ACC-MN Board of Councilors

6 p.m. Aug. 10, 2009

Ewald Consulting

Minutes

Attending: Gary Hanovich, Uma Valeti, Tim Henry, Randall Stark, Gary Francis

Attending by phone: Andy Chiu, Bill Nelson, Scott Wright

Staff: Bill Monn

Not Attending: John Haley, Patrick Koller, Sunil Mankad, Carmelo Panetta, Tushar Vora, Donna Kania-Lachance

1)Call to Order

Hanovich called the meeting to order at 6:09 p.m.

2)Additions to the agenda

* Co-Sponsoring a "Mayo Controversies in Cardiology"meeting next year in St. Paul.

Valeti discussed the possibility of the Chapter’s involvement with the Mayo-sponsored Controversies in Cardiology meetings it has held in the state. He also asked the board if there are any other meetings the Chapter may want to explore co-sponsoring. Board members were supportive and referred to the experience in California with meetings sponsored by Cedars-SinaiMedicalCenter. Valeti said the Chapter should be able to participate in the agenda and preferably fold the Chapter’s annual conference into this meeting. Hanovich commented this would streamline the Continuing Medical Education (CME) process because Mayo offers CME. Valeti said the date for the Spring event was approximately May 8-9.

ACTION:The board asked Valeti to follow up with Mayo organizers and report back to the board.

* 2010 ACC Distinguished Awards – nominations deadline Sept. 30

Monn said he was encouraged by the ACC to make sure all members are asked to recommend candidates for various ACC awards. It was suggested to remind members in the August Chapter newsletter.

ACTION: Include reminders and links in the August Newsletter

3)Approve June 22 Board minutes

Moved and seconded to approve June 22 board minutes. Passed on a voice vote.

4)Advocacy – Nick de Julio

* Chapter Preparedness Initiative (gathering home addresses)

Monn presented a report from de Julio updating the board on activities to date in collecting home addresses of Chapter members. He noted that the last two calls for information had no responses from members and that the Rochester area in particular had a high number of members but relatively few responded with their home addresses.

ACTION:Monn to ask Mayo board members to assist in collecting email addresses for members in the Rochester area. (Wright suggested having a person look at the Rochester phone book to get home addresses).

ACTION: Monn to re-sort and re-send lists of members to practice captains to identify and secure home addresses for members in their practice who have not provided their home addresses.

* Advocacy activity/communications from ACC.

Valeti said he believed asking practice captains to have their practice administrators have members sign a template letter is an effective means to contacting members of Congress. He said he used a letter in his practice that he thought was particularly effective. Monn noted that de Julio had sent a template letter customized for the Chapter to all members.

ACTION: Valeti to send specific email with template letter to Monn to resend to practice captains.

Additionally, Valeti suggested that practices should consider doing a Cardiology For the Day event with members of Congress. Wright suggested that Reps. TimWalz (District 1), Collin Peterson (District 7), and James Oberstar (District 8) are the Chapter’s best chances to impact their votes. Valeti said members should consider writing opinions for the Opinion/Editorial (Op/Ed) pages of newspapers. Wright said the ACC has a number of white paper Op/Eds that were created by a blue ribbon panel that he participated on.

ACTION: Monn to request white paper Op/Eds from ACC

5)Financials. Review/approve June financials

Moved and seconded to approve June financials as presented, passed on voice vote

6)Membership. MN-ACC numbers; comparison to national

Monn reviewed how Minnesota stacks up compared to other states. Minnesota has about 92% of it member FACCspaid who were billed by ACC. This compares with about a 90% average nationally.

7)Events.

* FIT program

Monn reported that he has been in contact with Marc Newell, lead Fellow In Training (FIT) at the University of Minnesota regarding a program that would be co-sponsored by the Chapter. Monn also has been in contact with Guy Reeder, lead FIT at the Mayo Clinic. Valeti said he has been in contact with representatives from Pfizer and said they would co-sponsor an event and would pay for costs including food and refreshments. The board said the program needed to include a message about why it’s important to be involved with ACC. Valeti said he’d like this to be a bi-annual event with a program in the Twin Cities for the U of M FITs and one in Rochester for the Mayo FITs. He said he’d like Pfizer to commit to co-sponsoring both.

ACTION: Monn to be in contact with Newell to work on finalizing a program, commitments from speakers and reserving a facility; Valeti to review program content to insure the Chapter has appropriate input. Monn to contact Pfizer rep who has been in contact with Valeti – Valeti to forward contact information to Monn

* Annual Conference

Monn reported that final numbers from this year’s conference were included in the board packet. Planning for next year will be dependent on the reception to working with the Mayo Clinic on its Controversies in Cardiology program discussed earlier.

8)Governance

* Monn reported that the ACC Board of Councilors has approved the Chapter’s request for a bylaws change that allows it to add a Board seat to the Southern District.

The proposed timing: Notice in August newsletter, ballot sent approximately Aug. 14 with 30 days notice, polls close approximately Sept. 15.

Monn noted that the bylaws appear to allow either election of the Councilor at the same time as other councilors (end of the year to be seated in March) or by appointment of the Board to fill the remainder of the current term, at which time the person would need to stand for election for a full term at the end of the year. Discussion seemed to favor appointing a Councilor immediately should the amendment pass. No action was taken.

Moved and seconded to approve the proposed bylaws change and to have management proceed with a poll of Chapter members. Passed on a voice vote.

Monn noted that the Board would need to address how to stagger board membership at the end of the year because nearly all Councilors will be up for re-election and the by-laws call for no more than half up for election in any one year.

Being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.

Next meeting of the board is scheduled for Oct. 12 at 6 p.m.