A) Attendance; Executive Committee Roll Call (Kathryn Botsford- Secretary)

O&M DIVISION

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

MINUTES

8-30-16

8:00pm EASTERN

(605) 475-3235 Access code:407807#

1)  CALL TO ORDER

2)  WELCOME

a)  Attendance; Executive Committee Roll Call (Kathryn Botsford- Secretary):

i)  Executive Board Roll Call:

ii)  Officers:

(1)  Justin Kaiser (Chair)

(2)  Chris Tabb (Chair-Elect)

(3)  Susan Langendonk (Past-Chair)

(4)  Kathryn Botsford (Secretary)

(5)  Vacant (Treasurer): The board discussed and voted to appoint Susan Bradley to fill this position. After the vote Susan Bradley joined the call

iii)  District Directors:

(1)  Loana Mason (Dist 1)

(2)  John McAllister (Dist 2) Absent

(3)  Maggie Winn (Dist 3)

(4)  Julie Boren (Dist 4)

(5)  JoAnne Chalom (Dist 5)

(6)  Anthony Nigro (Dist 6)

b)  Parliamentarian: Chris Tabb

c)  Agenda Discussion

i)  Susan recommended moving the discussion of vacancy in Treasurer before Old Business

(1)  Approve the Agenda as amended

(a)  Motion: Susan Langendonk

(b)  Second: Chris Tabb

(c)  Motion accepted unanimously

d)  Exec Committee Meeting Minutes from January 27, 2016

i)  Motion: Chris Tabb

ii)  Second: Kathryn Botsford

iii)  Motion accepted unanimously

3)  CONSENT AGENDA:

a)  Appoint New Treasurer to Replace Jenny Wheeler:

i)  Motion to appoint Susan Bradley as the 2016-2018 Treasurer

(1)  Moved: Susan Langendonk

(2)  Second: Chis Tabb

(3)  Motion accepted unanimously

4)  OLD BUSINESS:

a)  Treasurer Report: 2016 Budget

i)  Jenny Wheeler submitted a budget, but Susan Langendonk added some information she identified as well.

ii)  Still waiting on the 2017 proposed budget from AER International office

(1)  Motion to accept Treasurer’s Report as discussed: Chris Tabb

(2)  Second: Susan Langendonk

b)  Justin discussed Ad Hoc Committee on Division Strategic Planning and Initiatives and feedback from the AER International Conference meetings:

i)  Opportunities for Professional Development: We had discussed the idea of having the Environmental Access Committee to help present local/regional workshops on specific intersection types and analysis. This is something that had been discussed before and the division is going to work on providing. We will also continue to present watercooler sessions on unique topics of interest to the membership.

ii)  Scope of Practice and Preferred Practices: O&M Specialists were asking for a more defined scope of practice for the profession. It was also discussed that there should be a collection of assessment and instructional resources easily accessible to the membership. The scope of practice does need to be refined and this will be discussed within the division leadership to determine if this is appropriate for the O&M Division to undertake. It was also suggested that there should be a resource to state what are the common or accepted contract rates in each state. Given the number of professionals that provide contract services, this information should be able to be gathered and provided through a single online resource.

iii)  3rd Party Reimbursement and Licensure: For third-party reimbursement and Medicaid, there was considerable discussion on this throughout the conference beyond our sessions. Montana has been using 3rd party reimbursement for O&M services and a session was presented on this at the conference. A resolution on Third-Party reimbursement was passed at the AER Business meeting and this resolution is summarized as follows: The “AER National Working Group on Third-Party Coverage for Specialized Services (working group) to consider and implement strategies to achieve third-party funding for the specialized services provided by vision rehabilitation professionals.” Through this process, we discussed the cost and benefits of licensure for our profession. Licensure had typically been discussed as a way to achieve 3rd party reimbursement, but 3rd party reimbursement can be achieved through other avenues without licensure as in Montana. Additionally, licensure legislation so far has been unsuccessful. Licensure could have other benefits including protection from other professionals (OTs, PTs, etc.) providing O&M services.

iv)  Advocacy and Awareness: As part of the roundtables, we discussed how the O&M Division could promote advocacy and awareness including providing resources for working with school districts, having tables or posters at OT and PT conferences, and writing a publication through AARP magazine. Recruitment ideas that were discussed included getting O&M listed in Occupational Indexes and databases, discussing O&M with future educator associations, recruiting students that were not accepted into competitive programs like nursing or occupational therapy, and talking to academic advisors about O&M as a career option.

v)  Liability Insurance: Liability insurance through Forest T. Jones was a major concern of many professionals. The process of looking for liability insurance options to more adequately cover the responsibilities of O&M Specialists (for student transportation, written documents, etc.) and other VI professionals has already begun through AER.

c)  O&M and OT & PT Scopes of Practice

i)  Supposed to be a position paper started back when Kevin Hollinger was chair.

