CONGRATULATIONS!!

MN STATE ASSEMBLY WAS AWARDED THE

 "2009 STATE ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP AWARD"

 AT AST's 41st NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Sara Vodnick, President accepted the award on behalf of

the MN State Assembly.  We were the only state awarded

this year.  Check out the photo in the July 2010 AST Journal, page 297.  

Members of MN State Assembly & Students~

As we all know by now, Minnesota was the only state that received the SAL award for 2009.

However, have you often wondered what is required to receive such an award?  Here are the requirements needed to be fulfilled to receive the State Leadership Award:

-Hold one annual meeting per year.

-Hold at least two workshops per year.

-Take part in legislative activity.

-Create marketing activity.

-Experience a membership increase of 10% of previous years.

-Media Coverage.

-Student/Instructor involvement.

-Public Education.

After doing research, our state of MN has done an excellent job and has fulfilled many of the requirements need to receive this great award.

There are the normal requirements that are not hard to complete, such as holding one annual meeting and at least two workshops per year.

The requirements that we, as Minnesotans excelled at were: taking part in legislative activity, media coverage, student/instructor involvement and public education. 

Minnesotans Surgical Techs banned together and supported our state assembly to move into action a bill that would make it a legal requirement for certification to work in the state of MN. We had the attention of the state capital, the media, instructors, and all of you. I consider it a complete success that we have a committee that is proactive in its efforts and have passed this amended Bill into law.

As the year has progressed, we must have also had an increase of membership by 10%. This is another requirement set by the AST to receive this award. Here are the exact numbers for MNSA obtained by AST as of 7/6/10:

1/7/08 - 722 members / 14.78% increase

1/5/09 - 792 members / 9.70% increase

1/4/10 - 910 members / 14.90% increase

As you can see, we have achieved several if not all of the requirements needed to receive this award. Congratulations MN State Assembly!

Article by Charles "Chaz" Saxon, MNSA Board of Directors