Time for the Lowering of Dues at the AANA?

[Concerned CRNA]

I am posting this letter in hope of bringing positive change to the profession. I am not an insider to the inner workings of the AANA, but nonetheless, there are clearly inefficiencies noticeable to the outsider. Realize, this post is intended solely to bring about positive "change" and any inaccuracies are inadvertent. Every effort to be accurate has been made. After reading this post, use the contact information at the end to contact the board of directors to express your opinion.

It is clear to all that the AANA has accomplished many feats for the profession, and we owe a lot of gratitude to those who devote time for the greater good. With that being said, clearly, the economy has obviously had better days and it would seem ideal for the AANA to look at reducing dues by lowering costs.

1.)Dues $645/year: There are many people who do not get dues paid for by their employer, and even those who do, cutbacks in the economy may eliminate this benefit. Why are dues so high? What is the AANA's fiscal plan if there is a drop in membership?

2.) Employee Benefits: Employees are given off seemingly excessive days for the holidays including Thanksgiving (3 days), Christmas (3 days), and New Years (3 days). What other benefits do employees get? Is the AANA running a tight ship or living richly? Can positions be eliminated to save costs and reduce membership fees?

3.) Committee Meetings: Committee participants are flown around the country at the expense of the AANA and its members. What about video conferencing? Again, can costs be cut here to reduce membership dues? Many corporations use other modes of communication to avoid the costs of travel.

4.) Certification: CCNA results are sent via FedEx, but they are not consistently sent with the same level of service. For example, some are sent via FedEx Priority (arrives before 10:30 AM) and some are sent via FedEx Standard (arrives by 3:00 PM). Obviously the cost is different and the membership has to pick up the bill. Why not use the USPS overnight service which is the cheapest?

5.) Service: What is the actual service one is getting for the $645/year membership? The journal, news bulletin, & government relations. Additional services such as meetings and CE's are for fees.

In summary, it seems that the AANA can tighten the ship to reduce costs, and hopefully this will result in lower membership fees. A few examples have been provided, but undoubtedly there are more. In addition, the AANA needs to greatly clarify what the $645/year buys. Members appreciate much of the political activity the AANA pursues for its members, but at the same time are expecting the AANA to use our membership dues as efficiently as possible. Please contact the board of directors to express your opinion.

To contact the Board of directors, use the following information.

Jackie Rowles, President AANA [email protected]

James Walker, President Elect [email protected]

Paul Santoro, Vice-President [email protected]

Lawrence Stump, Treasurer [email protected]

Steve Alves, Director Region 1 [email protected]

Janice Izlar, Director Region 2 [email protected]

Karen Eisberner, Director Region 3 [email protected]

Gary Clark, Director Region 4 [email protected]

Todd Herzog, Director Region 5 [email protected]

Ronald Castaldo, Director Region 6 [email protected]

Bruce Weiner, Director Region 7 [email protected]

[thezman]

For those who have doubts about the cost- effectiveness of AANA membership, please take a look at your tax returns and benefits packages.

Given the intense battles raging on with organized medicine around territoriality, scope of practice of APNs, and our future place as the anesthesia providers of choice, I find my AANA dues the biggest bargain imaginable. There are many reasons we run over a 90% participation rate in our professional organization, a huge one is the relative bang for our bucks! My dues for the ANA, ENA, and AACN, have never provided the depth and breadth of return that my very reasonable AANA dues have.

Best regards,

Art Zwerling

[Concerned CRNA]

If the AANA would reduce costs, your membership dues would accomplish a lot more. I couldn't agree more that the work they do is important and worthwhile. I'm am just questioning if there are ways they can be more efficient. And the truth is, every business in the world should constantly be doing this. Low costs and high productivity are the envy in the business world.

[thezman]

The AANA is already one of the most cost effective professional organizations I know of. I certainly know of no other member driven organization that has done as much to protect the scope of practice of APNs and advocate for professional development of it's membership. I would suggest that you attend the Mid Year Assemby in April In Washington and get a copy of the Treasurer's Report

Mid-Year Assembly

Monday, April 20, 2009

Registration | Sunday | Tuesday | Wednesday

Morning Session

0 CE Credits

7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Registration

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.

