Board of Directors Elections

What a terrific slate! Elections for 3 new Board Members has started. You must be a dues-paying member to vote in the election. For more information about the candidates and voting process go to: http://www.ppag.org/en/art/?254.

Let your voice be heard! VOTE TODAY! The deadline to submit your vote is June 28, 2006

Patient Compliance Survey

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released results from their Survey on Patient Compliance With Prescription Regimens.

Check out the Executive Summary.

Journal Progress

Just a quick note about the Journal. The Oct-Dec 2005 issue has been distributed in late April. Let me know if you have not yet received the issue.

Submit Your Abstract Online

Submissions are now closed for the 15th Annual Meeting!

Meet the "Office Helper"

This is my son, Garrett, helping out! I decided to bring some work home; your CE certificates from the Specialty Meeting. I was folding and stuffing envelopes in the dining room. I left for a few minutes. When I came back into the room.....

Garrett had decided he would help. He had lots of fun, of course!

But all is well. Everyone should have their CE certificate in hand (eventhough Dad had to reprint a few certificates)!

A Response to Your Comments

It's been awhile since I have posted a message on this blog. Things are usually busy in April, May, and June. We just "closed the books" on the Specialty Meeting, and Annual Meeting planning is in full swing. It's the time of the year that we are working on 2 meetings at the same time!

I wanted to take some time to update you on a few things and respond to the Specialty Meeting Overall Program Evaluation. Your feedback is very important to me personally, as well as the Education Committees and Board of Directors. In fact, your previous comments resulted in the organization including Preconference Symposia within the general conference registration fee!

We had a terrific meeting with a record attendance. About 145 people attended the meeting (165 including speakers). For the most part, attendees enjoyed the conference program and enjoyed the Baltimore area! Most of you had very positive comments regarding our speakers and overall meeting experience. We received very positive feedback regarding the Residency Project Presentations! Most wanted to make sure we continue to do this. You don't have to worry about that. The Board is committed to doing this for the long haul!

But a few of you had some constructive criticism. And some of you didn't. I address both below.

"Not enough rooms in the PPAG room block"

First, this is simply not true. Secondly, as previously mentioned we had a record attendance. We actually picked up nearly as many rooms for the Specialty as we did for the Annual. We were very responsive to the increased interest in the meeting and we expanded the room block 5 times! Some of you may have experienced a delay, but were able to make reservations at the Conference Hotel. The Hotel was very responsive to our needs, as they did not have to offer the discounted rate beyond the contracted and agreed upon amount of rooms. We actually had rooms available right up to the reservation deadline. We can not offer the discount beyond the deadline.

We also enlisted the help of a spill-over reservation service AFTER the deadline for making reservations. A few of you used this service and received very good rates near the conference hotel.

"Could you offer the discounted hotel rate for the week prior to or after the Meeting?"

No.

Concurrent Sessions

Many of you were dissappointed in our concurrent sessions. Not because of quality or speakers, but because you couldn't go to both at the same time! From a Program Committee perspective, this is probably a very good problem. It means that they did their job. From your perspective, it is frustrating.

There are many reasons for concurrent sessions. Ironically, the organization began offering concurrent sessions due to feedback it received years ago. Break-out sessions are meant to be more interactive than lectures. It is easier for speakers to conduct workshops in smaller settings. In order to have smaller settings, we have to split up the group, otherwise, workshops become lectures. Also, the Program Committee would like to offer a variety of topics for the attendees. It's better to offer two or three quality sessions at the same time rather than just one session. This gives the Program Committee the ability to address the diverse CE needs of PPAG members. Unfortunately, during a Specialty Conference, topics are important to everyone.

No matter the reasons, we can do a few things! To respond to this problem, our Membership and Education Committees are working on posting session recordings online. You will be able to obtain CE credit after completion of the online offering. The Program Committees will also focus on ways to provide repeat concurrent sessions. I do not know, though, if we can move to a "no concurrent session" program.

Not Enough Seats in the Breakout Rooms

Again, in many ways, this is a good problem to have. We are offering something that is relevant to you, and you want to be there... and sometimes more of you want to go than we expect. To be candid, PPAG meeting participants would impress meeting planners from other organizations. We do not experience the drop-off in participation that most planners do. We must assume that nearly 100% of our participants will actually participate. (Sounds strange, but this is not true for many meetings/conferences). Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult for us to predict which break-outs will be the popular one!

Speaker Handouts

For the most part, the lack of speaker handouts is not necessarily a reflection of PPAG or its Program Committees. We have printing deadlines. If we don't receive handouts before the deadline, it can not be included in the program. However, sometimes we must add last minutes replacements or additions to the program. Every effort is made to provide handouts ONSITE if we are unable to include a handout in the program booklet.

If you did not attend a session because of a lack of handout, you can always ask for one in advance onsite. There is no reason not to attend a session due to lack of handout. We also provide objectives for each session. If you still have questions about a session, feel free to ask.

"Speakers should include email addresses on opening and closing slides."

Good idea! We will encourage speakers to do this, but some may not want to do that! :)

Elevators were too slow

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this one.

"Color scheme was boring"

Here's to hoping this was the comment of a prankster with a good sense of humor. Did you want to see if we really look at the comments? Well, we do.

Parking was too expensive: "You should pay for our parking to attend"

Some of the local attendees complained about the parking fees at the hotel ($23). My gut reaction is to point out that you spent a lot less money than those that had to pay for airfare, hotel room, and ground transportation. Your received more CE per dollar than most of the attendees. PPAG saved you money because we had the meeting in your home city! The bottom line is that PPAG does not pay for the travel expenses of any participants (long distance or local).

If you would like to discuss the comments above, or other issues as it relates to PPAG meeting, feel free to call me or email me.

Do Kids Spread the Flu?

Check out this interesting article from CNNHealth.

MVI Shortage

A few members have wondered if PPAG is going to release recommendation for alternatives for ped-MVI. The American Soceity of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition has released guidelines.

You can review the recommendations here.