NEWS

Welcome March!

Even though it's only March, in fact it's already March!

In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too."
― Jean Hersey

The snow is still lingering but signs of spring are everywhere. I'm still relishing my spot by the wood stove while looking forward to spring.  The Osprey will be returning at the end of March and daffodils will be popping their heads up in preparation for April.

In ASCLS, we are looking at springing forward to our Great Falls meeting in May. Have you reserved your room yet? We have a lot in store for the meeting including the MMLS student poster presentations, annual membership business meeting, awards and installation of officers, exhibitors, an excellent educational program, and many networking opportunities including a Silent Auction to benefit Shodair Hospital, the Montana CMN Hospital. Donated items for the silent auction are always welcome and of course, participation in the bidding is a must! Bid High and Bid Often!

It's time to think about applying for the Region VIII Leadership Academy class of 2022-2023! The Academy opened in 2013 with the first class graduating in 2014 at the National meeting in Chicago. This year will be our 8th class and both interns are from Montana; Jennifer Wolcott and Zanna Hartrich. Over the years, the R8LA has graduated 24 Region VIII Members, 7 from Montana. The Leadership Academy is an excellent opportunity to learn leadership skills that help you not only in ASCLS but in your workplace and all areas of your life. The curriculum covers a wide spectrum of topics such as communication skills, leadership skills, professionalism, advocacy, presentation skills and more. This is also an opportunity to make lifelong friends with fellow interns and with faculty members. I have watched interns gain in self-confidence and move into leadership positions after participating in the academy.

The Region VIII Leadership Academy is open to all ASCLS members in Region VIII; there is no tuition associated and the condo at Jackson is paid for by the Region. There is no age limit or requirement as to years of membership in ASCLS. Abbey Wichman is our new R8LA Coordinator for the next class and Ashlee Ketchum and Sadie Arnold are two of our Montana faculty members. Abbey and Sadie are graduates of the R8LA and past-presidents of ASCLS-Montana, and Ashlee graduated from the National Leadership Academy and is also a past-president of ASCLS-Montana. The faculty has ASCLS members from Idaho, Colorado and Montana and a combined treasure trove of leadership knowledge and skills. If you're interested in participating or have questions, please contact Abbey or myself. 

Holly

 

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The End of An Era 

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In 1964, the first Intermountain States Seminar was held and was a joint venture of Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. In 1970, Colorado joined the team to help make the IMSS the well-recognized, professional endeavor it is today. The purpose of the Seminar was to provide a continuing education activity with a high-quality program at a reasonable cost to participants. To maintain planning and presenting the seminar on a yearly basis, the Coordinating committee was established in 1967.

In the mid-2000’s, concerns regarding the structure of IMSS and the future of IMSS began in earnest. Many meetings were held and after many member surveys, state level discussions, and region level discussions, a final discussion was held at the Region VIII Fall Council meeting in 2012. The outcome of that discussion and all of the background information gathering, was that IMSS continued to fill an educational and networking need as well as provide revenue to the region and the states in our region. The decision was made to continue with IMSS as long as a profit can still be made but to disband the Coordinating Committee structure and put the responsibility for IMSS planning under the umbrella of the Region VIII Council. The 50th Anniversary of IMSS was in 2013 and was the final conference hosted by the Coordinating Committee. 2014 was a transition year, with the Coordinating Committee members working with Region VIII to host the seminar, then in 2015 the IMSS Coordinating Committee was disbanded and their charter revoked. The Council devised a schedule splitting the chairs up across the states so each state was involved in planning the meeting but nobody had to fill more than one to two committee chairs. A schedule of co-chairs and chairs was set up so co-chairs could be mentored by the chairs before taking on the role of chair themselves.

 IMSS has been held in Jackson, Wyoming for over 50 years, primarily at the Snow King Resort. This year on October 3-5, Region VIII will present the 59th and FINAL IMSS.

