These minutes have been approved by the
2001 Minutes Committee.
75th Annual Congress
of the
Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards
MINUTES
Annual Business Meeting
Saturday, April 7, 2001
San Antonio, Texas
Chair: David E. Brown, D.C. - FCLB President
- Call to Order - As chair, Dr.
Brown called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. He introduced John Bell,
Registered Parliamentarian and noted that Donna Liewer would serve as recording
secretary. The FCLB officers and district directors were also introduced. It was
noted that Dr. Larry Gerstein (MO), Immediate Past President, and Dr. James P.
Powell (OH), District II Director, will be retiring at the end of this meeting,
and that Dr. James Sommers (MI) will be seated as new District II Director.
- Dedication to Service - Dr. Octavio Terrazas (Mexico) led the dedication to
service.
- Invocation - Dr. Steve Willen (NC) led the invocation.
The chair
then introduced special guests, including FCLB past presidents and executive
board chairs, ACA and World Federation of Chiropractic representatives and
various college presidents.
- Credentials Committee Report - Dr. Oliver
"Bud" Smith (TX) reported that the delegates and alternates were
properly credentialed. Hearing no objections, the chair declared the delegates
and alternates seated.
- Roll Call - Donna Liewer called the roll.
- Adoption
of Business Meeting Rules and Protocol - Hearing no objections, the chair
declared the Business Rules and Protocol adopted as presented.
- Approval of
Agenda - Hearing no objections, the chair declared the Agenda approved as
presented.
- Announcement of the Approval of the 2000 Minutes by Committee -
Seattle, WA
The chair announced the minutes for 2000 were approved by the
Minutes Committee composed of Drs. Hal Bowen (DE) - Chair, Carol Davis (AK) and
David Taylor (MA). The 2001 minutes committee will be chaired by Dr. Bowen and
include Drs. Ed Weathersby (AZ) and Pamela Blanchard (MT).
- Business Reports
- President's Report - Dr. David E. Brown (VA) commented on growth in the FCLB
over the past two years, and thanked the membership, board and staff for their
trust and support.
- Treasurer/Finance Report - Dr. Richard L. Cole (TN)
reported that the annual audit found the Federation to be in full compliance of
required standards, and noted the report is available to any member for review.
He explained that the board has adopted a goal of establishing a reserve fund
equal to 18 months operations (currently at about four months), and that the
board also adopted investment policies. He referred to the financial section of
the Annual Report, noting appreciation to NBCE and NCMIC Insurance Co. for
generous grants and describing the other sources of income. He also reported on
noteworthy expenses, particularly the costs of computer programming as the
complete computer infrastructure of the FCLB has been overhauled. He noted one
new budget item for expense related to creating a centralized CE approval
program and database.
- Executive Director's Report - Donna Liewer drew the
attention of the membership to the full report in the Annual Report, encouraging
new attendees to search for their emerging roles as tomorrow's leaders of the
Federation. She thanked the membership for the opportunity to serve as executive
director for the past 11 years.
- Legal Report - Legal counsel Dale Atkinson of
the law firm Atkinson & Atkinson thanked the board and Federation for the
opportunity to serve as counsel, noting that there are no current or pending
lawsuits.
There were no questions from the floor about the business reports.
- Standing Committees - the chair introduced the chairs of the Federation's
standing committees and noted that committee activity is described either in the
attendee notebooks or Annual Report. There were no questions from the floor for
the standing committees.
- Special Committees - the chair introduced the
chairs of the Federation's special committees and noted that committee activity
is described either in the attendee notebooks or Annual Report. There were no
questions from the floor for the special committees.
- Reports of Other
Organizations to Which FCLB Has Voting Representation - the chair introduced
regulatory representatives who serve on the NBCE Board of Directors, CCE Board
of Directors and Commission on Accreditation, Congressional Oversight Committee:
Chiropractic Military Implementation Project, Council on Chiropractic Guidelines
and Practice Parameters, and Federation of Associations of Regulatory Boards.
There were no questions from the floor for these representatives.
- Nominating
Committee Report - The chair assumed the president's prerogative and addressed
the membership briefly about recent events preceding the current election for
vice president, and the status of the office of the Treasurer. He reminded
members that the current bylaws govern nominations and elections for the two
open offices of vice president and president. The chair noted that Dr. James
Sommers of Michigan was elected at the fall 2000 regional meeting of District II
as director to replace Dr. James P. Powell of Ohio, who is retiring. Dr. Sommers
is to be seated along with the rest of the board at the installation at the
close of the annual meeting.
- Elections
As Nominating Committee chair, Dr.
