June 2012

As the days of summer have begun, hopefully some time off will be in your near future. Your Board of Director's are on the job adding value to your organization. As SmithBucklin our management partner continues to assist us with ongoing business developement, we have several projects in the works. We hope to be able in the coming months to announce some exciting developements. Have you heard AALNC was represented at the White House this week? Your President-Elect Beth Zorn was involved in meetings. She will be updating you about her trip, here on our blog with in the week. We were honored to be asked and pleased we could send Beth to participate. Webinars-we have a great schedule coming up and you need to check our website for updates. The continually popular "So You Want to be an LNC" will be presented on June 28, 2pm CST. See our website for details. The Forum committee is in full swing here and our event in Chicago next year will be worth the trip. We are currently vetting speakers and Chicago is a great city! Plan now. We are three months in to our new Board term and I would like to thank Karen, Beth, Julie, Marianne, Kathy and Moniaree for their hard work and dedication to your organization. More soon, Sharon

NTI-American Association of Critical Care Nurses Exhibiting

Another update from the exhibiting front! AALNC is currently exhibiting in Orlando, Florida-thanks to the Orlando chapter of AALNC. As I said last time we look for every opportunity to exhibit as cost effectively as possible. When a conference is located in the same area as willing volunteers, it is a win-win for all! In case you have never had the chance to participate in exhibiting it is not all glamour. We are talking non stop to all that come to our booth. It is tiring but, exhilarating to meet others and share information. NTI (AACN's conference name) is huge with an attendance that is 7,000+. This is an excellent group to interact with and we have the added benefit of seeing who else is exhibiting and if their is another partnership for AALNC around the corner. I just want to say thanks to Orlando for their time and efforts! Sharon

American Association for Justice Annual Conference-Exhibiting Details

AAJ will have their annual conference in Chicago July 28-31 of this year. AAJ is the national organization that supports and educates Plaintiff's lawyers. We are very excited to be exhibiting this year. Since the conference is in Chicago (as is our SmithBucklin HQ) we are able to exhibit at a decreased cost. Our goal is to exhibit and further the education of attorneys to our field of expertise. At these national conferences we also try to meet with key leaders and arrange contacts that might lead to further exposure for our organization. This has been very successful in the past few years with DRI (national defense organization) and TAANA (national nurse attorney organization). I will be attending AAJ and be present in the booth on a daily basis. You may ask how do we decide where we are going and how much we spend for each endeavor? In the past under Marianne Hallas's leadership and now with Julie Dickinson in the role as  treasurer we examine our yearly budget and the finance committee determines the amount available to us for exhibiting. Then we look at other factors such as location, dates, cost to fly, booth costs, hotel costs etc. When we have the ability to have HQ in the same city as the conference that definitely saves us money for travel, lodging and shipping our booth and products. We also look at new avenues to explore for business development. The SB staff and I will be showcasing AALNC and our products and services. We hope if any of you will be attending to please stop by Booth # 1009 and introduce yourself. Thank you for the continued opportunity to represent our organization. Sharon

May 2012 Updates

April and May have been busy for your Board. Our Willingness to Serve form streamlined our volunteer assignments-thanks to those who filled them out. Committees are meeting or are about to meet. Forum 2013 Committee is already reviewing feedback and planning. Thanks to Jeannie Autry for serving as Chair. Educational products and Webinar committees are going to be very busy this year with new offerings..... to be announced. We are still waiting to hear on our research proposal submitted a few months ago-it is a long process. We have already been discussing the 2013 budget and how we can inform and educate more people about legal nurse consulting. We have several exhibiting opportunities for AALNC forthcoming including: NNBA, AACN and AAJ just in the next few months. Our new Business development manager Kristen has been working hard with our executive director Kevin for several opportunities in local areas and nationwide. More information as the details are developed. Thank you to my Board for allowing me some time off for vacation and continuing on our strategic plans in my absence. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks Sharon

Sold Out Forum-Our Second Year!!

Thank you to all that attended the Forum in San Antonio. It was very well attended with excellent speakers present. We opened the President's reception to all attendees and will continue this as a new tradition. This allows an opportunity for networking prior to the Forum's formal opening. It also allows access to all of our Board of Directors for conversation and interaction for members interested in volunteering. First hand info is the best mechanism to investigate where your talents are best suited. We have Beth Zorn in our President-Elect position and look forward to an exciting year ahead with her orientation to the job. On behalf of Karen Huff, our current Past President and myself, we thank you for the positive comments we received on site regarding our offer to remain on the Board for an additional year.  We appreciate the positive feedback about explaining our team approach with Smith Bucklin-which I elaborated on during my State of the Union speech. All LNCC's and Past National Presidents were recognized at our opening meeting. The guidance provided by our past presidents has led us to the path we are currently on. The Forum Committee did an outstanding job: Debbie Pritts, Jeannie Autry, Beth Diehl Svrjcek and Mary Kay DeGeorge with BOD liaison Barb Boschert. We appreciate your efforts. We have many exciting partnerships and liaisons in the works with more info to follow as we progress along. Forum 2013 will be in Chicago with info posted to our website as it is available. We will continue to work hard for you our members and the 2013 Forum efforts are already underway. Thank you for the opportunity to serve a second year as your President. As always I will do my best as we honor the stewardship bestowed on us.
More to come!

UPDATES March 2012

I wanted to follow up on some previously posted information. We are still waiting to hear about our research proposal to the RWJF. I will keep you posted. The attendance numbers for the Forum have exceeded our goals-which is excellent news. There is still time to join us in San Antonio-as Board members we would enjoy meeting you and obtaining your feedback! The Willingness to Serve application has provided a great source of volunteers. We hope to assign volunteers who have submitted applications, by the time of the Forum. So please let us know what area you are interested in, to serve your organization. Chapter Leader Webinar is right around the corner with Julie Dickinson guiding the way. Anyone who is a Chapter leader needs to take advantage of this opportunity. We will have some exciting news at our business meeting on site at the Forum and I do hope you can attend. Let me know if you have questions. Hope to see you soon  Sharon

Education and Volunteering

This month is the big push before our annual Forum being held in San Antonio, Texas. I do hope you are able to come and see the educational and networking offerings this year. We have had a tremendous reponse and I look forward to meeting with you at the end of this month!  An email blast has been sent to the membership with a "Willingness to Serve" form. There are many dynamic individuals in our midst that have so much to offer to all of our membership. Please consider helping YOUR organization. This is an excellent opportunity to broaden your network of legal nurse consultants. We are very excited to offer our first webinar (this month) providing an orientation to our Chapter Leaders. Our National Board member Julie Dickinson, will be leading this informative session. We recognize that with the right tools leaders can excel and we hope this offering is one you find beneficial. I leave you today with one of my favorite quotes from Sir Winston Churchill " We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Sharon