ABCGN Board of Directors Meeting

November 7-8, 2009

Chicago

Voting Participants:

Dianna Burns, BS, RN, CGRN, President

Ann Hayes, BSN, RN, CGRN, Immediate Past President

Barbara Schwant, BSN, RN, CGRN, President-Elect

Sandra Thomas, RN, CGRN, Treasurer

Kathryn Miller, RN, CGRN, Secretary

Deborah Copeland, BSN, RN, CGRN, Director

Janet Hannah, RN CGRN, Director

Georgette Knoebel, BSN, RN, CGRN, Director

Jenny Parkhurst, RN, CGRN, Director

Jeannie Ebbert, RN, CGRN, Director

Suzanne Buchanan, BSN, RN, CGRN, Director

Kendall Yoshisato, BS MS RN CGRN, Director

Anne Ragsdale, Public Member

Non-Voting Participants/Guests:

Terrie Vos, President, SGNA Board

Peggy Gauthier, President-Elect, SGNA Board

Nancy Eisemon, RN, MPH, APN/CNS, CGRN, Item Development Manager

Mary Beth Hepp, Executive Director, SGNA

Christina Kowalski, Coordinator

Erin Butler, Executive Director

1)  Welcome- Call to Order Dianna Burns

ABCGN President Dianna Burns welcomed everyone to Chicago. She summarized the purpose and results of the joint meeting held earlier that day between the Executive Committees of ABCGN and SGNA. An action plan will be developed based on the results of the meeting and shared with the Board.

The ABCGN Board meeting was called to order at 2:10 pm and concluded at 5:40 pm. The meeting was reconvened at 8:20 am on Sunday and concluded at 11:40 am.

2)  Roll Call

Ms. Miller called the roll of voting and non-voting members.

3)  Approval of Agenda

Ms. Parkhurst recommended that the Action Agenda be approved.

>APPROVED the Action Agenda.

Ms. Miller recommended that the May 2009 Board of Directors meeting minutes be approved with revisions.

>APPROVED the May 2009 Board of Directors meeting minutes with revisions.

Ms. Ragsdale recommended approving the August 18, 2009 Board of Directors conference call minutes.

>APPROVED THE August 18, 2009 Board of Directors conference call minutes.

Board reviewed Electronic Motions made since May Board meeting.

Ms. Knoebel recommended approving a change to the criteria for Category 7. Wording would now read:

Category 7 covers allied health education seminars, workshops, and home study courses. Such workshops and courses include Continuing Medical Education (CME) offerings approved by the American Medical Association (or one of its affiliates or approved providers) or by the American Osteopathic Association (or one of its affiliates or approved providers) or courses approved by accredited pharmacy, hospital administration or similar providers.

>APPROVED the change to Category 7.

Ms. Thomas recommended adding dates of service and a signature of validation to Category 11 form and dates of service to the Category 12 form.

>APPROVED changes to the Category 11 and 12 forms.

Ms. Schwant recommended reinstating the annual stipend given to the employers of the President and President-Elect.

>DENIED reinstating the stipends.

Ms. Parkhurst recommended that ABCGN no longer develop new educational products and that once the last module/teleconference has been retired, the Education Committee will be dissolved.

>APPROVED recommendation to cease development of educational products and dissolve Education Committee once all modules/teleconferences have been retired.

Ms. Parkhurst recommended posting the self-assessment modules and teleconferences to the website. Members will download for free and pay if they apply for contact hours. She recommended prices for each product, along with a retirement date for each product.

>APPROVED the pricing and retirement plan for educational products.

>DENIED recommendation to review the Pediatric module due to low sales.

4)  ABCGN Update/Financial Report/2010 Budget Presentation

Ms. Butler reviewed ABCGN’s accomplishments and initiatives for the year, and presented statistics for certification and recertification (to date) in 2009. She reviewed the financials and the 3rd quarter forecast. The 2010 budget was then presented for the Board’s approval.

>APPROVED the 2010 budget.

5)  Strategic Plan Update

Ms. Butler reviewed the strategic initiatives and tracked the progress made in 2009.

6)  Election Update

Ms. Hayes reported on the process and timeline for the 2010 election.

7)  Board/Committee Structure

Ms. Butler presented a plan to restructure the Board over the next two years, reducing the Board from 13 to nine members (through attrition) and recruiting additional volunteers to staff two major committees: GI Audit and Recertification. The Board also discussed that going forward we might be able to reduce some of the current committees, such as Newsletter and Education. The Board felt that we should reduce to 11 members and see how it’s working before continuing.

ACTION ITEM: Work on motion to move forward with the plan, but have the wording be more general with regard to size and timeline.

ACTION ITEM: GI Specific and Recertification committees will work on committee structure plan and processes. Deadline: March 1, 2010.

8)  ABNS Report

Ms. Burns, Ms. Schwant and Ms. Eisemon reported on the ABNS Research Summit in October in Baltimore. Nearly 100 representatives from nursing certification organizations, affiliated credentialing agencies, testing companies and consumer advocates participated in the event. Their goal was to achieve the following objectives:

·  Identify research projects that address the research priorities.

·  Create opportunities for certifying agencies to partner on research activities.

·  Establish plans for certifying agencies to adopt the research agenda.

·  Design a communication and marketing plan to disseminate key messages about the research agenda.

·  Develop a funding plan to support nursing certification research.

Ms. Burns reported that all participating organizations will be asked to help fund the research.

Ms. Burns recommended that the ABCGN Executive Director be one of the two representatives at the ABNS meetings.

>APPROVED sending the Executive Director with the President-elect to the ABNS meetings.

9)  ABSNC Updates/Next Steps for ABCGN

Ms. Eisemon reported on discussion occurring at ABSNC and potential changes coming related to the following:

▪  APRN

▪  Certification/Recertification Changes

▪  Credential Copyright

She will have additional information in March on changes to the standards and will share these changes with the Board in May.

10) Client Satisfaction Survey Results

Ms. Burns reported on her discussion with SmithBucklin President Julie Silverstein. The Board reviewed the survey results and discussed the turnover on ABCGN. The Board concurred that if the survey was done today the results would be better. Board members also mentioned that they didn’t have a good sense of SmithBucklin and what services the company provides.

ACTION ITEM: Add discussion of SmithBucklin to the Board Orientation at the Annual Course.

11) Upcoming Dates/Deadline

  1. SGNA Winter Board Meeting (February 26-27, O’Hare Hilton, Rosemont) Dianna, Barb and Erin
  2. ABNS Spring Meeting (March 5-6, Costa Mesa, CA) Barb and Erin
  3. SGNA Board Meeting (April 29, Orlando) Dianna, Barb and Erin
  4. Annual Course, (April 30-May 5) All
  5. ABCGN Spring Board Meeting (May 1, Orlando)

12) Other Business

Board members would really like to have business cards. Pin quality is poor.

ACTION ITEM: Investigate cost for business cards and new company for pins.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathryn Miller, RN CGRN

Secretary

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