IT'S NOT TOO LATE: VOTE AGAINST THE NAEMT BY-LAWS CHANGE

Any NAEMT member who reads the by-laws should ask the question:

"Would I be able to run?"

If you are good enough to represent your state or local EMS organization, and you have skills and talent, in my opinion, that should make you the perfect candidate for a national office.

How valuable you would be to your local agency or state office, after spending some time on the board of NAEMT, meeting federal government officials, and then being able to come back and capitalize on that experience in your community.

If you cannot run for an office in NAEMT, because of the by-laws change, and you have skills and talent, just ask yourself 'Why'?

Lets try and apply the by-laws change to any member of NAEMT.

What if you are a member of NAEMT, but you are not an instructor. Well you would not be able to run.

OK, you say, but if you go to the conference, that would make you eligible to run.

But what do you do if you cannot afford to go to the NAEMT Conference on your own or your employer in these tight economic times cannot pay to send you to the NAEMT conference?

How will you meet the first two parameters of the by-laws change?

Well you can be appointed a liaison or serve on a committee.

How do you come to the attention of NAEMT to become appointed a liaison or representative?

Look at most of the liaisons. They are all appointed by the president of the Association. Most of them are people from the presidents home state, with some being holdovers from previous presidents (who knew them, etc.).

Please do not get me wrong. They are good people, qualified to do the liaison job. But if the president makes the appointments, and historically he appoints people he knows, if you are an unknown, how will you get appointed as liaison or a representative on a committee?

Look at the last category, the affiliate advisory committee. That was the old Board of Governors. Historically it has been the president or past president of the state association, or some other board member for the state association. Few state associations have travel budgets, so if the president of the state association is going, they will frequently have him be the affiliate advisory representative.

Look at the affiliate advisory committee:

http://www.naemt.org/affiliates/affiliates_landing/our_affiliates.aspx

All of those people are excellent well respected leaders, with many years of experience and knowledge. But there is very little turn over there. If we look back at the OLD Board of Governors for NAEMT you will see most of the same people from then, still sitting on the advisory council now!

How does someone who has valuable knowledge, who is hard-working, with great skills, and organizational capabilities, bump some of these tremendous state leaders out of the way?

I am not saying they should, those state leaders and their experience is invaluable to NAEMT and to their states, but it doesn't present a wide-range of opportunities for people to present themselves to NAEMT to run for a leadership position.

Vote against the by-laws change, we do not limit the people who can run for office in a free and open society, we shouldn't do it here,

Stay safe, I hope to see everyone in Atlanta,

Daniel R. Gerard, MS, RN, NREMT-P

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dangerard