Financial Planning Board
The ASHA Financial Planning Board (FPB) conducted the following activities in 2007:
- Face-to-face meetings were held in February, September, and November 2007; with additional conference call meetings in June and December
- Met with ASHA's two investment management company representatives to review 2006 investment results
- Assigned a subcommittee to investigate potential modifications to ASHA's long-term investment policy, the use of investment advisors to recommend managers for various asset classes, staff-managed portfolio replanning and other alternatives
- Reviewed the projects and finances of ASHA's Professional Education Program
- Reviewed ASHA's insurance portfolio including lines of coverage, coverage amounts, and deductibles
- Reviewed ASHA's 2007 budget performance on a quarterly basis
- Reviewed ASHA's Reserve Policy and made some editorial modifications that reduced redundancy and added clarification
- Submitted a resolution to set the annual dues for 2008 at the same level as the 2007 dues
- Monitored the progress of the Board of Division Coordinators in developing policies to guide the use of the Divisions' net assets
- Received a report from a staff committee that reviewed ASHA's membership categories and recommended that the category of spousal membership be discontinued and that privileges such as voting, holding office, and participating on committees not be extended to professionals from fields other than CSD
- Received and discussed updates regarding the construction of the new national office building
- Submitted a resolution to to change the deadline for paying current year dues from December 31 to August 31
- Reviewed and provided input regarding a Conflict of Interest Policy that is currently being developed for EB consideration
- Recommended changes to the ASHA Investment Policy based on the recommendations of the FPB subcommittee
- Received a report and update from the Manager of E-commerce and Database Marketing regarding the sales growth of ASHA's Online Store
- Reviewed and discussed ASHA's Advertising Policy and determined that the standards and practices are consistent with those of other large healthcare association publications
- Studied various options to working with investment managers including the advantages of using an investment advisor
- Reviewed programmatic and line item budgets for fiscal year 2008 and recommended a balanced budget for 2008 to the EB and LC
- A Subcommittee of FPB developed and presented an educational convention session on Professional Liability Issues
Multicultural Issues Board
The ASHA Multicultural Issues Board conducted the following activities in 2007.
- Face-to-face meetings were held in March 2007, September 2007, November 2007; several conference calls were also held
- Monitored and provided input into the development of policy documents to revise the Clinical Management of Communicatively Handicapped Minority Language Populations and on accent and language proficiency
- Provided additional resource information and reminders to Convention Topic Coordinators to be cognizant of the need to address culturally and linguistically diverse issues and populations in their reviews of proposals for presentations at the 2007 ASHA Convention
- Provided feedback during the Peer Review Process for all documents in that process in 2007 to ensure application to culturally and linguistically diverse populations
- Performed an audit of the MIB Strategic Plan in order to integrate MIB goals with those of the new ASHA Pathway to Excellence
- Conducted Hill visits specifically lobbying to request Medicare provider status for SLPs. Also, provided feedback for ASHA regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as it related to gender identity
- Met with the Executive Committee of the Council on Academic Accreditation to discuss their needs, if any, for assistance in developing resources; for example, those needed by site visitors. MIB addressed the need for students to graduate with cultural competence, and CAA addressed the challenges for site visitors in needing to know what to look for in verifying that multicultural content is included. Resources were shared between both boards.
- Met with the International Issues Board to assist them in identifying shared resources as well as opportunities for further collaboration between both boards
- Presented a Lunchtime Session at 2007 Convention to solicit areas of concern regarding multicultural issues among conference participants and to share information and ideas for their work settings
- Provided gifts at the NSSLHA booth at 2007 Convention to promote diversity to students
Sent compiled links from ASHA's Web site concerning multicultural issues and their descriptions to Special Interest Division Coordinators, state speech-language-hearing associations, and speech-language pathologists who run their own speech-language-hearing Web sites. These groups were then encouraged to disseminate this information to their members and readers
- Proposed edits to the convention call for papers to have the inclusion of multicultural content in a convention proposal be a part of evaluation criteria by the topic coordinators
Sent correspondence to The ASHA Leader to thank them for their continued articles highlighting information about cultural and linguistic diversity
- Conducted an e-mail blast to members of Special Interest Divisions 10 and 11 to inform them about ASHA Web resources for faculty and clinical supervisors concerning the infusion of multicultural and multilingual content into curricula
- Continued ongoing collaboration with the Multicultural Constituent Groups (MCCGs) to share resources, disseminate information, and encourage involvement of members of these groups in ASHA activities. Also, facilitated the organization of a shared booth for in the Exhibit Hall for Convention 2007, ran a raffle at the booth to boost participation, and coordinated discussion with these constituent groups on revising the format for the Multicultural Concerns Collective (MC2) Meeting at the Convention. In addition, facilitated the nomination of MCCG members for the Special Contributions in Multicultural Affairs Award from ASHA.
Strategic Planning
During 2007, ASHA engaged in a review of the Strategic Plan that ended in December 2007, and began developing a new planning strategy. The Executive Board decided to engage the Balanced Scorecard Institute to assist ASHA in developing it's own "Balanced Scorecard." A Strategic Leadership Team was formed comprised of the Executive Board, Facilitating Team, a former member of the Executive Board, representatives from the Legislative Council, and the ASHA Senior Advisor for Planning. This Leadership Team as well as other key individuals (members and staff) engaged in an 8-month process to develop ASHA's new Strategic Plan using the balanced scorecard approach. The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system designed to help everyone in an organization understand and work towards a shared vision and strategy. This work resulted in the development of ASHA's Strategic Pathway to Excellence, a plan that will guide the Association beyond 2007.
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