATA) finds you and yours well.
Phone calls, meetings, e-mails, conference calls, writing letters, more phone
calls, more e-mails, more conference calls, more meetings and writing more
letters; are among just the few things the CATA Board of Directors (BOD) and the
Legislative Action Task Force (LATF) have been doing on a DAILY basis in support
of our legislative campaign to pass a strong athletic training bill in this 2006
session.
The BOD and LATF is a combination of about 25 DEDICATED athletic trainers from
all areas of the state and all professional settings. These individuals are
working tirelessly; it is an amazing thing to be a part of. We have been told by
the powers-that-be and our consultants that our campaign is going very well. We
have reasons to be optimistic.
While we can not guarantee success for this legislative effort we can promise
you that regardless of the outcome we will be able to look back and be proud of
our effort. We are giving this campaign all that we can possibly give while
still maintaining a happy family life, a good work environment, and keeping our
sanity (most of us). If we do not succeed this time it will not be for a lack of
effort, time spent, money spent, a meeting or conference call we did not have,
or commitment. If we do not succeed it will be because factors that were NOT in
our control acted against us.
In addition to our legislative effort we are also in the process of planning our
annual members meeting and clinical symposium. Carrie Haugen has been assigned
this task, usually it is the entire BOD who does parts of this, but Carrie has
said she will take on some extra as the BOD is working feverishly on the
legislative push. It will be held on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at Metropolitan State
College of Denver.
In order to serve our membership better we have made some changes to our “usual”
format based on some recommendations we have received in the past. We plan to
increase the total number of CEU’s that the CATA will offer, by over 50%. We
will do this by holding TWO clinical symposiums each year, one in the spring and
one in the late fall or early winter.
So that most members will not have to get hotel rooms we have shortened the
symposiums to ONE day. We also formed a CATA “Speakers Pool” to try to ensure
that we offer educational presentations that are beneficial to each CATA member
and to offer the opportunity to present to an audience of athletic trainers. If
you are interested in presenting a topic that might be especially interesting
and informative to athletic trainers please contact any BOD member to “join” our
pool.
Lastly we have modified our operating budget so that the CATA will not need to
depend on the annual meeting raising funds for the association. We have done
this in order to keep the costs per CEU at a bare minimum. We are committed to
providing LOW COST CEU options to our members.
I have ALWAYS been proud to be a certified athletic trainer and to serve my
profession, in various volunteer capacities. As the president I am honored to
work with a great group of dedicated people who are committed to the advancement
of OUR profession. Please consider joining any of our committees or the task
force. We are ALWAYS in need of more members helping to improve the CATA.
Sincerely,
Chris Mathewson
President,
Colorado Athletic Trainers Association
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Our Legislative
Quest – Jennifer Dougherty, LATF Chair
Perhaps 2006 will be our year!
It is finally time for Colorado to hit the Capitol with proposed legislation
this January.
We have been steady preparing for over a year now. Our Legislative Task Force
has been monthly to work on a variety of tasks including grassroots efforts,
membership communication, fundraising and getting the word out to Legislators.
We now need to call on ALL MEMBERS to get involved! Our LATF members are trying
to reach out to you to make contact with your legislators. The more legislators
that hear from our membership the better chance we have of being successful in
our quest. Please do your part by contacting your legislator. Contacting your
legislator, seemingly intimidating, is an easy process. Most legislators will
even communicate by email. If you have any questions about how to go about this
process please feel free to contact Jennifer Dougherty at 303-908-6303 or by
email at
jdougherty-atc@mindspring.com. I would be happy to help you!
We have been fortunate enough to have some great resources as well. Rick Ball,
our legal consultant, at a minimum helps us make sense of all the legal jargon.
Charlie Hebeler, our lobbyist, has a wealth of knowledge and experience
specifically with healthcare professionals’ legislation here in Colorado! We
also need to recognize the NATA for their support throughout this process,
without their encouragement we wouldn’t be going to the capitol this session. A
tremendous thank you goes out to all for helping us through this process so far,
we’d be fumbling without them I’m sure. Finally, a huge THANK YOU goes to our
dedicated Legislative Action Task Force (LATF) and the CATA BOD for all of your
time and effort, giving up your Sundays/Family time to meet. We surely could not
have gotten this far without you.
We are very excited for the months to come and are looking forward to a POSITIVE
OUTCOME this May!
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CATA Licensure Effort in Full
Swing!
Here is a brief update of the legislative activities!
Colorado’s Legislative session is open and our bill, the “Athletic Trainers
Practice Act”, was introduced by Rep. Jim Riesberg as House Bill #1127 and has
been assigned to the Health & Human Services Committee of the House of
Representative.
You can follow the progress of the bill by going to Colorado General Assembly
website at: www.leg.state.co.us Click
on the Current Regular Session Information link, and type in 1127 above the “go
directly to bill number” link.
Colorado athletic trainer and legislators gathered at the City Grille in
Denver on January 17, 2006 to promote HB 1127, the Athletic Trainers Practice
Act.
Darryl Miller, Rep. John Soper (D), Dominic
DiManna |
Kelly Brick, Rep. Terrence Carroll (D) |
Christine O'Dell, Connie Larsen, Rep. Betty
Boyd (D) |
We need as many members as possible to call their legislators to enlist their
support.
An LATF representative should be calling you to help you with how to contact
your legislator.
