VANP Annual Meeting: 1/17/2009

MINUTES

  1. Call to Order –President 1:00pm
  2. Members Present:Lorilee Schoenbeck, Jennifer Edlund, Greg Burkland, Becky Chollet, Molly Fleming, Daphne Cornman, Chris Hollis, Karen Miller-Lane, Renee Lang, Sam Russo, Sarah LoBisco, Bernie Noe, Emily Mahar Cannon
    Kathleen Audette by Skype and Bill Warnock, Katina Martin, Samantha Eagle by phone.
  3. Reading of Minutes (4/11/2008) – Secretary
    ACTION: Minutes accepted as written.
  4. Reception of New Members – Secretary
    Colleen Donegan, ND, RN: Montpelier, VT (2/08)
    Ani Hawkinson, ND: HeartSong Health In Community, Inc., Putney VT (9/08)
    Emily Mahar Cannon, ND: Integrated Medicine, Middlebury, VT (1/09)
    Gabriel Archdeacon, ND: Tree of Life Medicine, Montpelier and Richmond, VT (1/09)
    Daphne Cornman, ND: Waterbury, VT (1/09)
    Maxine Fidler, ND, LAc: no practice location yet (1/09)
    Sarah LoBisco, ND: Ballston Spa, NY (licensed in VT) (1/09)
  5. Officer’s Reports

a) President – Lorilee Schoenbeck
- Is looking for someone to take the rep position AANP State Association Leadership Team (monthly phone conference); ACTION: Molly Fleming volunteered to fill the VT seat on SALT
- Is looking for someone to take President’s seat on VANP membership committee; ACTION: Jennifer Edlund, VP will assume that role
- Inspired by change in air with new US President. We have the opportunity, right, and responsibility to becoming a part of the mainstream in order to create change.

b) Vice-President –JenniferEdlund: NONE

c) Secretary – BeckyChollet: NONE

d) Treasurer –Greg Burkland
- current available balance $3899.53
- major 2008 expenses: Website $2750, logo design $487.50
- anticipate $3500 in 2009 dues
- no expenses currently budgeted for 2009

  1. Reading of Communications – Secretary

a)CNME annual request for donation
- ACTION: VANP will donate $10/ member to CNME (Motion: Molly, 2nd: Lorilee; Vote: unanimous)

b)Email from Donna Powell notifying VANP that she will no longer be a member of VANP

  1. Committee Reports

a)Legislative Committee – LorileeSchoenbeck: currently inactive
- Be aware that funding for Catamount may be cut from VT budget; see Jobs for Justice to support funding for Catamount.
- Medicaid coverage for DCs was dropped as of 2/09
-ACTION:Legislative Committee will need to re-activate to investigate the ramifications of incorporating minor surgery (“skin biopsy, lesion destruction, incision or repair that does not involve general anesthesia or respiratory assistance”) into our scope of practice. Committee will assess the position of the VANP before responding to proposed legislation (see below.) Molly and Karen agree to work with Lorilee but additional member participation is welcome.

b)Membership Committee – Secretary
- Membership Committee role is poorly defined in By-Laws, which stipulate only that committee membership includes Secretary and President. Currently all of the responsibility falls upon Secretary (Becky) to respond to membership inquiries, send applications, evaluate applications. This work should be shared by a committee – and really a group needs to define duties of committee and how to properly vet applicants. Becky invites more participation.
- In addition to the 7 new members welcomed in 2008 and early 2009, 3 members have announced their decision to terminate their memberships: Donna Powell, Simon Frishkoff, Maureen Williams
- Currently 30 active members in VANP

c)Professional Relations Committee – inactive

d)Website Committee – Becky Chollet & Chris Hollis
- Redesigned website has been “live” since 9/08
- Becky & Chris are the current website administrators and continue to act as liaisons with Dave Kobrenski of BBM Designs.
- We welcome feedback regarding glitches or desired modifications
- If you haven’t already logged in to the Members’ Only section, contact Becky for your username & password.
- Please take the time to enter all your practice info (location, bio, photo, specialties/conditions treated), update your VANP member contact info, and explore the other tools (documents to share, community calendar, upload your health articles for the public, etc.)

