Greetings to All!

I am proud to have been elected by you, the members of the Greater Tampa Chapter of ONS, to be your president for the coming year. We are indeed priviledged to be associated with an excellent and active chapter! Did you know that National ONS requires Chapters to hold a minimum of only four meetings annually and have only three active committees? Consider how much more we are doing here in the Tampa Bay area! Ten months of the year we have a business meeting followed by an outstanding professional program which offers CEU's to all attendees! Of course, our terrific Program Committee also arranges a catered supper for us in advance of each business meeting, giving us the opportunity to unwind after our busy day, catch up with each other's news and network with colleagues from various practice settings in several counties. In August, we usually forego the business meeting and arrange a special "good time" get-together simply for the fun and friendship of it!
We have eight standing committees -- Archives, Finance, Health Policy, Membership, Newsletter, Nominating, Program and Special Projects -- lots of activity, and lots of opportunity for member involvement! We are certainly doing more than the minimum basic Chapter requirements, and we have a ten year history of strong leadership and membership to thank for our accomplishments.
A goal for the coming year is to reach out to our Nursing Colleagues in Home Health and Physician's Office practice. As we all know, so much of health care is delivered in the out-patient and home care setting now, it would greatly enhance our Chapter if we had stronger representation from these areas in our membership. We plan to send our Newsletter and meeting notices to these settings, hoping to interest the RN's working there to get to know us and join us as members of ONS.
It seems that whatever setting we're in, our work days are getting longer, and both work and home demands geting greater. I can appreciate that it is difficult to think of "going to a meeting" after a hard day on the job. However, as I noted above, our meetings are fun, the food is good, the topics are stimulating, and you obtain a CEU in the bargain! We have over one- hundred paid members at present. It would be wonderful to see as many of you as possible each month -- please make a renewed commitment to attend our meetings and get the benefit of your paid dues! For those of you who are not yet members, you are most welcome to come to any meeting, see what we're about, and I know you will be enticed to join! With your continued support, we can make this coming year our most exciting and dynamic yet! Looking forward to seeing you at Hospice of Hillsborough on March 6th as we discuss "Physician Assisted Suicide" with Robert Walker, MD, presenter.