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Hello all-
As this busy holiday season approaches, my term as WSGNA President will be ending. I’ll be organizing all of the WSGNA materials to hand over to a new President. The past two years have flown by and it has been an honor to work with this talented and dedicated board of directors.
The board made great progress the past year. Our bylaws were amended; role descriptions were reviewed and revised; and scholarship forms were simplified. The conference planning manual has been updated with suggestions from those who hosted conferences.
The newsletter is now completely electronic thanks to Cathy Johnson. She has diligently spent many hours to create the new format. She has done a fantastic job gathering articles and pictures and I would like to recognize her tremendous effort. Thank you, Cathy for a superb job. Along with her work on the newsletter, Cathy has also worked with Mary Garcia to update our website. Mary has worked her creative talents to produce a wonderful website design for us. She also was the creator of our new logo. Mary researched carefully and produced a logo design that explicitly portrays WSGNA.
We are looking forward to La Crosse hosting the 2010 Fall Conference. There could not be a more beautiful place to visit that time of year. The date should be announced soon. Multi-Regional will be held in Chicago October 15-17. The annual course will be in Orlando a little earlier than usual—April 30 through May 5. Also, watch for information about a mini educational offering in the Milwaukee area this spring. And don’t forget about applying for those scholarships to help you get to them!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teams that have volunteered to host a conference—Froedtert, Waukesha Memorial and St. Mary’s and St. Vincent Hospitals in Green Bay over the past two years. It is especially difficult in this economy and we are extremely appreciative of the time and effort that is put into the conferences by volunteers to enhance the professional development of GI nurses throughout the state. Many thanks for supporting the WSGNA mission and keeping it alive.
And I could not possibly close without acknowledging my peers and their wisdom, creativity, brainstorming and problem solving skills—board members Margaret Ullman, who has been attending the Leadership conference in preparation and I know will do a magnificent job next year; Lynn Miller, who faithfully kept us on track and recorded minutes; Chris Crevcoure, bean counter, who handled all the numbers and figures; Sheila Gansemer, who tracked the membership and prepared for nominations/elections; Cathy Johnson, who is the frontline from us to you through the newsletter and communications; and to Chris Bauer, whose wealth of knowledge about the past helped us plan for the future—thank you all. It was a pleasure to work for you.
I wish you all a most peaceful and joyous holiday season.
Mary Fiebelkorn, BSN, RN, CGRN
WSGNA President