By Christine Doyle, MD, CHCI, FASA, ASA Director for California
The ASA held the Annual Board Meeting over the weekend of August 17/18, at the Loews O’Hare.
It was the “safest” any of us have felt at the hotel, as there were about 70 Secret Service K-9 teams at the hotel, in preparation for the Democratic National Convention, which started the day after we left.
California was well represented by Drs. Mark Zakowski (Alternate Director), Phil Levin (President), Robin Seaberg (Speaker), John Hsieh (Treasurer), Todd Primack (LPAD Chair), Sheela Pai Cole (District 3 Director), Jeff Poage (ASAPAC Board member), Ed Mariano (ASA Section Chair), Johnathan Pregler (Caucus Vice-Chair), Paul Yost (ASA Asst. Secretary), Mike Champeau (ASA Immediate Past President), Dan Cole (ASA Past President, and Section Chair for Publications), and Megan Macnee (Asst. Executive Director) along with myself. We were also joined by Stanford resident, Dr. Maria Khlebnikova.
This meeting is termed the “Annual” board meeting (as opposed to the Interim board meetings in October and March). Most committees will submit their annual report for this meeting if they haven’t done something in March. Many of these reports update us on what the committee has been doing, but do not have any items for action, and thus are placed on the Consent Calendar. All ASA members are allowed to see these reports, but access does require logging in to the website and may require a one-time request to the governance staff.
Key committee items include 5 statements from the Committee on OB Anesthesia (COBA, led by Dr. Zakowski), one statement from the Ad Hoc Committee on Harassment, Incivility and Disrespect (CSA members include Dr Doyle, Jina Sinskey, MD, and Robert Whittington, MD), and one practice advisory (new) and one statement (revised) from the Committee on Practice Parameters (CPP). New standards are also being developed by CPP and other committees with expected completion in 2025.
The August board meeting also includes presentations from new candidates for ASA offices. This year, we have a three-way race for the 1st Vice President position, and an uncontested candidate for the Assistant Treasurer position (Rob Thomsen, MD, Director, Maryland). All of the candidates were given a chance to present to the attendees and answer questions.
The 1st VP candidates are: Michael Lewis, MD (Academic Anesthesiology Director, Michigan), James “Jay” Mesrobian, MD (ASA Treasurer, Wisconsin), and Jeff Mueller, MD (past ASA VP for Professional Affairs, Arizona).
Other business included the proposal to shorten the governance timeline for the Annual Meeting, so that the House of Delegates is completed on Tuesday. This has been discussed at various points in the past, and was referred back to the Committee on Governance Effectiveness and Efficiencies (CGEE) last year. CGEE reviewed all of the options, tried to anticipate problems, and presented two variations of a proposal. One would move the reference committee meetings to Saturday afternoon, and the other would move them to Sunday morning. The Board voted in favor of the first version, but the House of Delegates will debate and vote in October. Any changes will not take effect for at least 2 years (i.e., 2026 or later) due to existing contracts.