AOTA Immediate Past President's Blog

Be the Spider! Create a Web of Energy or a Community of Practice

Hi all,

Have you every been overwhelmed with all the research out there and trying to keep up with the latest guidelines and evidence? Have you been frustrated because you can't find the evidence you need to support what you do? Do you wish you could share all you have learned from your everyday practice with others and hear about what others who have similar practices are doing? Do wish you could talk to the scientists who are studying your practice area? Wouldn't it be wonderful to dialogue and learn how consumers view practices like yours? Are you frustrated with the system in which you work because it limits your effectiveness and you wonder how you can change the system? Are you tired of others outside of our profession making decisions about how you practice?

Well, if the answers to any of those questions are yes, then you might be interested in the Communities of Practice concept that is part of the Participation Review Ad Hoc Proposal. Communities of practice are a powerful way to change practice and to involve many stakeholders in the process. These Communities would first form around the six areas of the Centennial Vision, i.e., mental health; productive aging; children and youth; work and industry; health and wellness; and rehabilitation, disability, and participation. These first Communities would have elected leaders who would run them. Other communities could form as members have interest, like a community around autism or veteran's issues. An AOTA member could participate in as many communities as they choose and could have different levels of participation in them. The Communities would work with the new 15-member Council that replaces the Representative Assembly. For instance, what if a group of practitioners in the mental health community wanted to tackle the issue of making sure occupational therapy practitioners are qualified mental health providers in each state. Perhaps they would reach out and invite those occupational therapy practitioners who are in states where they are mental health providers. These practitioners share how that state legislation occurred and the strategies they used to put it in place. Perhaps they then develop a state advocacy tool kit for other states to use. Then perhaps they approach the State Association Presidents and invite those Presidents whose states would be open to pursuing this legislation to dialogue about the advocacy process. Then that State President invites all the mental health occupational therapy practitioners in the state to join the community to work on the project. This community might then go to the AOTA Board of Directors to get advocacy support from staff and to see if there could be any budget support to work with states on this issue. Perhaps some of the states also invite consumers from consumer groups who would help advocate for OT in those states.

This is just a small example of how Communities of Practice can grow and can organize around important action of all types. The Council could even ask the Community if they want to take on a project, such as writing a knowledge and skills paper around the MH compentencies needed to be qualified mental health providers. The Communities would decide how they want to work at the Annual Conference. Perhaps they want to have a meeting of the community, maybe they want to host some round tables, or to host a special symposium. Maybe they want to bring in the relevant scientists to share their work and then have a consumer response. There would not be specific functions at Conference unless the Community wanted them to occur and worked with staff to make these happen. Each Community might have different activities at the conference. Not all Communities would have to do the same things. This opens the doors to some really creative thinking and incorporating up-to-date issues at the Conference. The community would have a repository where they could keep track of all their work so there is a history of their efforts.

I see so many benefits in this new proposal. It could be freeing in that people who normally do not participate because they don't know "the rules" and are concerned about doing it wrong, can jump right in! The idea is to break down our silos where we have kept practice, education, and research as seperate activities of the association. Instead these Communities bring together students, educators, practitioners, administrators, scientists, policy experts, and other stakeholders like consumers and interested persons outside of our discipline. Last year in my 2009 Presidential Address, I talked about creating a web without a true spider. Communities of practice are webs of energy linking practice, education, and research to solve the problems and capture the opportunities with which we are faced everyday in this turbulent economic and political times.

Penny Moyers Cleveland

AOTA President

Board Met this Weekend, February 2 0 & 21

Hi all,

The AOTA Board members met this weekend via phone and "live meeting." We accomplished a great deal of work this past day and a half. The February Board meeting is typically devoted to strategic planning, which the Vice-President, Virginia Stoffell is in charge of conducting. As part of the process, we reviewed data about our external and internal environments, such as a review of what is going on with Congress, are the key advocacy issues (Reauthorization of IDEA), and are key issues of states (such as budget reductions and the impact on higher education and Medicaid). We examined the potential impact of healthcare reform on Academic health centers and how nursing has obtained funds to increase numbers of students and faculty. The internal issues discussed were growth in educational OT and OTA programs, the growth of for profit OTA programs, the number of faculty vacancies, the number of faculty projected retirements, and the growth in membership by demographic catagories. There were many more data sources reviewed to discuss all of them here.

Once we reviewed data, we then reviewed our current logic model that can be found on the front page of the web site under Centennial Vision.  What is a logic model? It is a kind of score card on the progress toward the Centennial Vision. What the logic model does is connects the activities we do as an Association to the proposed impact on the profession, and then how this impact will be measured. The analysis showed us that we had met some of the measures and were making significant progress on others. We also learned that we needed to add activities and measures to address some of the challenges identified in the external/internal data.

Now, our Vice-President will be finalizing our new logic model for another review by the Board to ensure we captured everything from the meeting. Once the new startegic plan/logic model is completed, it will be made available for all members on the Centennial Vision part of the website. The importance of the logic model is that it will guide the budgeting process which will begin soon and will be prepared for the June Board meeting.

