MAFP Delegates Represent You at AAFP
ADVOCACY
Dr. John Mitchell and Dr. Katie Patterson / AAFP Delegates
The AAFP Congress of Delegates (COD) wrapped up on September 25 with another interesting and productive Congress in Philadelphia, PA. This year’s delegation consisted of Drs. Katie Patterson, Indianola and John Mitchell, Pontotoc, Delegates; Drs. Susan Chiarito, Vicksburg, and Brent Smith, Cleveland, Alternate Delegates; along with MAFP President Dr. Bill Grantham, Jackson, and Beth Embry, MAFP Executive Director. The congress began on Sunday afternoon with instructional meetings and ended with a Town Hall Meeting led by present and past AAFP leaders facilitating discussions and a Q&A on current topics of interest. A major theme continues to be AAFP’s work to lessen administrative burden and increase family physician reimbursement. As we know, during the Congress future leaders are elected, so much of Sunday afternoon allows time to meet the candidates. Representatives can gain insight on the future leaders’ thoughts and leadership ideas for the challenges that lie ahead. On Monday, after welcoming comments and hearing from guest speakers, the Congress gets down to the real work at hand, discussing proposed resolutions. The Congress is broken down into five reference committees: Practice Enhancement, Advocacy, Health of the
Mississippi’s voting delegation to the AAFP Congress of Delegates, including Drs. Brent Smith, Alternate; Katie Patterson, Delegate; Susan Chiarito, Alternate; and John Mitchell, Delegate. Public and Science, Organization and Finance, and Education. All of the proposed resolutions are assigned to one of these committees for debate, discussion, review and then recommendations to the Congress. Prior to our delegation’s arrival at the Congress in Philadelphia, the delegation divides the reference committee resolutions so that we may review and meet as a group to discuss. Some of the resolutions are more controversial than others, allowing for more efficient utilization of the time at the congress and
MAFP President Dr. Bill Grantham, front left, and Dr. Susan Chiarito, right, visit with Dr. John Mitchell, center left, as he serves as an observer of a reference committee.
ensuring that we have a better grasp on the topics destined to come before us. Reference committee time slots overlap, making it impossible for one person to sit through all the debates, no matter how interesting a session may or may not be. Some of the debates can be quite intense and even colorful at times. During the reference committee sessions, anyone can speak to the topic which can lend itself to unusually long sessions, as was the case this year with the Advocacy Reference Committee. Rather than a normal two hour session, it lasted almost four hours. After a long day of friendly and sometimes not-so-friendly open debate on Monday, we settled into hearing the reference committees’ recommendations and a more defined but limited debate on select resolutions. The most excitement from Tuesday was a fiasco around parliamentary procedures. Don’t you just love those parliamentary rules? The topic itself was one of controversy related to abortion, but the parliamentary process wore everyone down more than the topic. It seemed the fiasco was going to never end and at times it reminded me of a Jerry Clower story where I could hear him say, “Just shoot up here amongst us, somebody’s got to have some relief”. That
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THE MISSISSIPPI FAMILY PHYSICIAN