I just returned last night from the fantastic AADE Leadership 2014 meeting in Chicago at the Conrad Hotel. Many state CB leaders attended along with some additional LNG leaders. Aside from the sad fact that past President Tami Ross had her flight canceled three days in a row and was unable to make the meeting, it was a dynamic and well organized meeting. I had the privilege of introducing several of our speakers but also was able to participate and learn as well. AADE offered Yoga in the morning before the sessions and worked with the hotel to provide healthy, portion controlled meals and snacks that were very tasty!
A highlight for me was an inspiring presentation by Kiki L'Italien called "Find your Voice." Kiki did a great job of engaging the audience and encouraged us to think through each segment by discussing at our tables and then sharing with the group. We talked about what makes us afraid of challenges and what we would do if we could face our fears. One of my goals for this year is to tweet more during meetings and conferences and to also encourage all forms of social media within our diabetes educator group. As a matter of fact, I was very happy to meet @Arizona AADE and put a name to a face! Rachel is going to be working to increase the use of social media in the diabetes education community and has some great ideas! We are hoping to expand our followers and who we follow, so please let @DebGreenwood know of any diabetes related bloggers, twitter users, Facebook pages etc! Also very happy Rachel was selected as one of the 2014 MAC Co-Facilitators! A few fellow CA AADE members were attending so it was great to see Steve, Richard and MJ. Unfortunately Tammi was sick and was not able to attend or present her program on "Planning a Successful Statewide Conference-Made Easy!" but MJ stepped in and was a fantastic speaker! MJ will be a great CA CB leader following in Tammi's footsteps. Karen Kemmis and Molly McElwee-Malloy taught us all about blogging (something I need!) and helped motivate me to write today!
Of course, "Advocacy Training and Updates" is always a presentation I look forward to hearing and James Specker and Casey Elliott did a great job of updating the group on all of AADEs advocacy efforts and the process of state legislation for diabetes educators. Kentucky is still the only state that has passed legislation, but several states are in various stages of the process. I am really looking forward to the Public Policy forum in Washington, DC this spring. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our CEO Chuck Macfarlane and our President Joan Bardsley gave informative updates on the AADE strategic plan as well as healthcare reform and the changing landscape of diabetes education. I am very excited about our annual meeting in Orland August 6-9, 2014 as Joan and the committee have been working hard to think outside the box and to bring in speakers that will challenge the status quo and help us to think about the future of diabetes care and education.
There were many more topics that were interesting, but trying to follow the blog length rule!
I want to conclude with how the Leadership meeting ended. As Joan thanked everyone and the AADE staff for their great job, all of the attendees started to stand to give the AADE staff a standing ovation!! When is the last time you witnessed this at a workshop? It almost made me cry! That is a testament to the detail, quality and care with which this leadership meeting was implemented. I feel very fortunate to be an officer of the board of directors for this organization! I have a challenge for all of the AADE members out there.....share this blog with another diabetes educator or person with diabetes (e-patient) and encourage them to join AADE this year! We are now 14,035 members strong and with the exciting new NCBDE changes allowing MCHES health educators to sit for the CDE exam, this will expand the numbers of educators and access to diabetes education. Let's welcome them to AADE, share our great resources with them and learn from each other.
Until next time,
Deb Greenwood
2014 AADE President Elect
@DebGreenwood
Facebook: Collaborative Wisdom e-Community: e-Patients and e-Diabetes Educators
dgreenwoodcde@gmail.com
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