This was an extremely difficult decision to make. The conversation has come up more and more frequently as to the sustainability of IMSS. With the recent motions by the ASCLS Board of Directors regarding regional finances combined with the exorbitant costs now being demanded by the Snow King, the writing was on the wall. As you have heard from past messages, the ASCLS Board of Directors voted at the Fall, 2021 BOD meeting to require all Regions to liquidate all assets and direct those assets to the states on a per capita basis. This created a large problem for IMSS financing requiring that we either make IMSS its own tax entity involving large attorney and accountant fees or move the account to one of the state’s budgets impacting that state’s tax status. Meanwhile the Snow King sent a draft contract for 2023 which moved the meeting dates to the last 3 days of October, increased room rates that when combined with resort fees and taxes would push rooms to >$300/night, and more than doubled the minimum required food and beverage cost from $17,500 in 2022 to $37,000 in 2023. Taking all these items into account and adding in decreased attendance at the meeting, the Region VIII Council reached consensus on closing the page on IMSS. Thank you to those of you who responded to the recent survey regarding IMSS, the responses came back 60% discontinue so as you can see, this is not a unanimous feeling across the state or region.

You have one last chance to attend IMSS and join with your friends from Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah to celebrate the rich history of this amazing conference! Our 59th IMSS will be held in Jackson at the Snow King from October 6-8. The Planning Committee is working on putting together an amazing meeting celebrating the many years of this conference and the friendships gained through the years. If you want to help with planning, let me know – we still need a Publicity Chair. The theme is A Year to Remember and we will take a look back through the years - come dressed in your favorite decade  There will be the usual excellent line-up of speakers, many opportunities to catch up with friends old and new, interact with the exhibitors and of course, eat LOTS of food! We have a room block with room rates running $159/night (plus resort fee and taxes) – you can access the link through the IMSS website, http://asclsregion8.org/IMSS/imss-2022/accommodations/.  I suggest also looking at condo options in the area through vacation rental sites for good deals - grab a carload of friends and share a condo. Mark your calendars for October 6-8, get those PTO requests in now, and come to Jackson to celebrate the amazing professionals across our great Region!

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February in Montana

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Welcome February! I once read that “February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March”, I like to think of February as a time to regroup for a new year. January is still in Christmas hangover but by February, the Christmas decorations are put away, all those goodies are just a memory, and thoughts turn to spring blooms and gatherings. 

Your Montana leadership is eagerly looking ahead to the Spring. We held the Winter Board Meeting on January 22nd and covered a lot of business affecting our state Society. Our Nominations committee is working on filling the slate of candidates to be voted on this spring. If you’re interested in serving on the Board of Directors, raise your hand and say Count Me In! It’s a great experience and an opportunity to work with folks from across the state. You can let me know directly, contact any of our Nominations committee (Maria Rodriguez, Zanna Hartrich, Abbey Wichman), or fill out the Volunteer opportunity form (Get Involved), https://www.ascls-mt.org/get-involved, on our Montana website.

Speaking of our website, our new webmaster, Anna Adams is working with Susie Zanto getting acquainted with our current website and learning about the new platform coming later this year. Watch for updates about the website as they develop.

Another thing to watch for is news about the newly updated Bylaws combining them with our Standard Operating Procedures. Abbey Wichman is chairing this task force and has submitted our draft document to the ASCLS Bylaws Committee for review and approval right after Thanksgiving. We received initial feedback with a few minor edits and have resubmitted. When we receive the final approval, we will publish the proposed document to all of you for review prior to presenting it for a vote at our Annual Business Meeting in May. The Bylaws/SOPs will be in a table format with the Bylaw in the left column and the corresponding SOP in the right column. I’m very excited about this project and looking forward to sharing with all of you soon.

Have you seen the postings for the annual Lab Week Run? Registration is now open, https://labweekrun.com/! Individual race packets are $30 each or you can register a group of 5 for $125. These early bird prices end Feb 15; after that the rates go up to $35 and $150. This is the 7th year for this event, it’s a lot of fun and easy to do. Grab a group from your lab, take many photos and post them, and bring your medals to Great Falls for a large ASCLS-Montana group photo! I’m already registered, how about you?

