Fall is finally here! Hopefully the weather will get cold soon. I have been
busy at the office. In August I worked at the Southwest Veterinary Symposium.
It was a great meeting. Congratulations to Dr. Tim Woody on his election as
Vice-President. He will begin his term as President at the 2008 symposium in
Dallas. We are proud of Dr. Woody for his dedication and accomplishments.
The
2008 Winter Meeting is just around the corner. Dr. Underwood has put together
an excellent program. Be sure to mark your calendars for February 8-10 in Hot
Springs at the Convention Center and Embassy Suites Hotel. It is going to be
a fantastic meeting. The registration material will be mailed at the beginning
of the year.
The next few months are busy travel months for me. I will be attending
the ASVMAE meeting the end of October. That is a great meeting for Executive
Directors of VMA’s from all over the country. It is a wonderful opportunity
to exchange ideas and learn great information. I will be attending the 12 States
Meeting in Santa Fe in November. If you would like a registration form or more
information on that meeting, please contact the office. The AVMA Leadership
Conference is in January in Shaumburg, Il. I will attend that with several
other Board Members.
If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns,
please contact me. I will always try to find an answer.
Sincerely,
Maggie Milligan
Summer is finally here! The Association office is busy with all the upcoming events. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s convention is July 14-18 in Washington, D.C. I will be traveling to this convention. I am very excited. This is the first American VMA convention that I will attend. Dr. Norette Underwood and I have been working on plans for an exciting Summer Meeting. Mark your calendar for August 10-12 in Eureka Springs. Dr. Charles Thibideaux and Dr. Michelle Cutt from Hills Pet Nutrition will be our speakers. We are excited to have the meeting in Eureka Springs. (See the front of the newsletter for the schedule) Watch your mail. Registration material will be arriving soon. On August 23-26 the Southwest Veterinary Symposium will have their convention in Fort Worth, Texas. If you have never attended, you need to try to make plans to come. This is a very informative meeting filled with wonderful CE opportunities. The Arkansas VMA is a partner in the SWVS, so we want a great attendance from Arkansas.
Drs. Beard, Wolf and I will be talking to the new graduates as they sit for their exam. The Association also provides lunch for them. This is an exciting time for them and we hope to let them know the importance of joining the association.
The association has new phone and fax number. Please make notes of these:
PH: 501-868-3036 Fax: 501-868-3034
Until next time!
Maggie Milligan
Lets all give a round of applause to Dr. Mike Beard for putting together an awesome 100th Winter Meeting. It was a huge success. We had 34 exhibitors and 394 total attendees. Dr. Gregory Hammer, President Elect from the American VMA attended the meeting and installed the officers. We were honored that he attended our meeting. The Saturday night celebration/awards banquet was a huge success. Motivational speaker, Paul Vitale, gave a fantastic presentation. Dr. Larry Nafe was named Veterinarian of the Year and Dr. Thayer Hendrickson was presented with a special recognition award. He has been a member of the association since 1946. It was a special moment for him as well as the association. We are so proud of Dr. Nafe and Dr. Hendrickson!
I want to personally thank Dr. Lyndon Tate for his outstanding leadership over the past year. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him. He accomplished a lot of great things for the association during his term. He is a great man, veterinarian, and most of all, a wonderful friend!
We are coming to the close of the Legislative Session and Dr. Jim Achorn has kept a close eye on everything at the capitol. Please be sure to thank him. This is a HUGE task and the association really appreciates all his hard work. Believe me, we would not want to do it without him. He is top notch! If you are called on to contact your representatives, please do so. It is important for the veterinary profession. Your voice does make a difference.
Dr. Mike Beard was elected your new president for the upcoming year. I look forward to working with him. If you ever have a question, comment, or concern, please don’t hesitate to contact the association office or Dr. Beard. We are here to help you in any way we can.
Sincerely,
Maggie Milligan
First of all, I want to thank Dr. Mike Beard for a wonderful Summer Meeting in Hot Springs. It was filled with wonderful CE and I believe everyone learned from Dr. Jim Humphries. I also want to thank Dr. Billy Scott for Sunday afternoon’s lecture on dentistry. It was a great Summer Meeting! Next year, the meeting will be in Eureka Springs. Everyone mark your calendar for August 10-12, 2007!
I am packing my bags as I write this heading for Fort Worth to the Southwest Veterinary Symposium (SWVS). This meeting is filled with quality CE opportunities. If you have not attended in the past, you need to make every effort to attend next year. The dates are August 23-26, 2007. To find out more information, log on to www.swvs.org.
