2/10/2011

Hello Academy Members,

We, the SCAA Executive Board, would like to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year! We look forward to an exciting and productive year working towards the best interests of our academy. The 2011 SCAA convention was a success, and I hope that those who attended left with increased knowledge in areas of interest that will improve your professional skills and help you achieve your business goals. Thank you to our speakers who participated and to our vendors who supported us with their attendance. I would also like to extend thanks to Todd Gibson, past president, for his leadership and to our other members rotating off the board. Congratulations to Yvonne Means, our first annual winner of the Tony Whitson Award for Clinical Excellence in Audiology, and to Stephen Guryan, this year's recipient of the Betsy Wade award. Also, Charlotte Holman and Amy Vocu received the first SCAA Audiology Scholarship awards.

Kristin Davis, your President-Elect, is hard at work planning for next year's 2012 annual convention. She has reviewed feedback from the convention evaluation forms, which will guide her in some potential changes to next year's event. Our upcoming newsletter will have more details regarding next year's convention time and place…so stay tuned.

To update you on the status of our lobbying efforts: in January, the board agreed to hire The Sunnie Harmon & John DeWorken Group to both represent and advocate on behalf of the SCAA. Their duties will include legislative monitoring for issues impacting our profession, communicating updates with our board leaders, participating in events, and focusing on defeating legislation proposed by the TRAC Commission that negatively affects the hearing-impaired in South Carolina. The SCAA will be able to modify our lobbying efforts if the need arises. Thank you to those who collected petition signatures in this grassroots effort to continue the state sales tax exemption status on hearing aids. Please check the website for the mail-to address for any petitions not already collected.

Finally, as we look ahead in 2011, our focus will be on improving our academy by providing additional resources for our members, improving our ability to network within our profession, and continuing to cultivate new members, ideas and initiatives to grow our organization. It is also essential that we continue to educate the public regarding audiology awareness and what services we provide for those with hearing impairment and their families. In order to position ourselves as the most-qualified hearing healthcare provider, we must have an informed and educated public. Public education will not only benefit our patients, but will elevate our profession as well. I look forward to keeping our membership abreast of our actions and remind us all to stay engaged!

All the best,

Brian Curtis, Au.D.
SCAA 2011 President
www.scaa.net