  1. Representative Reports

a)Naturopathic Advisors – Sam Russo & Bill Warnock
- Formulary Expansion: expanded formulary was approved but is NOT enacted yet
- Formulary Exam: will be administered q 2 yrs for relicensing. Bill & Sam are writing exam questions in consultation with Oregon board, NPLEX, etc. The exam is projected to be in place by Summer 2009, once it is written and an on-line testing platform has been selected. The exam will be online, at home, and will cover the drugs in the expanded formulary, indications, contraindications, drug interactions, dosages, On-Label usages, etc. More details to come.
THE NEW FORMULARY WILL NOT GO INTO EFFECT UNTIL THE LICENSING RENEWAL DATE FOLLOWING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EXAM (Projected Date: 10/1/2010)
- Naturopathic Advisors are members of the ND community that advise the OPR as representatives of the Vermont Public NOT VANP/Naturopathic Physicians. They advise on rule changes governing practice of naturopathic medicine in VT. The OPR and the Naturopathic Advisors are working on increasing transparency including sending out a bi-annual newsletter to inform licensed NDs of changes. Sam will discuss with Bill additional means for notifying VANP of proposed changes to rules/regulations governing Naturopathic Physicians in VT.
- The mechanism for VANP to have a voice in rule changes and legislation is NOT thru the Naturopathic Advisors but thru the VANP Legislative Committee contact withthe OPR and the VT Legislature. If a proposed change is not already in a bill, action/comments should be directed to the OPR. Likewise, the VANP (or individual) can initiate a proposed change by contacting the OPR. If a proposed change is already in the OPR bill, action/comments must be directed to the appropriate committees in the VT Legislature.
- Minor Surgery: it has been proposed that naturopathic law be updated to include minor surgery in the OPR bill generated during Fall 2008 for 2009 legislative session. It is unclear what implications this will have on currently licensed NDs.

b)Blueprint for Health – Bill Warnock & Ani Hawkinson:NONE

c)Farm Health Task Force – Becky Chollet
- No meeting since last August; major focus currently is to create a network of AgriSafe clinics and practitioners throughout VT to provide agriculturally-specific screenings and healthcare to VT farmers, farm families, and farm workers, including migrant and immigrant farm workers
- Becky attended the Vermont AgriSafe training (40 hours/ $500) to represent VANP. This is useful training for those NDs who practice in a region where you see a lot of the target population. The training is expected to be offered next year.

d)Arthritis Coalition – Lorilee Schoenbeck & Sam Russo
- the Coalition lost its funding and is no longer operating in VT
- Jean McCandless now runs an Integrative Medicine group that meets monthly at the Dept. of Health in Burlington to discuss cases across a spectrum of disciplines

  1. Unfinished Business

a)Insurance Credentialing – Lorilee: TABLED

b)VANP Vision/Mission/Organizational Structure – Molly: TABLED

c)VANP Retreat: TABLED

  1. New Business

a)Election and installment of new VANP officers by the presiding VANP officers
President: Lorilee Schoenbeck
Vice President: Jennifer Edlund
Secretary: Becky Chollet
Treasurer: Greg Burkland
Regular Member: Kathleen Audette
ACTION: voting by paper ballot (and by phone) resulted in the election of the entire ballot.

b)2009 Meeting Schedule
- Friday, April 17, 6pmBurlington with Southern Skype location to be determined
- No summer meeting
- Friday, October 16, 6pmRutland

c)2009 CME Schedule – new committee? - TABLED

d)Discussion: VANP committees and representative - TABLED

e)VANP By-lawsrevision - TABLED

  1. Adjournment: 2:45pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Chollet, ND, VANP Secretary

2/2/2009

Approved as written: 1/23/2010