Lawrence M. Gerstein (MO) reported the committee was polled by telephone on
March 5, 2001, in compliance with the bylaws, to review the single announced
candidates for each of the two open offices. The committee was unanimous in
their recommendation of Dr. Wayne C. Wolfson (FL) for a one year term for
president, commencing in 2001.
The chair called for additional nominations from
the floor. Hearing none, the chair declared Dr. Wayne C. Wolfson of Florida
president for a one year term, from 2001 - 2002, commencing at the close of this
year's annual meeting.
Dr. Gerstein continued with the report of the Nominating
Committee, noting that the committee was unanimous in their recommendation of
Dr. Richard L. Cole (TN) for a one- year term for vice president, commencing in
2001.
The chair called for additional nominations from the floor.
Dr. Ron Tripp
(OK) nominated Dr. Kathleen Galligan of Oregon. Dr. Jonathan McCullough (PA)
nominated Dr. Henry W. Hulteen of South Carolina.
Hearing no other nominations
from the floor, the chair announced the slate of three candidates. Each
candidate was invited to speak for up to two minutes.
The Tellers Committee,
chaired by Dr. Vernon Temple (VT) and including Drs. Elizabeth Kressin (IA) and
Brian Ashton (MD), distributed and collected the ballots. The count was
supervised by parliamentarian John Bell and legal counsel Dale Atkinson.
The
chair announced that there was no majority of the 48 ballots cast in favor of
one candidate, and that the bylaws and Robert's Rules of Order require that
votes be cast again.
A question was raised from the floor as to whether the
results of the first vote could be disclosed. The chair explained that, while
organizational precedent has been to NOT disclose the actual count in the case
of any contested elections in the interest of kindness, Robert's Rules of Order
does allow for the count to be revealed.
The chair asked the membership if that
was their desire. By a show of paddles, the members indicated they wanted to
know the results of the election.
The chair announced that Dr. Cole was the
leading candidate, but did not have a majority (at least 25) votes of the 48
cast as required by the bylaws for election. He announced the other two
candidates, Drs. Galligan and Hulteen, were tied. The bylaws allow for a runoff
election between the candidates who secure the top two highest number of votes;
however, because of the second place tie, a new vote was taken.
A question was
asked as to whether there could be a run-off election between the two tied
candidates. After consultation with legal and parliamentary advisors, the chair
ruled that neither the FCLB bylaws nor Robert's Rules of Order allow for such a
run-off election, and the members would have to cast their votes again.
A second
set of ballots was distributed by the tellers, with the count supervised by the
parliamentarian and the Federation's legal counsel. With 46 ballots cast, the
chair declared Dr. Richard Cole the winner by majority vote. Dr. Cole will serve
a one-year term as vice president commencing at the close of the 2001 annual
business meeting.
The chair noted that ballots would be available for inspection
by any member for 15 minutes following the election, after which they would be
destroyed.
- 2002 Nominating Committee Representation
The chair reported that,
in accordance with the Federation bylaws, the board of directors nominated two
individuals to serve for one-year terms on the 2002 Nominating Committee,
subject to the approval of the membership.
Dr. Oliver "Bud" Smith (TX)
and Dr. Laurel Cowie (NS) were approved by the membership with no opposition.
- Resolutions and Bylaws Amendments
As Chair of the Resolutions and Bylaws
Committee, Dr. Hal Bowen (DE) reported that the committee met to review bylaws
amendments and resolutions submitted in a timely manner and in proper format.
Resolutions
The committee recommended PASS on Resolution # 1, which would have
the FCLB recommend to the CCE that it amend its Standards to require accredited
programs utilize a pre-admission examination to assist in measuring the skill
sets of applicants to the Doctor of Chiropractic programs, and that the
Standards further be amended to require that the programs report the results to
the CCE's Commission on Accreditation.
It was moved, seconded and passed to
insert the phrase "standardized" to describe the chiropractic
pre-admission examination (with three opposed).
The resolution FAILED AS AMENDED
with nine in favor. While members expressed general support for a pre-admission
examination, they noted concerns about perceptions of directing another
organization's policies.
The committee recommended PASS on Resolution # 2, which
would have the Federation recommend that certain mutual guidelines be followed
by member boards as a first step in the ongoing quest for unification of
interjurisdictional mobility of licensure.
It was moved, seconded and passed to
amend the third guideline as follows:
strike out "pass the specific
jurisprudence examination." and substitute with "comply with the
jurisprudence assessment".
The resolution PASSED AS AMENDED with none
opposed.
