CLMA Siouxland Chapter Meeting
March 26, 2008

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by president, Kathy Winter, at 3:00 PM at the Ramada Inn and Suites in Sioux Falls, S.D. Members present included Karen Jepperson, Kari Nornes, Patty Buus, Connie Thury, Rick Pudwill, Terry Erickson. Bob Jensen, John Kangas, Marjorie Ness, Deb Piper, and DeeAnn Lovett.

MINUTES
The September 20, 2007 Chapter Meeting Minutes were approved after spelling of names were corrected.

TREASURER’S REPORT
John reported on the bank balance, CD, and IRS filing. The current bank balance is $4,796.62. The CD made $75.15 and the balance is now $6,677.21. This was the first year that our chapter had to file a tax return. John did this by e-filing. Rick motioned to approve the Treasurer’s Report, and this was seconded by Connie.

OLD BUSINESS

Membership Statistics
Our current membership is at 40. Membership is an issue for our chapter. Kathy is going to pay for her own CLMA Membership, so the hospital can pay for another tech to become a member of national CLMA and the Siouxland Chapter.

ASCLS/CLMA Contract
Kathy will be meeting with Lori Murray, President of the SDASCLS, regarding the percentage that CLMA Siouxland gets from the joint meeting. It is still 80/20 in favor of ASCLS.

Siouxland Chapter Website Sponsors
New sponsors for the website are LCM, PL, Quest Diagnostics, and Kreisers.

NEW BUSINESS

Future of Siouxland Chapter
Comparison of CLMA and ASCLS were discussed. ASCLS has two levels of membership besides student; the least expensive membership does not include the magazine, while the more expensive one includes subscription to their magazine. CLMA is geared towards leaders, while ASCLS is for any laboratorian.

2008 SDAHO
The 2008 convention will be held in Rapid City September 24th through the 26th. Karen will check with Al Reuer, Rapid City, regarding a speaker for the CLMA-Siouxland Chapter portion of the convention. The ASCLS-SD/CLMA and the SDAHO conventions are close together time wise.

2008 ASCLS/CLMA Joint Meeting
It appears that preparations are wrapping up for the convention. The vendors have been very good about getting speakers for this convention.

Terry Erickson Report on Legislative Days/PAC
Terry made the trip to Washington, D.C. for Legislative Days. She was one of only 7 CLMA representatives on the “Hill”. Representative Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin is a Co-Sponsor of the House Bill, and Senator Tim Johnson is a Co-Sponsor of the Senate Bill. John Thune’s aide said he won’t support a bill unless it is for total Medicare reform. Senator Thune’s emphasis is agriculture, so unless we can relate competitive bidding to agriculture, he probably won’t be a Co-sponsor for the bill.

Terry also mentioned that there were no Town Hall Audio Conferences slated for the upcoming year, or, at least, nothing has been posted on the national website as yet.

CAC Update
Twila Henning sent an e-mail stating that the changes from CAC include retirement of some NCD’s (not getting as many requests that are not Medically Necessary), and a new ABN Format that must include estimate of the cost of the test(s).

New Webmaster
Mark Toball is now working full time for the City of Sioux Falls and would like to hand off the last of his websites, CLMA Siouxland Chapter, to a new Webmaster. The members were asked to recommend any potential webmasters to the board members along with the webmaster’s fee, so they could discuss this at the next board meeting April 17th.

Good Practice Liaison
Deb Piper expressed interest in this position. She received the guidelines and will let Kathy know her decision.

Revised National By-Laws
These state that the chapters need to be organized as corporations. CLMA Siouxland Chapter would have to be recognized by the state of South Dakota as a corporation. Patty has a friend who is an attorney whom she will ask some questions regarding how to incorporate or are we exempt. This document needs to be signed and sent back to National CLMA by April 30, 2008.
Other changes include election of officers, having three directors, an annual meeting, a nominating committee (board member, past-president, and member), and written notice of time and day of meeting 15 days prior to meeting.

Cancellation of Think Lab 2008
One of the main concerns regarding the cancellation of Think Lab 2008 is the money that is usually pledged to the PAC. Last year over $20,000 was raised for PAC at the National CLMA Convention.

Adjournment
The meeting was motioned for adjournment by Patty and seconded by John. The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 PM.

DeeAnn Lovett, Secretary