A MESSAGE FROM THE ASCA PRESIDENT
I hope this message finds each of you doing well this year! The Executive Committee and Executive Director of the ASCA have been working on exciting and necessary changes that we hope will benefit, strengthen, and provide opportunity for growth of the association and the chiropractic profession in Alabama. Many of us are creatures of habit and tradition, so change is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable. I want you to know that anytime the ASCA leadership and Executive Director discuss changes to the association, those discussions run deep and are never decided upon flippantly. We always try to do what we think is best for our colleagues and the profession.
As has been tradition for many decades the ASCA has held an annual convention in June to provide and help doctors obtain necessary continuing education hours. This has always been a great time to see old friends, catch up with one another, and to hopefully make new friends and learn something new! The leadership of the ASCA has decided that it is time to move away from holding a single large once per year convention. There are several reasons that we have come to this conclusion, and I want to take a moment to explain them to you.
Our Executive Director has always done a remarkable job of putting together the best possible convention experience for our providers. However, the planning of and seeing a large convention to fruition is a monumental task for a small association with one full time employee. Innumerable hours are spent securing and planning for a large convention. A single large convention requires a venue and meeting spaces that can accommodate us and there are only a handful to be had in Alabama. When negotiating and securing a venue the association becomes contractually obligated to rent a large number of hotel rooms. There are food and beverage minimums that have to been met. The expenses associated with these requirements are very substantial. COVID has had a tremendous, negative impact on the process of being able to secure top quality speakers, vendors and venues. The costs of providing a single large convention have been steadily trending upward and have already proven to make it very difficult to even cover our expenses. Frankly, and more than ever, there are many online hours available to providers, including the necessary Alabama Law hours. Likewise, there are a multitude of in person courses available to doctors and staff. The continuing education market has become a more competitive and so there are simply more avenues available for providers to obtain necessary yearly CEU credit and law hours.
In light of this changing landscape the ASCA has chosen to move away from a single large June convention. The traditional convention weekend had been providing a total of 18 CEU’s including the Alabama Law hours. These hours were obtained on a Friday through Sunday time frame. Beginning in 2022, we are going to now offer three smaller continuing education programs running on a Saturday to Sunday time frame providing 12 hrs of CEU credits on each weekend. We will offer a North Alabama location. Central Alabama location and South Alabama location. We will offer the necessary Alabama Law hours at each location. In addition, we will be offering 6 hours of free online courses for doctors and staff who register for any of the full 12 hr weekend programs.
In utilizing smaller venues around the state, the ASCA can avoid the added expenses and requirements of using large convention venues. Again, there are only a limited number of locations available to us each year. Offering smaller North, Central and South locations will provide us with more venue options and will make it more convenient for providers to attend an ASCA event closer to home and not be required to be away from their office on a Friday. We think this makes much better financial sense for the association while continuing to provide excellent program courses for our doctors and staff. We also think it makes yearly CEU hours easier to obtain, closer to home for our doctors.
We know that many doctors have always looked forward to the annual June convention to catch up with colleagues, friends, and classmates. We think there is still great opportunity for those things to happen when you attend an ASCA event. Furthermore, the July location will serve some of the purposes of the traditional June convention with regard to offering the annual luncheon and awards program.
Will Rogers is quoted as saying, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
If you’ve been in practice for any significant length of time, you will agree with me in that the chiropractic profession is continually changing and evolving. The way I practice today looks different than it did 31 years ago when I hung my shingle. The ASCA has always been aware of the changing landscape and on the right track. We know its time to keep moving, growing, and changing with the times.
With that said, the ASCA is looking forward to COMING TO YOU IN 2022!
See you soon at an ASCA event,
Brad Frost, DC, CCSP