If you haven’t responded to the Future of IMSS survey, there’s still time, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JX59LS3. It’s vitally important to get as much input as possible before the Region VIII Council meets on February 16th. We will be voting on the future of IMSS – will it continue as an annual in-person meeting, will it move to a virtual platform, will it alternate platforms, will it move to every 2 or 3 years? As you can see, there are many questions, and your input is needed. No matter what decision is made on the 16th, I do know that IMSS will not be held at Jackson after the 2022 conference. The Snow King is the only venue in the area that can accommodate our meeting and they have become far too expensive to be able to continue there. If we do continue in-person IMSS, we need to determine where to hold the meeting and a rotational schedule. If you haven’t completed the survey, please do so by the 14th of February. I will keep you posted on decisions made by the Council and if the decision is to continue with IMSS, watch for volunteer requests to help decide where and when to hold IMSS. We will also need to fill a planning committee so think about what you would like to do to help with planning.

I hope you are all staying healthy and safe, I know that as Covid continues to rage our laboratory professionals are working overtime and dealing with supply chain issues on a daily basis. I am so proud of every one of you hanging in there and doing what you do so well. Stay strong, stay resilient and remember to take time to breathe and smell the snow flowers. 

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To all ASCLS-Montana members,

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You have probably been hearing and reading items regarding a proposed change to the structure of the ASCLS Board of Directors. I don’t know all of the facts behind the proposal but I will share what I do know to bring you up to date.

 

Beginning with a bit of background for our newer members. ASCLS is divided into 10 regions. This came about in the 1950’s to help support constituent societies (state societies). The regional structure is noted in the ASCLS bylaws and defined in the accompanying SOPs. Montana is in Region VIII along with Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Region VIII is a strong region in the way we network across our region, largely due to the formation of the Intermountain States Seminar in 1963. Our Region VIII Council consists of the Presidents and President-elects from each of the 5 states, plus a Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Chair, Leadership Chair, Government Affairs Chair, Political Action Committee representative, Ascending Professional Chair, Developing Professional Chair, and the Region VIII Director. The Council meets 3 times per year and serves as a source of communication among the states in our regions while also getting information from national committees and the national Board of Directors. Not all ASCLS Regions function in the way that Region VIII does, nor do they have the close-knit friendships across the region. All regions have Councils and guidelines but do not meet regularly nor communicate across the states in their region. Region VIII is more active as a region by way of hosting IMSS for 58 years and the development of our Region VIII Leadership Academy in 2014.

 

At the 2021 Interim ASCLS Board of Director’s meeting, a proposal was made to look at restructuring the Board of Directors by dropping the regional designation for the 10 Regional directors.  This was then presented by the Region VIII Director, Stephanie Mihane, at our ASCLS-MT annual business meeting in April. The BOD provided an opportunity at the June 30, ASCLS House of Delegates in Louisville for an informal discussion of the proposed change.

 

Reasons for the change as stated by ASCLS BOD (the following excerpts are taken from talking points given to us by EVP Jim Flanigan):

• Membership is more concentrated in the eastern regions so those members have fewer opportunities to serve on the Board of Directors.

  • The current structure does not allow for diversity across the Board; basing Board representation only on a geographical basis restricts the opportunity for diversity of talent. Using regions as the primary criterion for board membership produces boards that are less diverse than the membership and the profession. In the proposed model, diversity of experiences, skills and expertise allows board members to bring a collectively broader set of perspectives to decision-making. For instance, the Nominations Committee would consider a broader range of criteria when vetting nominees for the board including what kinds of communities they serve (e.g. rural, urban, suburban), in what settings they work (e.g hospital, POL, university), certifications, and other demographic factors.

• Current implementation of “regions” has not evolved.

  • When formed in the 1950s, regions served a purpose for coordinating the activities of a wide-ranging national organization. The structures were necessary for information to be effectively shared. Since that time, the need for communication has been eliminated by contemporary communications networks. Systems for coordinating activities have evolved and improved dramatically.

