TAA President's Message

President's Message

Dear TAA members,

As the year 2010 (as well as my term as your president) draws to a close, I’m reflecting on our 11th Annual TAA conference in Houston. I’m calling it a major SUCCESS and totally in line with our TAA mission (*see below) in terms of quality of presentations, attendance, and logistics. I hope that those who attended agree! If you were unable to attend this year, I’d like to offer a brief summary of some of the highlights of the conference, with encouragement to keep monitoring our TAA website and to plan on attending next year’s meeting in Richardson (November 11-12, 2011).

The presentations (see website link to 2010 agenda) were well received and well-presented. Besides hearing from our special featured speakers (including American Academy of Audiology president Patricia Kricos), approximately 150 attendees were able to acquire as many as ten hours of CEU’s, with three hours in Ethics (applicable to our Texas license requirements, as well as Tier 1 hours for American Board of Audiology certification). Hat’s off to all presenters (Texans and out-of-staters)!
Six pre-conference presentations were made available (at no cost) by commercial sponsors on Thursday, November 11, offering up to 3 more CEU hours. TAA appreciates how these sessions offered this focused instruction in topics that supplemented the continuing education offered at our annual conference (see website link to 2010 agenda for details). We hope to continue this offering at next year’s conference; keep an eye our website.
We had a lively discussion on TAA’s actions re: the Texas Sunset Advisory Commissions, organization of GrassRoots initiatives stand ready action during the next legislation and other government relations issues. See website link to our Sunset summary. The PAC received some substantial contributions that will be applied to our lobbying during the next session. Please consider a generous donation to the PAC website link to PAC site.
During the business meeting, new officers were elected, for terms that begin on January 1. They are:

President-elect: Jennifer Bobo, Rowlett,
Secretary-Treasurer: Paula Allison, Houston
Member-at-Large: Beckie Tidwell, Dallas
Member-at-Large: Denise McLeod, Waco
Member-at-Large: Jennifer Meeks, Houston

The student research posters were excellent this year. Congratulations (and cash awards) were presented to:

Name of winner, University of Texas at Dallas, and poster title
Name of 2nd place, university and poster
Name of 3rd. place, university and poster.
Name of 4th place, university and poster … (there were four, weren’t there, Steve?

Several Au.D. students were extremely valuable as volunteers kept us on time, enticed by items on the Silent Auction, and unruffled by details. One student even picked up a speaker from the other side of Houston (in a nasty rainstorm) and another (a professional photographer) archived the event in terrific photos (be looking for them on our website).
Finally, I want to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who donated time, instruction, auction items and ideas for our conference this year. Special kudos and appreciation to Michelle Tejada, Jana Hensley, and Janet Krueger for their untiring and dedicated labors in planning and carrying out complex elements of this conference! Michelle’s term of service in the Education area of the Board of Directors is ending after (four?) years of shouldering the conference planning; we thank you, Michelle!

In short, the 2010 meeting was too short for me. I would have enjoyed more time to talk with folks myself, but scurrying seemed to be my norm this year. I was glad to see the engaged conversations taking place during the breaks and networking time. If you have suggestions for next year’s program (for our 2011 conference in the Dallas area), please send on your comments (to a TAA address of your choice, Janet)

Best Regards and Season’s Greetings, Dick
RICHARD DANIELSON, Ph.D., TAA President

* By the way, TAA’s mission statement is “to serve audiologists and individuals with auditory and balance disorders by promoting excellence, ethics, and education. Our fundamental objectives are to advance:

The excellence of audiology services.
The highest ethical standards of practice and conduct for audiologists.
The preeminence of audiology as a profession through outstanding educational programs for audiologists and the public. “

Presidents: Past, Present, and Future