Production Medicine The Veterinary Board of Governors will consider rulemaking to define the Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship in Washington Administrative Code. A task force was formed in order to gather input from all types of practice, particularly food animal medicine due to tightened FDA regulations when it comes to drug residues in food animals, including food animals in urban settings. WSU/CVM A new Teaching Academy at the CVM has been instrumental in raising the awareness and importance of teaching as well as raising the bar on effective teaching. The Academy hosts workshops utilizing the teaching talents of outside presenters as well as a regular string of in-house ‘brown bag’ seminars utilizing the talents of faculty who are leaders in changing the way we think about teaching. Finance Committee Fiscal year 2012 – 2013 ended with a net profit of $9,586. There was increased income from advertising, administrative services, directory, member programs, interest and the veterinary career network.
Board Briefs
Program Committee
The October 3, 2013 WSVMA Executive Board Meeting was held in Yakima in conjunction with the Annual Conference. Executive Committee Report Regional Animal Services of King County wants to require reporting of pet owners’ contact information for each cat or dog that receives a rabies vaccination in order to increase pet licensure. The WSVMA and Puget Sound VMA together met with county officials and so far have persuaded them not to mandate reporting. The January 23, 2014 WSVMA Executive Board Meeting was held in Olympia at the Water Street Café. WSVMA Mission Statement A new mission statement was approved. The new mission of the WSVMA is “To advance the cause of veterinary medicine and to better the lives of those touched by it.” A new vision statement will be coming soon. Strategic Planning Task Force Due to unprecedented changes in society, associations need to adapt new strategies to remain relevant and address paradigm shifts that affect how associations do business. A plan to restructure WSVMA governance to a small, nimble 5-6 person Board of Directors was presented along with a plan to use the strategic management model to keep organizational momentum aimed in the proper direction. The Executive Board will vote whether to approve the governance structure at the March 28, 2014 meeting in Ellensburg.
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Bylaws Amendment The Executive Board approved a change to the Bylaws to award membership to Practice Managers and hospital staff provided their employer is also a member. Membership dues and benefits will be finalized at the March board meeting. Executive Committee The Executive Committee approved contracting with Mark Funk, public affairs and media specialist, who will work on retainer for issues that arise where the media might be involved. Mr. Funk replaces Charlie Powell who elected not to renew his contract for the new year. Executive Vice President CareCap and the WSVMA will put together a survey to determine how desirable preventive care plans are to the profession and to pet owners. Region 7 The Executive Board appointed Dr. Brian Toncray to the Region 7 position to replace Dr. Mark Shelton, whose second term ended at the end of 2013. Dr. Toncray is a 2013 Oregon State grad and is a small animal practitioner at Countryside Small Animal Veterinary Clinic in Wenatchee. Region 8 The Inland Empire Veterinary Medical Association (IEVMA) awarded a scholarship to WSU/CVM student Jessica Hansen.
w a s h i ngton ve te ri nari an
The Executive Board approved changing the name of the WSVMA Annual Conference to the Pacific Northwest Veterinary Conference. The conference continues to grow each year and the name change is part of the current efforts to rebrand the conference. Legislative Advocate A variety of new bills have been proposed by the Governor’s office that if passed will require new revenue sources to pay for them. This could affect the B&O tax rate, which is currently at 1.5%. There is support in the legislature to increase the minimum wage but such an increase isn’t likely to pass this year. There is a bill in committee to ban breed specific ordinances as well as a bill that would require all disciplinary boards to adopt cultural competency education. Efforts are being made to exempt veterinarians from that requirement. Public Health Veterinarian Through November 2013, a total of 12 bats were confirmed positive for rabies in Washington, four cases of Cryptococcus gattii were confirmed in animals (feline) in Washington state and there were 17 cases of canine leptospirosis in the state last year. State Veterinarian Rules are being changed to relax the requirement to TB test every dairy animal over six months of age regardless of state of origin. If coming from a TB-free state, the age requirement would increase to 20 months. AVMA The Executive Board approved support for Dr. Rena Carlson’s election to the AVMA Executive Board District 11.