SWATA Committee Spotlight - Young Professionals

From time to time throughout the next year we will be spotlight one of our hard working committees that we have in SWATA. We on the executive board feel that there are great things being done by our commiteees for you the member and we want to give them some positive exposure.

The first committee that we will be spotlighting is the Young Professionals Committee. This committee is chaired by Carissa Spraberry (cspraberry@sheldon.k12.tx.us) of CE King HS in the Greater Houston area. Carissa is the 2009 recipient of the James Dodson New Horizon Award.


The Young Professionals Committee (YPC) was created to offer the growing number of young athletic trainers an opportunity to get involved in the future of our association and continue to grow as professionals and leaders. Their mission is to identify and address the interests, needs and concerns of young athletic training professionals, while developing the future leaders of our association and facilitating open communication to and from all members of SWATA. While they may be an exclusive group because they have a specific age demographic, they are definitely not exclusionary, so thoughts, perspectives and input from everyone are always welcome.

Some of their current projects…

The SWATA mentor list-they have put together a fine group of athletic trainers willing to offer advice and counsel on issues facing athletic trainers. You can find the list here: http://www.swata.org/committees/mentor_list.php

If you are interested in becoming a mentor: http://www.swata.org/committees/mentor_form.php

They are currently developing ideas to improve this excellent resource, so be on the lookout for that.

ATEAM: HR 1137- They collected over 200 postcards in support of our legislation at SWATA. If you are interested in continuing this project at your workplace you can find the postcards and instructions here: http://www.nata.org/members1/youngprofessionals/yppostcards.cfm

Other things They are working on…
National Athletic Training Month Promotions
SWATA 2010 programming for students and professionals as well as social and networking events for the meeting. (Did you like the flair?! Want more?)

You can also find out more at our blog www.swataypc.blogspot.com or on Facebook.

Welcome Back!

On this first day of school for the 2009 - 2010 school year most of our SWATA members should be completely back to work in their settings, or very close. I would like to take this opportunity to say that the SWATA Executive Board wishes you a successful year.

Please be looking to not only this blog, but also the SWATA website (http://www.swata.org), and the occasional e-blasts for information regarding your association. On this blog we will not only inform you of important deadlines, opportunities, and general news items we will also use it to spotlight our hard working committees as well. If you have changed employers over the summer please take a few minutes to update your contact information with the NATA so that we may better communicate with you.

It is an honor to serve you as President and I will strive to keep the current level of value for your membership dollar, but also to increase the value beyond your current levels. Do not ever hesitate to contact me or any of our executive board members if you have any problems, questions, ideas, or random thoughts regarding your association.

Thanks,
Mike Carroll M Ed, ATC, LAT
SWATA President

What is in the future for the SWATA executive board?

As you all know by now at the SWATA Annual Meeting last month in July the membership overwhelmingly voted in favor for the new SWATA Constitution. Because of that the association will be able to grow, adapt, and change in the upcoming years because of the flexibility in this document.

One thing that is noticeably different in this new document is the make up of the executive board. Because everyone who has been elected to the executive board will serve out the term that they have been elected to the next few years the board will be morphing from the current make up to the new one. Currently the voting members of the executive board are made up of the National Director, President, Vice President, Second Vice President, Past President, and a state representative from both Arkansas and Texas. Also currently the President of the association only serves a one year term in that position. The membership overwhelmingly felt the president should be a two year term and that the number of voting members on the executive board should remain at seven and also that the state reps on the board should come from the state association boards. Because of that SWATA will be working off of a transition plan until 2013 when the executive board as described in the most recent constitution is finally in place. The new executive board's voting members will consist of the National Director, President, Vice President, Secretary, Member At Large, and representatives from each state associations executive boards. As you can see the positions of past president and second vice president have been eliminated and their duties will be taken over by existing board members.

The question then becomes what positions will we elect and when will we do it.

Below I have listed the positions and years that they will be elected:

2010 - Vice President (will become first two year president of SWATA under the new constitution and standing rules), Arkansas State Rep, Secretary (will be a non voting member of the executive board the first year on the board)
2011- National Director and Texas State Rep (will be chosen from TSATA BOD)
2012 - Vice President, Arkansas State Rep, Secretary
2013 - Member At Large

As you can see we will have several positions open this year and nominations are currently being accepted. If you would like to nominate a worthy SWATA member for either Vice President, Arkansas State Rep, or Secretary please contact SWATA Past President Dan O'Connor (oconnor_dan@sbcglobal.net) with the member's name and the position that they are being nominated to run. Nominations for all elected offices will close on February 15, 2010.

In the upcoming weeks and months we will use this blog and also the SWATA e-blast system to inform you about information that you as a member need to have.

Volunteer List - How do I get on a SWATA committee

One of the more frequent questions that I get from members since I was elected to the SWATA Executive Board is "I want to be involved. How can I get on a committee?" That's a great question and I want to make sure that everyone understands how they can be appointed to a SWATA committee, work group, or task force.

On the SWATA Executive Board we want to make every effort to make sure that hard working members who want to be involved in the leadership of the association have that opportunity. Because of that we established a volunteer list in the spring of 2007. Since that time well over 100 members have filled out the online form which can be found at

http://www.swata.org/committees/volunteer_form.php

Close to 90 of those have been appointed to committees in the last 2+ years. At the most recent SWATA Meeting we appointed approximately 45 members to committees. While there are still some people on the list that have been there for quite some time you can see that many members are getting appointed to committees and are being "put to work" so to speak. When a committee chair has an opening or several openings on their committee they will request the most recent volunteer list to check to see if there is someone who fits what they are needing on their committee. I do want to give some pointers on how and why people get appointed to committees:

• Most committee assignments are made around the time of the SWATA Annual Meeting. Occasionally committees need extra members during the course of the year, but that is the exception rather than the rule.


• To be appointed to a committee be flexible. If you check the box that says "any committee" you have a greater chance of being appointed quicker than if you specify one or two committees as they may not have openings every year.


• If your contact information changes please make sure that you up date it with us.


• Please understand that even with the new committee structure (members may serve no more than three years on a committee) that it still may take a few years to be appointed to a committee.

If you have any questions about how committee appointments or anything else in SWATA happens please don't hesitate to contact anyone on the SWATA Executive Board.