What's New
New & Exciting Happenings at AEIRS
While there are several new happenings currently in the air at AEIRS, listed below are the items that currently have the primary attention of the Board:
- AEIRS is now on Facebook! If you use Facebook as a social networking resource, consider becoming a fan of AEIRS. This is one way we are keeping our members informed
of
changes in our organization and in our profession. Stay in touch with AEIRS and what we are doing through frequent updates and information delivered to you when you need
it. Pete Barger is the moderator for this site and he has some fun things planned like the .Question of the Week. for your discussion. I think we can all have some fun,
so log in to Facebook, become a fan, and join the discussions.
- While you are on the internet, go to www.aeirs.org and check out our website. Valerie Christensen has been very busy adding pictures, color and other graphics to our
website for more visual interest so check it out. We are very happy with the changes and hope that you will be as well.
- AEIRS is also working on a strategic plan so we can set and meet our goals more efficiently and at a lower cost to our members. Our adventure with strategic planning
started with a member focus group at the 2009 Annual Meeting in Albuquerque. Paula Pate-Schloder directed our strategic planning adventure expertly, guiding us through
the daunting process. The Board posed questions to about 20 members to obtain feedback about who/what AEIRS is, what we could do to help members in their professional
lives, and what services we could offer. In January 2010, the Board met for our annual mid-year meeting in Fort Lauderdale to fine-tune and consolidated ideas, identify
themes, and develop measurable and obtainable goals for the next five years. You will be seeing positive changes in the AEIRS as a result of this strategic plan because
our organization is strengthened by the execution of the plan over the next five years.
- One of the primary themes that emerged from strategic planning is the need for a Mentoring resources. I was on the Board many years ago when Donna Lee Wright suggested we add mentoring to our website as a way to provide new educators with rubrics and other resources. While we all agreed that we should provide something like a mentoring/resources section to the webpage, the Board ran across several stumbling blocks to implementation. Intellectual property and copyright concerns are the reasons we were unable to bring Dr. Wright.s idea to fruition at that time.
Realizing the problem, Pete Barger contacted a law firm who specializes in copyright and intellectual property claims. From there, Dr. Mari King has been very
successful
negotiating a contract and producing a statement that will be posted to our website for anyone wishing to submit a resource to the website. This statement protects AEIRS
and our members from copyright infringement and ensures that our website.s resources are ethically and legally submitted.
We also identified a highly motivated member, Bruce Long, to serve as our Mentoring Committee Chair. He and his committee are working very hard to develop goals for this section of the website. Through teamwork and cooperation, they are currently negotiating and developing methods of collecting and delivering essential educational resources for AEIRS members to use in their classrooms. They are doing an amazing job that is greatly appreciated.
The mentoring section of the AEIRS website will debut on April 2, 2010! We know that you have resources to share with other imaging and radiologic science educators, so please, share your ideas, your forms, your images and whatever else you think could help someone who might be struggling. I have found educators to be the most giving and sharing professionals anywhere, so take a moment to share something you are doing.
More exciting things are coming for you so become a fan of AEIRS and/or watch our website for more information about what we are offering. It takes a large team made up of our members, our Meeting Planner, our Executive Secretary, our Committees and our Board of Directors to run such a great organization. Thank you for your support and dedication to the Association of Educators in Imaging & Radiologic Sciences. Onward and upward!
James Murrell, MSRS, RT (R)(M)(QM)(CT) ARRT
AEIRS President