  • With the use of electronic communications, the structure for a regional director (and subsequently, a region) is no longer necessary for communication between the national BOD and the members of ASCLS

• Maintenance of a failing systems prevents the devotion of resources to better models

  • It’s challenging for leaders to think beyond strongly held paradigms. If solutions all arise from within a 1950-60’s paradigm, obvious opportunities will be missed. For example: smaller collaborative relationships between states within a “region” or across regional lines.)

  • Human resources are required to maintain the structure instead of devoting those committed volunteers to more productive work at the national or constituent society level.

  • A lack of clear purpose tied to mission for regions leads to a lack of engagement, recycling of leaders and burnout.

 

Comments that were made at the House of Delegates ranged from strongly in favor of this proposed change to strongly opposed. A sampling of those comments include:

• ASCLS-Alaska President discussed the unique challenges in Alaska and the importance of having a Regional Director who understands those challenges

• ASCLS Ascending Professional Director spoke to the need for ASCLS to modernize our structure to allow more Ascending Professional and Developing Professional members the opportunity to serve in national positions

• Several members spoke to the current system serving as an effective tool for mentoring potential leaders from state to regional to national roles. Also, the need for one-on-one communication is still as important as ever, the idea that contemporary electronic forms of communication have eliminated the need for personal communication at the regional level was strongly disputed.

• 2 ASCLS Past Presidents agreed that change is always a good thing – when there is a reason to change, not just change for the purpose of change.    Bot past presidents brought these issues forward:

• What is the current situation, pros and cons and what are the current issues that need to be resolved?  We heard much about how the developing and ascending membership. groups are restructuring to meet their needs.  What can we learn from them?

• What are the goals of any reorganization?  What does it need to look like?  What outcomes are we expecting?  I heard many - flow of funds, improving diversity to reflect the diversity of our profession, but absent in our current leadership

• An important step in the process is to develop a set of criteria that will be used for future member representation on the board?  How will the nominations committee, recently expanded, use those criteria to select candidate to lead our organization?

• How will we ultimately measure that we have achieved our goals?  We need data to support the criteria and the goals we set.

 

What’s next? It appears the process was not handled according to the current ASCLS bylaws which is why it has been moved ahead to vote at the mid-term House of Delegates. However, the bylaws state that any amendment must be voted on at the ANNUAL House of Delegates so that might delay this until next June. We were told there will be many ‘town halls’ this fall to discuss this potential restructuring. Some members who spoke at the House of Delegates raised potential modifications to the proposed plan. Those ideas were:

• Maintain the regional designation as is and add 2 at-large Directors to satisfy the need for more opportunities in more populous regions and to add more diversity to the BOD

• Maintain the regional designation but reduce the number of regions to 7-8 and add 2-3 at-large Directors which would keep the BOD at the current number but add more diversity

 

This appears to be the first step in a larger restructuring of ASCLS. The BOD appears to be poised to first, remove “Regional” from Regional Directors; then to remove regions entirely. That is another discussion and largely depends on what happens with the first item. As a member of ASCLS every one of you has a say in what you wish to see happen in your organization. We are a grass-roots organization and it exists for its members. Please don’t hesitate to speak up and make your feelings known, be they positive or negative. A consistent thread in the discussions in Louisville was that we, as a membership, do not oppose change. We do oppose change for the purpose of change; we wish to see more data behind the change, more specifics as to next steps (just removing a word leaves many unanswered questions), and how do we determine the effectiveness of the change. 

 

Holly Weinberg, 2021-2022 ASCLS-MT President

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National ASCLS Letter to Congress

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On March 22, 2020, ASCLS sent a letter to Congressional leadership and every member of the Senate and House of Representatives to 1) help educate Congress about the lack of resources and long term under-investment in clinical laboratories by the Congress as well as correct fundamental misunderstandings of the system for clinical laboratory testing that could lead to poor laws getting passed, and 2) raise awareness with the public about those same issues to pressure Congress to act on the two levers it has at its disposal: laws and appropriation of funds.

 

Please be prepared to contact your Congressmen and Senators to support the initiatives laid out in the letter.  To read the full letter, click here.

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