Meet the Candidates

"Early Bird" Coffee

Coffee

8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.AANA President's Report

Jackie S. Rowles, CRNA, MBA, MA, FAAPM

8:30 a.m.- 8:40 a.m.

AANA Treasurer's Report

Lawrence R. Stump, CRNA, MEd

8:40 a.m.- 8:45 a.m.

Introduction of 2009 Slate of Candidates 8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

Board of Director Candidates

Position Statements

9:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

Meet the Candidates

You may then want to introdruce a resolution at the Annual Business Meeting that suggest more cost saving fiscal policies.

I am sure the AANA Leadership including Mr Stump would be most interested in hearing your concerns.

Best regards,

Art Zwerling

[Concerned CRNA]

FYI: for those of you reading this page. Art Zwerling is a CRNA who works as an adviser to the AANA Peer Assistance program. I'll leave it up to the reader to decide what is "reasonable" as reasonable is a relative term.

When the AANA spends tons of money flying people all over the place and putting them in hotels, I have to wonder why using video conferncing is not a viable alternative. This lowers overhead and at the same time makes funds available for governmental relations. I personally believe $645 is well above what it should be and we could get the same advocacy for significantly less if the AANA would tighten ship. What's with all the vacation days, etc?

I'm hoping more people will chime into the discussion so we can hear more peoples views. To me, it is not a fair assumption that other people will use my money carefully. When you give money to the goverment, do you assume it will be spent efficiently. As such, I would hope the AANA would look at being more efficient.

I don't come up for renewal for several months, but once I do, I'll have to evaluate if it is worth it for me. If I was making the decision today, the answer would be no

[mammothsnw]

OK so...$645 is .0043% of the avg CRNA yearly salary....most make more than that in a day. I'm an SRNA with $0 income and I probably spend that much on coffee in a year...I have to agree with Mr. Zwerling...The AANA is a great advocate for our profession, and I would glady pay double those dues...

[loisane]

Concerned,

Why do you think our dues are excessive? Have you compared them to other professional organizations? They are completely in line with other comparable professions. And most of those professions don't have near the mean salary we do. When you take that into account, our dues are a bargain!

Candidates for the certification exam pay fees that I am sure cover the costs of their result notification. I very much doubt that the membership "picks up the bill". The councils are autonomous, so I would imagine they have budgets separate from the AANA.

By your own admission you are not well aware of the inner workings of the AANA. Why is that? Are you active in your state association? Have you attended any national meetings? You would have far more insight into the questions you raise if you became active and saw the working of the our association for yourself by being an active participant.

Mid year assembly is in a couple of months. I encourage you to go see your association in action. Every CRNA I have known who has expressed views similar to your post, comes back from MYA with a different attitude. In fact, I have heard it said more than once, that we are getting MORE than could be expected for our dues dollars, not less!

Additionally, even if you did in fact find that these things need drastic change, how would you propose to accomplish that? The way to change things is from within. I guarantee there is a committee in your state association that could use your help this very minute. All it would take is a phone call, and you can start work toward positive change. Run for office, make the budget analysis, come up with a different plan, implement it and see if it helps. Complaining gets nothing accomplished. Good, hard, honest work makes our organization better and stronger. What are you going to do to help that happen?

loisane crna

[loveanesthesia]

#1, it's an appropriate number, compare $645 with other professional organizations. About 10 hours work for most CRNAs.

#2 I doubt a few less days off for vacation will make a difference in office staff FTE needs. If it keeps good people around, it's likely well worth it.

#3

I do agree that flying people to meetings could probably be cut, but on the other hand face to face meeting have many advantages compared to meetings at a distance through technology. I've done it and it's just not the same, you dont' get the same level of discussion. A combination would mostlikely be the best.

