Message from the Chair
Ned Morgens – NADSA Board of Directors Chair in Committee Reports
Dear NADSA Members:
It's been an exciting year here at NADSA. In March, we completed our first annual Capitol Hill day. We had approximately 40 NADSA members meet in Washington for meals and advocacy training, and then spent a long interesting afternoon meeting with their Congressional representatives. Our Research Committee has been hard at work building opportunities for doctoral students and the creation of much needed information about Adult Day. Teresa Johnson has worked tirelessly with the Centers for Disease Control in their National Study of Long-Term Care Providers. Our marketing taskforce is busy developing ideas that we can use to promote adult day as an association.
| Ned Morgens, Chair, NADSA Board of Directors |
I'm also excited to announce that Teresa Johnson has been successfully advocating for an improved locator feature for the Web site. This new enhancement to the membership benefits should launch within the next couple months. We're hopeful that nadsa.org will become a significant source of referrals to our members.
This past fall we engaged in some much needed strategic planning. We changed our mission to state: The purpose of the Association is to advance the national development, recognition and use of Adult Day Services. We focused on the need to create more research about and for our industry, to engage with our national government through hiring a professional lobbyist, and to increase our membership significantly.
I'm glad to report that we are making significant progress, although much work remains. While NADSA membership has great benefits, we continue to work to improve the value of your membership.
We remain mindful that we have many challenges to tackle in the coming year: our governmental regulation and requirements continue to expand, many of us now work with managed care organizations, and we continue to look for ways to expand and thrive.
Your board has been discussing these challenges. We have explored hiring a professional lobbyist to help us interact more closely and effectively with the federal government. While we continue to consider our options, the initial estimate is that this will cost approximately $200,000 per year. (There are other alternatives that are not as pricey). The board has identified a need to reach out to managed care organizations and other third party payors. The challenge this development brings to our members will only increase in the coming year. Our board works extremely hard to bring you the programming and opportunities that NADSA offers; however, our current budget is not adequate to address these challenges. While the board continues to work very hard, these challenges require more resources and time than what a volunteer board can demand from its members.
As I write this, I'm optimistic: we're in solid shape financially, our programs and conferences continue to grow, and we're implementing new and innovative services. I also feel challenged, as our current resources are not enough to do what needs to be done.
As an association, we have a decision to make: what is membership worth to you? We are committed to identifying solutions within our means, but the work must be done. The regulations grow more onerous each year. Our "competitor" long-term care provider associations are better funded with a head start in playing defense and offense with the federal government. More and more states seem to be moving to managed care or to changing their programs significantly. We need to be at the table with the organizations demonstrating our capabilities and cost effectiveness.
But, we can't do it within our current budget.
What do you think? Membership dues are a primary means for providing services in associations. We are evaluating our options for funding and sustaining member services and benefits. Please send your ideas and suggestions to us at nadsa@nadsa.org.
I'm excited about the future of NADSA and Adult Day. Let us know what you think.