Bylaws Amendments
As committee chair, Dr. Bowen continued with the
report of the committee regarding bylaws amendments which were submitted in a
timely manner. He noted the only proposed amendments had come from the FCLB
board of directors, and that these had been sent to the membership at least 30
days in advance of the meeting in accordance with the bylaws requirements.
He
explained that the committee had categorized the proposed amendments on the
circulated draft as follows:
| EF |
for amendments relating to the concept of
executive fellows |
| T |
for amendments relating to the changing the terms of office,
and |
| HK |
for issues which the committee regards as Housekeeping (to include
grammar, doing business by electronic means, bonds, and other items) |
He led a
discussion on each of the three concepts individually. He noted that because
there were so many proposed changes, the chair would entertain discussion and
amendments within the scope of notice on each of the three sections, followed by
one motion to adopt or defeat the package once the three sections were
satisfactory to the membership.
Positive comments were made endorsing the
concept of the Executive Fellow.
Considerable discussion ensued on the issue of
one two-year term vs. the current two one- year terms for the president and vice
president. Dr. Bowen explained the intent of the proposal was to bring the
office of Treasurer (currently two two-year terms) into line with the others to
avoid the necessity for appointments by the board of directors to fill vacancies
caused when a treasurer is elected as vice president in the middle of a
treasurer's term.
Several members expressed concerns about wanting to retain the
option of not electing a president or vice president to a second term if they
lost confidence in that official. Others spoke for the concept, noting the
importance of giving an elected team the confidence and time to complete their
agenda and the fact that no president in the Federation's recorded history has
failed to be re-elected.
A motion was made to amend the bylaws to retain the
concept of a one-year term for the president and vice president. After
consultation with parliamentarian and legal counsel, the chair ruled the motion
out of order, explaining that because the concept was so heavily interwoven with
the proposed term of Treasurer and was referenced in several sections of the
bylaws, necessarily specific language for the amendment could not be crafted in
the time available in the business meeting.
The chair noted that the president
and vice president were elected to one-year terms this year, and that a vote to
adopt bylaws amendments as proposed would not preclude the necessary changes
being worked on by the Federation and re-proposed as one-year terms at the 2002
annual meeting.
Dr. Bowen described the sections denoted as
"housekeeping" - there was no discussion on them from the floor. By a
show of paddles, the delegates indicated their support for the proposed
amendments marked as "housekeeping".
It was moved/seconded to adopt
the bylaws changes as a whole, as presented.
Some discussion ensued about voting
on the three sections individually. The chair reminded members that they needed
to dispose of the motion currently on the floor and that any other motions would
be out of order at this time.
The motion to adopt the bylaws as presented was
DEFEATED with 22 in favor and 17 opposed. To be amended, the FCLB bylaws require
a 2/3 majority vote of member boards present (2/3 of 48 = 32).
The chair then
called for any new motions to adopt individual sections or other parts of the
proposed bylaws. Hearing none, the chair continued with the agenda.
- New
Business
Dr. Octavio Terrazas of Mexico reported on progress with the Ministry
of Education toward the establishment of a chiropractic college in Mexico, with
a projected opening perhaps as soon as September 2001. He invited the Federation
to host the next or any future meeting in Mexico.
Dr. Rosenmeyer of Wisconsin
expressed support for the positive actions of the NBCE and FCLB as a first time
conference attendee, but questioned whether there was a potential conflict of
interest with Dr. Sportelli's speaking to the regulatory boards. As program
chair, Dr. Wolfson indicated that the selection of Dr. Sportelli was based on
consistently superior "favorite" speaker evaluations and requests by
the membership to hear his challenging comments.
- Report of the Convention
and Program Committee: Future Conference Sites
As conference chair, Dr. Wolfson
expressed appreciation to the many volunteers and staff who worked on this
year's conference, especially the Texas chiropractic colleges, state
association, and state board for all their supportive efforts. He reviewed the
calendar of fall regional networking meetings and encouraged everyone to attend.
Dr. David Brown was thanked for his service as president and presented with
several gifts in recognition of his outstanding service.
Dr. Wolfson announced
that next year's annual meeting will be held in Chicago, Illinois, May 1 - 5 at
the four diamond Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel on Michigan Avenue, with a room
rate of $165 s / d.
- Installation Ceremony
Dr. Lawrence M. Gerstein (MO),
FCLB Past President, installed the FCLB Board of Directors for 2001-2002.
- Other Announcements
The chair announced the sad news that Dr. Jay Perreten, FCLB
past president, had died.
- Adjournment
Hearing no further business to come
before the assembly, the FCLB annual business meeting was adjourned at 11:48
a.m. until May 4, 2002 in Chicago, Illinois.
Donna M. Liewer
Recording Secretary