March 2023 Affiliate Meeting
Location: Zoom
Date: 3/9/23
Board Members Present: President - Jeanne Bair, Treasurer - Denise Smith, Secretary - Terra Rhoades, Member-at-Large - Kala Kluender, Region VI Representative - Jessica Anderson
Affiliate Members Present: Lorell Erwin, Gina Smith, Jane Avery, Amy Burgess, Claire Rundell, Anne Ryals, Shannon Pirrie, Heidi Phillips, Adrian Medina, Leslie Gibson, Merrilynn Artman, Karin VanderVelde, Jeana Smith, Anita Sheetz, Carolyn Bottone-Post
Jeanne Bair - Update on Colorado CM Bill:
Colorado CM Bill passed unanimously in the first Senate committee, the Health and Human Services Committee, today! At this time no opposition, both ACOG and CMS are supporting. Next will go to Senate appropriations, won’t have to testify there. Went really well today!
Jeanne Bair - Annual Meeting Updates:
68th Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida from May 5-9, 2023.
Early Bird registration deadline on March 15th
If a member and a non-member colleague both register, you will receive a $100 rebate on registration fees!
Link for registration: http://annualmeeting.midwife.org/registration/
Jeanne Bair - Updates on ACNM Data Migration:
ACNM Board to Affiliate Leaders Meeting update - problem with data migration. Working on it, getting better, but not working as of yesterday/ today. Problems with people recertifying and paying ACNM dues. Old system stopped collecting money so people who were paying monthly now owe money. Anyone can get in touch with Jessica Anderson with questions/ concerns on paying dues. Working to get straightened out.
Jeanne Bair - Request for Representative to National Government Action Committee:
Elisa Patterson has to give up current position, needing a new representative for Colorado!
Denise Smith - Updates on CO Affiliate Symposium:
Committee Members - Shannon Pirrie and Denise Smith are leads, Kala Kluender, Tessa Stone, Heather O'meara, Lorell Erwin are doing auction. Katie Kissler helping to write CE applications.
Event May 19, 2023 at Anschutz campus beginning at 7:30am, happy hour around 4:30-5pm, application for 6 CE’s, registration will open next week. Early bird registration until April 1- $85, regular ticket $100, student pricing and zoom options as well.
Topics: Hypertension Guidelines, Substance Use Disorder & MAT, Pearls of Midwifery, Presentation of results of qualitative study on burnout in midwives, Latest on PCOS from a Reproductive Endocrinologist and more!
Auction will have wine pull and jewelry exchange - bring some cash if you’d like to participate. All auction items will be on website. Hoping for 100 participants - encourage folks to attend! The auction will be online as well (same site where you register for event). You can participate in auction even if you don’t attend in person.
Email Lorell Erwin for auction item donations, be creative! We are moving away from baskets and looking at individual items. Lorell.erwin@gmail.com. Also looking for donated wine for the wine pull, and earrings for the swap. Heather O'meara will be sending out information for donations soon!
www.auctria.events/comidwiferysymposium (link for registration)
Denise Smith - Treasurer report:
New management system with ACNM, previous system not issuing people membership when expired. Progressively gone down in dues revenue, normally around $30,000 in bank, currently $10,706. Significant drop over the last 1 year.
Please reach out to a friend and make sure they’re up to date on dues. Reach out to national office if having issues renewing.
Revenue based on dues and symposium - between the two covers lobbyist and renews each September - costs about $18,000 per year. Need a revenue of about $10,000 to meet current requirements. If we don’t boost membership and bring in revenue we will need to have serious talks about if we can have a lobbyist.
Jeanne Bair: New CM bill is a sunrise bill, no sunrise in last 25 years or so. Lobbyist playing catch up and doing a lot of extra work for us! They are valuable!
Jessica Anderson - Update on the National Organization:
ACNM is in a very tough financial place. Ongoing problem of at least 10 years of overspending and not enough revenue that has caught up with the organization. There is ongoing work on the National level to get us through this. Investigative audit ongoing. Budget work in progress. Challenges to get financials to know where we are sitting - currently no reserves. Relief money through COVID to hold us over.
Challenges with the new AMS system that supports membership, roll-out didn’t go well, staff turnover, lack of system support for transition, etc. Priority is to get membership in check, know who is and who isn’t a member and get money to the Affiliates. There have been challenges with people renewing. Please ask everyone to check and see if they are a member, if not, please consider paying dues. There are a lot of people thinking they are members and they are not.
Annual meeting did very poorly last year which was not expected and made financials even more challenging. Please consider going to in-person only annual meeting - there will be fantastic program content! Located in Florida. The Florida ACNM Affiliate wants our support on a larger scale. Business meeting will be occurring the week after, not at the annual meeting this year.
ACNM National Election open right now, ask everyone to vote if ACNM member. Number of positions open including president elect, regions and nominating committee, please let Jessica Anderson know if you did not get an email with link to vote. Historically low voter turn out - hoping to have more this year!! Please go vote!!
Membership has always been a challenge - low membership rates compared to the number of those that are licensed.
If reaching out to ACNM and not getting a response - please reach out to Jessica Anderson jessica.anderson@cuanschutz.edu or Katrina Holland for help. For issues with the new system these addresses can help membership@ACNM.org or kholland@ACNM.org
Jeanne Bair - Legislation Update:
Current CM Bill: SB23-167 - Sunrise bill to add CMs to all legislation and license CMs in the nurse practice act. Asked that CMs credential have the same scope of practice as CNMs (including prescriptive authority), goal to introduce education programs to educate CMs alongside CNMs, to ultimately bring more midwifery to Colorado. Highlights from Committee Hearing - Republican co-sponsor CO senator, welcome surprise to have rural senator to be enthusiastic, wants to be an honorary midwife. Encouraged to reach out to constituents that are in support of the bill. So much positivity about midwifery of committee members!
Upcoming Bills: Signed in support of new bill to keep pregnant people out of jail during pregnancy and 1 year PP, Rx drugs for off-label use, Limits on hospital facility fees. More details to come.
Jane Avery - JEDI Committee Update:
BIPOC Midwifery Student Scholarship - raised about $2,000 so far this year. Scholarship deadline closed February 5th, currently in process of choosing recipients.
Organizing a golf tournament to raise money for BIPOC midwifery student scholarship. Save the date! July 14th in Denver, more details to come.
Organizing film showing of award-winning documentary “Aftershock” to help raise money for BIPOC scholarship, planning for summer. More details to come.
Symposium - JEDI Committee will have a small table at the Symposium to bring awareness to the group & scholarship, planning to sell products to benefit scholarship funds and recruit more members.
Jeanne Bair - Updates on Project Cure:
Groups signed up for every month except July and September. Contact info: Project Cure: Krismidwife@gmail.com 720-934-9100 still needs groups for July and September! Help put together birth packs for third world countries.
Next Affiliate Meeting: Anschutz campus May 11, 2023