OUR NEW WEBSITE IS UNVEILED!! The Arkansas Veterinary Medical Association's website has a newly revamped design. And since you are reading this on the website, you've obviously had a chance to take a look! We hope you find the new layout easier to navigate and enjoy the updated design. If you have any photos you would like to send me, we will post as many as we can. Pets, clinics, etc. - we'd like to get a representative sampling of all the different aspects of veterinary practice in the state. So please share your photos with your fellow members! I am always glad to hear from each and every one of you and I'm looking forward to hearing any comments or suggestions you might have for making the website more useful to our membership and the general public. You can email your feedback to: arkansasvma@comcast.net.
Dr. Beard and I are planning the 100th anniversary celebration. The dates are February 9-11, 2007 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Little Rock. On Saturday night we are going to have a special banquet. Please make every effort to attend! It will be filled with good food and drinks plus a lot of memories! Updated agendas and schedules will be posted to the website as they are confirmed, so keep checking back for the latest information. And of course we will have an online registration page once we get a little closer to the end of the year and are ready to start accepting registrations.
Sincerely,
Maggie Milligan
Since the last newsletter, the Association office has been very busy. I traveled to Shaumberg, IL to the American VMA to an Executive Directors orientation program. They rolled out the red carpet for everyone in attendance. It was 2 days packed full of wonderful information. There were several other Executive Directors from other states. (See picture) It was great to share information and feed off each others ideas. Not to mention build lasting friendships. The American VMA is a wonderful resource tool. Be sure to access their website at www.avma.org.
Dr. Tate and I attended an Emergency Management meeting. It was very informative. I look forward to upcoming meetings. Your association will stay very involved in this as we want our voices heard loud and clear in this planning process.
On June 8th I traveled to Austin Meeting with the Southwest Veterinary Symposium. Mark your calendars for September 21-27, 2006 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The staff at SWVS has put together another fantastic meeting. There are still calls for moderators. If you have not signed up, it is well worth your time. The compensation is a $100 rebate for DVMs and $40 for technicians to be forwarded to each moderator following the symposium. The dollar amount is a flat fee not per session. SWVS Board members and CE Committee members do not receive compensation for moderating. Contact Jo Andersen, CE Program Director at joa@swvs.org if you are interested in serving as a moderator.
The Summer Meeting is just around the corner! Mark your calendar for August 4-6, 2006 in Hot Springs at the Arlington Hotel. The meeting will be full of information mail, details will be arriving SOON!
In closing, I have to say that my first six months as your Executive Director have been a great pleasure! I have learned a lot and know I still have a lot to learn. If you ever have questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to call the office or send me an e-mail. Make note of the new e-mail address: arkansasvma@comcast.net. This is YOUR association and I welcome your thoughts! Until next time!
Fondly,
Maggie Milligan
This is my first “official message” as your new Executive Director. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be in this position! A little about myself. I am a single mom of two great boys! Tanner, who will be 17 in April and my little miracle boy, Gavin, who was born 3 months premature. He will be 10 in July. I have been involved with your association for three years and officially became your Executive Director January 1, 2006. It is an honor and privilege for me to be involved with such a fantastic profession.
I want to send a special “thank you” to everyone on the Board. They have all made me feel sooo welcome and are always here if I have questions, comments, or concerns. Being new to the position, I know there will be bumps in the road, but I am sure with everyone working together as a team, there won’t be anything that we can’t handle together. I always know if I ever need anything, there is always someone I can turn to. That is a great feeling!!
My first official task as Executive Director was to travel to Chicago to the Leadership Conference. Let me say, if you ever have the opportunity to go, it is well worth it. I met a lot of wonderful people and learned what a valuable tool the AVMA is. They are here for YOU. Visit their website at www.avma.org - they are here to serve your profession and they do an outstanding job!
The 2006 Winter Meeting was a huge success! Dr. Lyndon Tate put together an excellent program. We had 371 attendees, 32 exhibitors, and great sponsorship! The Hot Springs Convention Center was a great change and we hope to go back in the near future. A special thank you to Dr. Billy Scott and Bayer Animal Health for an excellent interactive lab. A standing ovation goes to Dr. Tate for a fabulous meeting. It is a long, involved process to put a meeting together and he did an outstanding job.
During our meeting, Dr. Michael Thames was awarded the 2005 Veterinarian of the Year. An honor he definitely deserved. I am so glad I was a part of the experience. Dr. Thames was the first president of this association that I had the privilege to work with back in 2003. When he was presented the award, there was not a dry eye in the room.
Congratulations to you Dr. Thames!!
Let me end this message by saying I am always here for YOU! We have a new office location at 415 N. McKinley, Suite 501 in Little Rock. If you are ever in the area, please always feel free to stop in. I am always open to comments, questions, and suggestions. You can call or e-mail me at any time. If I am not able to answer your questions, I know I will find someone who can. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as your Executive Director.
Maggie Milligan
Executive Director