Paper was completed and sent for review. Feedback was that the paper was not appropriate. Focus of paper needed to be more focused on scope and practice of O&M, but not commenting on the scope of other professions

ii)  Justin needs to appoint a working group to developing a new position paper on O&M scope of practice.

Julie Boren (Dist. 4) is an OT and agreed to participate in this process

d)  2016 Conference – Susan

i)  On July 21st-22nd, the O&M Division held three roundtable sessions at the AER International conference to gather feedback on forming our strategic plan moving forward.

(1)  The O&M Profession: A conversation about Professional Development and Preferred Practices

(2)  The O&M Profession: Conversations about Licensure, 3rd Party Reimbursement, and University Preparation.

(3)  The O&M Profession: A conversation about Advocacy, Awareness and Recruitment

ii)  These were moderated by Susan Langendonk, Justin Kaiser, Chris Tabb, and Lukas Franck. The O&M Specialists at these sessions were helpful by voicing their needs and concerns and providing ideas for how the O&M Division can address these areas. I do think that the leadership needs to be transparent in our decision-making and that this should be shared with the membership. The details provided below include many of the thoughts we have discussed and we will need to make decisions on how to focus our efforts.

5)  New Business:

a)  Treasurer vacancy – appointed on August 30, 2016 Susan Bradley

b)  AER International meeting proposed Bylaws Changes with direct potential impact on the O&M Division were:

(1)  Motion to dissolve the Council of Division Chairs—this motion failed so there will be no change

(2)  Motion to do away with “Division Fees” and allow all members to join up to 3 Divisions as part of the annual membership fee – this motion passed and will take effect in 2018

(a)  Concern that a non-O&M Specialist might move into a leadership in the division.

(b)  Discussion to add something to O&M Division Policies and Procedures handbook to clarify that anyone nominated for Chair or Chair-Elect should be an O&M specialist.

(i)  Not sure if AER International would approve changes, Justin will investigate what changes can we make.

(c)  Make sure that nominating committee is instructed to clearly identify the characteristics of executive board members: Chair or Chair-Elect should be an O&M specialist.

(d)  Move to agenda for upcoming committee meeting

c)  2017 O&M Conference

i)  Committee: Susan Langendonk is Chair

(1)  Planning committee: Susan Langendonk, Justin Kaiser, Chris Tabb, Laura Bozeman

(2)  Conference call with Angela Smith who would send timeline by last week.

(3)  Marketing with Ginger Croce

(4)  Justin to send email to executive board to identify possible tracts

(a)  Look to increase student activity and presence

(b)  There will not be awards

(c)  There will be a business meeting

(5)  Pre-conference training?

(6)  Call for proposals anticipated in October

d)  District Directors

i)  Chapter contacts

(1)  Making sure that District Directors understand their roles and ideas for connecting with people in their region.

(2)  Susan: have talked about the need to help directors connect with members.

(a)  Ideas: emails to local chapters, back to bylaws change for AER: Try to create a way for directors to contact membership through blast emails, conference attendance, etc.

(3)  JoAnne: when rosters are sent, some chapter leaders are more responsive than others, need multiple avenues for communication with members.

(4)  Susan: goal for better communication within districts through chapter conferences, professional development activity (advertisements), emails, etc.

(5)  Susan suggested we keep this as a standing item for upcoming meetings.

e)  3rd Party Billing

i)  Discussed earlier in Ad Hoc—Big topic of discussion at the AER International Conference:--third-party reimbursement and Medicaid, there was considerable discussion on this throughout the conference beyond our sessions..

ii)  A resolution on Third-Party reimbursement was passed at the AER Business meeting and this resolution is summarized as follows:

iii)  AER (International) has a resolution to investigate how to make 3rd Party billing work for the field as a whole, and at this point this is up to AER International to move forward.

f)  Liability Insurance

i)  Forest T Jones was discussed at the AER International conference where membership suggested that changes with FT Jones insurance to better meet the needs of AER Members: liability insurance through Forest T. Jones was a major concern of many professionals. The process of looking for liability insurance options to more adequately cover the responsibilities of O&M Specialists (for student transportation, written documents, etc.) and other VI professionals has already begun through AER.