I am so excited about everything that AOTA has accomplished and plans to accomplish in the near future as we progress toward the Centennial Vision. I will be reviewing our accomplishments in my final address at the AOTA Conference in Orlando. I encourage everyone to join me in learning about all we have done. We should be very enthused about what we can do as we move forward!!

Penny Moyers Cleveland

AOTA President

Paradigm shift in AOTA Governance

Hi all,

I hope all of you are reading about the proposal for reorganizing the governance structure of AOTA. I want to talk about why now, what is the urgency for change? As I come to the close of my Presidency, I have been reflecting about what has been accomplished. One advantage of the Centennial Vision has been the change in focus on doing activities of the Association to investing in activities that are thought to have impact on moving us forward toward our agenda. We have had major opportunities and challenges to face in these past three years and more are on the horizon. The biggest issue I have dealt with is healthcare reform and how to ensure occupational therapy is included in any proposal. We had to mobilize many groups to take action by attending Capitol Hill days (there were four last year), engaging in virtual activism, keeping membership informed via web site and podcasts, and raising money from AOTA members for AOTPAC. The advocacy is never ending as now that healthcare reform is stalled, how do you make sure the CAPS exception process for Medicare part B gets reinstated? So, what does this have to do with reorganization? What I have learned is that human and financial resources of any organization are finite. In terms of human resources, our members are very busy people as are our staff. We have been increasing our membership numbers to over 40,000 members. We have to figure out how to increase members even more (140,000 practitioners), which increases both human and financial capital. We have to involve members in important activities that impact the profession. Members tell us they want to participate when they can, but when they do participate, they want it to be important but within a finite time period. Getting more people involved gives us the money and the people we need to get the work done to meet our profession's challenges.

Getting more people involved means we have to create a database so that members can self-nominate themselves for leadership that matches their interests, their skills, their time limits, and their need for growth and development. The reorganization proposal includes development of the Coordinated On-line Opportunities for Leadership database (COOL). Also, we want to invest resources into leadership development programs for those who want to lead and become involved. We have to make sure we have an ongoing pipeline for leadership that develops a broad range of members. By doing so, we also increase the diversity of our leadership, that is diversity of all types including racial, ethnicity, gender, years of experience, OTAs, more practitioners, etc. Therefore, the reorganization proposal includes a new standing committee, the Volunteer Leadership Development Committee whose purpose is to develop the COOL database by getting people to self-nominate, create leadership development programs, increase interest in running for office, nominate leaders for appointments to a growing number of ad hoc committee work groups, recognize the important work of leaders, etc.

So, all you have to do is to see the decline in the numbers of people running for office. We are starting to have more single slates for various offices. It is hard to get members to vote in races where there is only one person running.We need leadership now more than ever. We need to make sure that new practitioners see themselves as leaders and see AOTA as a place to gain more leadership skills and to feel competent that they can make a difference. We have to increase the average length of time new practitioners are members. The baby boomers are more likely to be life-time members, but they are starting to retire. Have we done our job to make sure AOTA is an inviting place to participate? Participation is the life blood of making sure our profession continues to develop and grow regardless of the challenges we face. Participation is the way we take advantage of opportunities and to mobilize accordingly.

I will install more entries on this proposal for reorganization.

Penny Moyers Cleveland

AOTA President

All's quiet in January? Are you kidding?

Well, I have not blogged in a while. Hope you didn't think I was taking a break from my role as AOTA President. I did have foot surgery and have been confined to a wheelchair. I was off work and thought I would be quietly working at home. Instead, I have been working on AOTA issues daily. Well, what is going on? January is always busy because we are reving up for the Conference in April held in Orlando this year. Prior to having surgery, in fact the day before, I flew to Chicago to attend a symposium on the implementation of the Model of Human Occupation in the mental health system of the United Kingdom. It was very interesting to hear how strong occupational therapy is in the area of mental health in the UK. I took many notes having some ideas about how to grow mental health practice in the U.S.

While being off, I have been working with the Ad Hoc Particiation Review Committee to communicate their proposal to the members and leaders about reorganizing the governance structure of AOTA. We have conducted multiple phone calls, sometimes twice, with such groups as the SISs, the Commission Chairs, Ethics Commission, Commission on Continuing Competence and Professional Development, AOTF, Representative Assembly, the Affiliated State Association Presidents, and the Assembly of Student Delegates. Other calls are scheduled with the Ethics Commission again and the Commission on Practice and the Program Directors for instance. The goal is to have ongoing dialogue with as many leaders as possible to gather their thoughts and to address their questions. All members are encouraged to read the President's Report to the RA which is posted on the website under the Participation Review Committee link. The representative assembly will deliberate on this issue both on OT Connections and during their meeting at Orlando in April. It is important for all members to be informed and express their views.

I also have been communicating with my U. S. Congressional delegation from Alabama about addressing the Medicare Part B Caps situation where the exception process has gone away. The exception process was included in the health care reform proposal, but since it has not passed, we have difficult issues yet to be addressed. I sent all of them e-mails off of the Federal Affairs Action Center site of AOTA . It is so simple to remain in touch with our U.S. leaders. I hope all of you have done the same and have watched the latest pod cast on our issues. We all have things to do to remain informed and to take action.

Penny Moyers Cleveland

AOTA President