Thanks for a Great Symposium!!

First of all, I would like to echo the post Mike had yesterday. I am going to be honest with you - with NATA being held in San Antonio, many of us were curious to see what kind of turn out we had in Arlington last week. Well, after 700 of you attended and we had the largest number of exhibitors in the 55 years of SWATA symposiums, the nervousness is gone! What a terrific week - from the kick ball game in which we all learned you don't argue with the umpires, Mr. President (see picture above), to the wonderful keynote from the courageous Kevin Everett, to the wonderful speech by our newest Hall of Famer Brian Conway and the vote on Saturday to ratify the Constitution that will govern this great organization for years to come, what more can you say??

While we are on the topic of the SWATA convention, I wanted to take a moment to address the new format you will see in next years symposium. It was briefly discussed in the Town Hall on Thursday, but after alot of discussions throughout last week, some things are somewhat set in stone for SWATA 2010. Next year in Arlington, you are going to see a new schedule when you come to SWATA. Plans are underway for the same pre-registration cocktail reception on Wednesday night to coincide with committee meetings. Programming will begin bright and early on Thursday morning culminating with the Welcome Reception that evening. On Friday, we will take a break for lunch to have our Honors and Awards banquet. Once we have celebrated the award winners at the luncheon, we will resume programming for the rest of the afternoon. Friday evening will be designated as alumni night for our wonderful athletic training staffs throughout our district to get together for some fun and fellowship. On Saturday, we will hold our business meeting and plan on wrapping up the meeting in the early afternoon. Alot of planning is yet to come, but I think this new format will be advantageous to all of our membership as well as our exhibitors.

I am excited to serve on an Executive Board that is dedicated to serving each of you and this great profession. Each of you that attended the convention should have received a link to the SWATA symposium evaluation - this is a chance for you to tell us and our convention committee what we can do to make the symposium better for each of you. If you did not receive this email, please email me at david.traylor@kellerisd.net and I will send it to you.

As always, please never hesitate to let your Executive Board what we can do for you.

DT

SWATA Annual Meeting 2009

Last week in Arlington the annual meeting of SWATA was held and it was one of the more successful meetings in recent memory. We ended up with more than 700 athletic trainers in attendance and a great time was had by all. It was a historic week in more than one sense. Current National Director Brian Conway was inducted into the SWATA Hall of Fame. At the SWATA business meeting on Saturday afternoon we voted to ratify a new constitution in a near unanimous vote. This new constitution will allow for the association to grow and change in the years to come without constantly needing to amend the document. Because of the new constitution next year we will elect a vice president who will become the first SWATA two year president after their vice presidential term. We will also elect our district secretary next year as well as Arkansas State Rep. We will post more on that in the upcoming months.

We had a great welcome reception at the Texas Rangers little league ball park as the Student Committee played a kickball game against the Young Professionals Committee. If you were there you know what a great time everyone had. Newly elected executive board member Chris Hall should be commended for the execution of the game and reception.

Special thanks also go out to our two NATA Presidential candidates. Current NATA President Marje Albohm and also former district two national director Joe Iezzi were in attendance. Finally we had a very moving keynote address from Kevin Everett. Kevin, if you remember, played football for the Buffalo Bills and was paralyzed during the course of a football game. Given little chance to ever walk again he discussed his struggle and how hard work and faith allowed him to be able to walk again.

Special commendation should go to several people as we close the book on SWATA Annual Meeting 2009. Outgoing past president Melinda Terry for all of her hard work and dedication during her time as an elected member of the executive board. Past President Dan O'Connor should also be recognized for his tireless work as President. Because of his leadership we will have this wonderful new constitution to help guide us in the future. Last and certainly not least Parliamentarian Lorna Strong can not be thanked enough for her tireless efforts in the rewriting of not only the constitution, but also the new standing rules.

Be looking to this Blog in the upcoming year as we will keep you more informed and involved with SWATA than ever before. I am looking forward to serving you as president from now until our 2010 meeting.

Mike Carroll
SWATA President