I want to thank the membership of the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society for allowing me to serve as President of our organization for the past two years. It has been the honor of my professional career. I would appreciate your support in electing me to serve as second term as President. I want TATS to serve athletic trainers across our state, helping them provide the best possible care under the best possible circumstances for our collective patients.
The past two years have not been without their struggles. I personally endured probably the most difficult year of my life and that has had a negative impact on my service to TATS. Having said that, during my tenure, we have laid the groundwork to further our organization and profession in the state. We have gotten our ATs Care initiative to the point of being able to offer training at our annual meeting in May. This is such an important program for athletic trainers, I cannot wait to see us have the ability to have crisis response teams ready to deploy across our state when needed.
We continue to prepare for legislative activity to update our practice act for the first time in 27 years. This has been a slow and arduous process, but the foundation is now in place to maximize our hope of a successful outcome. The goal is for ATs across our state to practice at the top end of our talents, knowledge, and skill sets.
My goals for TATS during the next three years include:
successfully updated athletic training practice act and to create a more consistent presence for athletic trainers on Capitol Hill
greater involvement and activity of our membership on the committee level
implementation of a mechanism for athletic trainers in our state to be TATS members if they choose to not be NATA members.
growth of attendance at our annual meeting, preferably coinciding with consistent meeting dates and location.
Thank you for your support over the past two years and thank you in advance for your support during this election and hopefully during a second term as your President.