#4, Certification, this is independent of the AANA, it is totally financially independent and paid for by the fees for those who take the exams. This has no relationship to the dues. The applicant pays the additional cost of Fed Ex mailing.

#5 The biggest benifit of the AANA dues is the office in DC, and the full time staff to lobby for CRNAs. We have gotten a return many times over from this. Please contribute to your state and national PAC fund, it's very important, especially with the huge changes in health care that are being proposed. I would be very worried if we didn't have the system in place.

In my opinion, CRNAs get a lot for their dues. It's good to ask the question.

[thezman]

BTW,

Art Zwerling is an unpaid volunteer Peer Assistance Advisor as are all of the Peer Assistance Advisors. A great deal of the work of the AANA is done by unpaid volunteer SRNA/CRNA members.

As others have so clearly demonstrated our dues are truly a minuscule amount of $ compared to the benefits we get as AANA members!

Best,

Art

[sccrna]

Membership and our support of the AANA and our state organizations is imperative if we want to keep the same level of practice that we now enjoy. But paying the AANA Dues (a great value at less than one day's salary) is not enough. If you want to continue to have CRNA mean something then you also have to participate. The originatior of this thread said that they did not know much about the inner workings of the AANA. Why not? Has someone kept them from attending an AANA meeting or volunteering for a state or national committee? The AANA has been accused in the past of recycling it's leadership and unfortunately this is more true than not. But we have had to recycle because people think someone else will do it and unfortunately few do. I have had the privledge of serving for six years on one of the national councils as well as several other national and state committees. I do this not to receive recognition but to give back to the profession that has given much to me. I can also guarantee that other CRNAs who claim that "I don't have the time, or I'm too busy" are NO busier than I am. Please remember what this organization gives to you and I guarantee that it is more than just a monthly magazine. It is a lifesyle and career that we can all be proud of. Please give of your time as well as you money. When the AANA PAC and Foundation call please respond and say yes, I can give to help my profession. We need more proud CRNAs to stand up and be a part of the solution, then and only the will we be able to defend our practice rights from those who wish to take them away.

[Qwiigley, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Keep the dues at the current amount, but the innerworkings of the AANA should cut operating costs. We all have to tighten our belts, so should OUR organization. Get rid of the pork.

[foraneman]

The original post is ill-informed and...well absurd...no offense.

First of all, committee members are NOT jetting around the country for tea and spa weekends. Video conferencing makes no sense once one understands the way the committees work and meet. In September, ALL of the committees meet at the Joint Committee Conference at the Chicago O'hare Marriott (what a WONDERFUL vacation spot...take the kids), and after a combined morning session they break off into individual committee meeting rooms. For 2 1/2 days a HUGE amount of work is done, often regarding issues that impact more than one committee. As needed one committee can get immediate input/info/project details from a committee meeting down the hall. Can't do that with video conferencing. Additionally the idea that the AANA BOD and committees should somehow work productively together without ever having met in person, especially in a political climate, is utter nonsense.

Other complaints: AANA staff allegedly get more days off around Thanksgiving and X-mas (what...2-3?) than the apparently the OP...who then wonders what other fancy smanshy perks and benefits there must be. (OP has no clue what the facts are...just imagines there must be something fishy)

Oh, and then....the class of mail that the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists uses for this or that is too fancy (despite the need for tracking for vital documents). You LOSE all credibility when a). You can only come up with petty nonsense to ***** about and, b) you have no idea that the CCNA is independant of the AANA and has nothing to do with your dues complaint.

Membership in the AANA has nothing to do with re-certification.

I mean....what the.....

What the AANA needs are people who value their membership enough to learn the basics about the organization that fights on their behalf for federal legislation, Medicare reimbursement, state laws and dozens of other 'minor' details some CRNAs haven't the time to learn anything about.

FROM THE WEBSITE:

The National Board on Certification and Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA) is a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois. It consists of two councils-the Council on Certification of Nurse Anesthetists and the Council on Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists-who have autonomous authority to carry out their respective credentialing functions.