(1)  Justin: status of taskforce proposed by Joe Catavero

(2)  Susan recommended asking about FT Jones and taskforce recommendation to see what happens during the September AER Board meeting.

g)  O&M Division website

i)  Maggie interested in hosting or monitoring a Facebook group

ii)  When new AER Website was launched not everything was transferred.

(1)  Things need to be revised and clarified/simplified for membership

(2)  Ideas of what members want to see on the website.

(a)  Chris Tabb lead on this project

(i)  Chris: Need understanding from AER Office about what Division can do independently.

1.  Some ideas from roundtable

a.  Might benefit from a list of O&Ms who might be willing to work on a contract basis.

b.  Younger generation of professionals are much more used to getting information from websites—this is how they access information.

(ii)  Susan: Staff changes at AER—Mary Bean is no longer the person to whom we send the website changes.

iii)  Changes/updates

(1)  Chris Tabb, one item from strategic planning round-table was people wanting to share what had been learned in previous members. Wiki would allow multiple contributors and there has been discussion that perhaps a wiki-site that might be hosted outside of AER.

(2)  Justin: thinks that a wiki is not likely on the AER Division website. Wondered about costs associated with Wiki.

(3)  Justin: Lukas Frank had suggested that there might be a non-AER organization to host

(4)  Susan: AER International Office has concerns about open Wiki associated with AER. Idea is that any website needs to be managed with monitoring of “outside” people contributing. Does not think there would be a budget barrier as long as the site is presented as a member benefit

(5)  Chris: Memorandum of understanding between division and office clarifying that anything posted would be reviewed by office before posting or updating.

(6)  Susan asked Chris to create a proposal for the budget.

h)  Preferred Provider project

i)  How do different state laws define who can provide O&M Services

(1)  Differs from state to state.

(2)  Want to look state-by-state at how this is

(a)  Started because of licensure struggles

(b)  Do we need to look at how this is defined by population (child/student vs. adult).

(i)  Susan: originally had thought in terms of IDEA, but this is an interesting question to look at state agencies.

(ii)  Conversations with AOTA—for a profession as small as O&M, might be better to look at something less than licensure because this is early for us. We need to look for niches to get ourselves recognized as a profession. Gathering this information is a first step.

ii)  Look for people by state to identify how different states define: maybe survey monkey

(1)  JoAnne: Important to clarify what we mean: COMS, or endorsement? Need to be clear about what we are looking for in terms of who would be a preferred provider.

(2)  Chris: looking to identify or create baseline minimum criteria or level of training that would be considered acceptable to work with individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

6)  From the Floor

a)  No motions from the floor

7)  Adjourn

a)  Motion: Chris Tabb

b)  Second: Julie Boren

c)  Motion accepted unanimously

O&M DIVSION

DISTRICT DIRECTORS and COMMITTEE CHAIRS

DISTRICT 1: Loana Mason

(Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Northwest Territories, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Yukon Territories.)

DISTRICT 2: John McAllister

(Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Manitoba, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan, Texas.)
DISTRICT 3: Maggie Winn
(Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario and Wisconsin.)

DISTRICT 4: Julie Boren
(Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, New Hampshire, New York, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Rhode Island, Vermont)
DISTRICT 5: JoAnne Chalom
(Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, Tennessee)

DISTRICT 6: Anthony Nigro
(Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virgin Islands, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C.)

COMMITTEES

1. Archives Committee (Chairperson – Rod Kossick) –
2. Awards Committee (Chairperson – Gala Brooks Members: Past Chair Susan Langendonk, Brenda Naimey, Joseph McDonnel, Bryan Gerritson, Justin Kaiser)
3. Communications / Media (Newsletter – Viki Poole; website – Chris Tabb)
4. Environmental Access Committee (Chairperson – Janet Barlow)
5. Finance Committee (Chairperson – Treasurer
6. International Committee (Chairperson – Dr. Laura Bozeman) –
7. Membership Committee (Chairperson – Meredith Griffin)
8. Nominating Committee (Co-Chairpersons – Erica Irkhe, Mary Ball-Swartout, Jennifer Braswell-Britinger, Mark Carter, Meg Robertson )
9. Professional Issues Committee –

a.  Chair - vacant