If you have not been contacted and would like more information please call or
email Jenn Dougherty at 303-908-6303 or jdougherty-atc@mindspring.com
What’s next:
Athletic trainers from various settings have been selected to testify before
the Health & Human Services Committee on January 30, 2006.
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Get your Award Nominations in now!
A quick reminder, applications are currently being accepted for the Jim Conboy
and Dan Libera Scholarships. Click on the Scholarships link on the CATA webpage
for more details.
To all high school athletic trainers, nominations for the “Excellence in High
School Athletic Training” award are also being taken. Check your mail for
further details!
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DATE AND SITE OF 2006 co
SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED
The
2006 CATA Symposium and Business Meeting will be held on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at
the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Eight CEU's will be available to
those who attend. Check back to the website and watch your mail/email for
more details!
If
you have a case study you would like to present or know of a person who would
like to present, please contact Carrie
Haugen.
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Celebration of
Athletic Training Contest Winners
In conjunction with the successful Celebration of Athletic Training Dinner and
Auction held in September, 2005, the CATA held a contest for those athletic
trainers who sold the most tables/tickets. Congratulations to the following
athletic trainers, and we thank all of the athletic trainers who helped make the
evening a success!
1st Place: Jim Keller (NATA 2006 Annual Meeting Regular ATC Registration OR
Visa gift card equivalent)
2nd Place Jason McWilliams (CATA 2006 Annual Meeting Regular Registration OR
Visa gift card equivalent)
3rd Place Chris Nagelhout (RMATA 2006 Annual Meeting Regular Registration OR
Visa gift card equivalent)
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COMMITTEE REPORTS
Secondary Schools Committee –
Lisa Lear
Currently, the SSATC is in the beginning stages of compiling information for a
state high school athletic trainer database. The goal is to make this list of
Colorado high school athletic trainers available online and to be used as a
resource for other secondary school athletic trainers.
CHSAA Committee – Dominic
DiManna
The CATA would like to extend congratulations to Darryl Miller, Denver Public
Schools athletic trainer, for being recognized by the Colorado High School
Activities Association with the Distinguished Service Award for 2005. Darryl
received his plaque at the CHSAA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in January.
Congratulations, Darryl!
Election Committee – Robert Ryan
The Spring 2006 election will be held prior to the Annual Meeting in May.
President – Chris Mathewson
At Large – Dominic Di Manna
Jason McWilliams
Scott Thomas
The election committee is investigating the use of an on-line voting system.
Research has shown that the online system will be slightly more expensive than
the current mail system, but the voter participation may increase. Please
contact me if you have any thoughts or concerns regarding the use of a third
party controlled, on-line voting system.
Robert Ryan
970-248-1374
rryan@mesastate.edu
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Revenue
Committee, State Representative – Clay Selby
The legal fight goes on and on regarding the CMS decision to exclude athletic
trainers from providing “incident to” services to Medicare beneficiaries. The
court room battle will continue and hopefully Colorado will be represented well
as supporters to overturn the previous decision. A letter was sent to our State
legislators explaining the situation and asking for their support in this
situation. An official response for this request has not been made as of yet,
but we will continue to push forward.
Public Relations
Committee – Bob Tim, Chair
The public relations committee is gearing up for National Athletic Training
month in March. Jim Gillen has sent out flyers to all high schools informing
them of the "Excellence in High School Athletic Training" award. If you are an
athletic trainer at a high school, be sure to apply. An award of $2,000 will be
presented to two high school athletic training programs, and an award of $500
will be given to two
runner-up schools. The awards will be presented before the Nuggets game on March
4. The CATA will be participating in the Channel 9 Health Fairs throughout the
state in April. Contact Carrie Haugen for information regarding the Health
Fairs. The PR committee is also exploring new ideas to participate in this year.
If you have any ideas, or would like to help in any way, please contact any
member of the public relations committee.
Corporate
Sponsorship Committee - Jason McWilliams
Our plan for the 2006 year is to increase our corporate sponsorship funding.
Thus far we have three sponsors renewing for 2006. I have recently sent out
follow-up letters to last years sponsors and those from the mailing list created
last year. We are offering a ten dollar discount for returning sponsors. Please
feel free to contact me with anyone who might be interested. Please let me know
of any ideas or ways to market this program to companies.
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Awards and
Scholarship Committee – Colleen Conroy
Currently researching what other states are doing as far as a Hall of Fame, as
the CATA would like to pursue having a Hall of Fame.
Reminder: Dan Libera and Jim Conboy Scholarships applications are due April 1,
2006!
Student Athletic
Trainer Committee – Jaclyn Lucas
The overall response from last year's student symposium was very positive.
The students enjoyed the hands-on parts of the symposium the most. I am
going to focus on hands-on topics (rehab, taping, emergency procedures)
again this year, but will allow more time for each topic. I feel it is important
to go over anatomy each year because we have a wide variety of students that
attend. What do you feel is most important for a high school student athletic
trainer to know? (please e-mail me and let me know!) I have shied away from
teaching much evaluation, as it is my feeling that SATs would not be performing
evaluations at the high school level. I would like to include "Sports Medicine
Jeopardy" to the symposium this year. The game will be played at the end of the
day and will consist of questions on the topics covered throughout the day as
well as general information. I would appreciate any suggestions for topics or
any questions you may have that could be placed in the Jeopardy "trivia box". My
goal is still to incorporate the college students more and possibly have a
separate activity or symposium for them. I am still waiting for the contact
information for each school representatives so I can get ideas on what they
might want to do. Please contact me with any ideas, suggestions, or comments.
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