Please Update Your Contact Information

Whether you are a school based athletic trainer or not you probably know that the new school year is upon us. Many of you (school based or otherwise)have seized an opportunity and have a new job. Because of that your contact information may have changed over the summer. As you may know improved communication with the general membership is one of the main goals of the SWATA Executive Board. We can only communicate with you if we know where you are and how to get in touch with you. If you've changed jobs, have a new phone number or e-mail, or simply want to make sure that your current contact information is up to date please take a few moments to go to the NATA website and update your information.

Without your accurate information we won't be able to inform you about all of the great initiatives that SWATA is working on to enhance your job, your profession,and your association.

The Future is Bright

As a new school year approaches quickly and educators nationwide are sitting through in-services on their respective campuses, it leaves a lot of time for the mind to wander and gives one time to reflect on certain things. As I look back at Corpus, many things come to mind – as it was with the Little Rock BBQ, the Lexington reception is something that SWATA members will be talking about for years to come. Another highlight of the meeting that sticks out to me were some of the speeches made by our award winners at the Honors and Awards Banquet – I can honestly say that I have never heard a speech end in a prayer, but it still brings chills to me thinking about it. There were a lot of personal and professional highlights for me from Corpus Christi, but there is one highlight that stands out in my mind.

On Saturday evening, after visiting a few alumni gatherings and having dinner, my wife, some friends and I found ourselves heading to a restaurant on the water. Well, the wait was quite long, so we ended up at an ice cream shop across the street. There, we had the opportunity to visit with some athletic training students and recent graduates from the University of Texas at Arlington. For forty five minutes or so, we were able to talk with this group, share some stories and hear some of their experiences and goals. We have the privilege to work with UTA each year as some of their students come to our campus each semester to work with our staff. This allows them to some secondary school and football experience, so I am a bit biased by saying that the students from this program are exceptional. But I had the opportunity to talk to quite a few of our collegiate ATEP students at SWATA, both from Arkansas and Texas, and each of those experiences encouraged me about the future of our profession.

In a day and age where some people are leery of talking about “Generation Y” (and I have been guilty of that in the past), I can safely say that I am the opposite now. I look at the energy and love these young professionals have for athletic training and I am convinced that the future of this profession and of SWATA is in good hands. I encourage you to look in on the Young Professionals blog and see some of the things they are talking about. Carissa Spraberry and Kim Faterkowski have done a tremendous job with this group over the past few years and it is encouraging to see some of the things they are doing. I encourage you to look around your community for recent graduates who might be in their first job as an athletic trainer and give them a call – offer any advice that you might have to offer or just listen. I guarantee you will make a difference in their school year and that five minutes will make an impact in their careers. Take a few extra minutes to teach one of your student athletic trainers a new skill or hint – you never know when that extra five minutes sparks the love for this profession and snowballs into a future leader within the NATA or SWATA.

This is a difficult post for me, because frankly, I still consider myself somewhat young. However, when I look at the few areas on my head where hair still grows and see a light shade of grey, I come crashing back down to reality. But I can say that I truly believe that the best years for this organization are yet to come, and that is a broad statement because of the amazing history of SWATA for the past 54 years. Take some time to make a difference or impact in one of our young professionals lives – they are the future and I know that the future is bright.

SWATA Dues Unchanged for 7 years!

What does the Executive Board do in their meetings at the Annual Meeting?

A couple of the (many) things we do in the course of these meetings is review the last few years' expenditures and revenues, approve a budget, and then set the SWATA Member dues for the year.

The budget process takes about 4 or 5 hours. The Finance Committee reviews previous years' expenses and revenues and then prepares and presents a budget to the Board. The Board reviews the Finance Committee's report and (often) makes minor revisions to accommodate SWATA's overall goals and anticipated activities for the upcoming year approving the budget.

Without getting into detail (although we have details for days if you want them), the Board also voted on your District Dues for the upcoming year (2008-2009) in Corpus. This year, we voted to set District dues at $90, which means that your District dues have not changed since the Membership set that amount at the 2001 Annual Meeting. Thus, your District dues have not increased since 2001. The last several SWATA Executive Boards (going back before my time) have worked hard to increase Membership value without increasing Member costs, and I think they (we) have been successful.

As a reminder, your District dues are part of your NATA dues that you pay in December. The NATA portion is $150. Of the District portion ($90) $40 goes to the District (SWATA) and $50 goes to pay your membership dues to the state associations (TSATA and AATA).

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Thank you for your Membership and your contribution to making our profession better.

Thank You

To all the members of SWATA, thanks so much for the fun time in Corpus Christi. This past year has been a whirlwind of activity and such a fulfilling one!! I have asked many of you to take on more responsibilities whether through committee positions or task forces and I think we are a better and stronger association due to your commitment. Your executive board is a quality group of people that work hard all year long and do the little things to try to make our profession as good as it can possibly be.

Please don't hesitate to call or e-mail anyone on the board for help, guidance, concerns, or to just chat.