Update - 2015 UT Symposium & TATS Regional Meeting

The registration for the 2015 UT Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting was excellent this year and has gone well over capacity. Registration for the event has now been closed. For those who will be in attendance, UT has received approval from the BOC for 3 EBP CEU credits from this meeting. All of those who have registered for the event will be receiving further details via email from the conference organizer Robb Duncanson, MEd, ATC, LAT, CSCS. TATS is excited about the upcoming event and looks forward to seeing all those in attendance.

If you have any further questions, please contact Robb at Duncanson@utk.edu or 865-293-6345.

Also, information related to the Middle & West Tennessee Regional Meetings will be coming to the TATS website and T-Blast Newsletter soon.

NATM Receives Proclamations Throughout Tennessee

Members of TATS throughout the state were instrumental in promoting the athletic training profession throughout the month of March. The local governments of several Tennessee cities and counties recognized March as National Athletic Training Month through government proclamations. Some of the areas that received proclamations included:

• City of Murfreesboro
• Knox County
• City of Knoxville
• Jefferson County

NATM was also recognized with a proclamation presented to TATS members from the Tennessee State Legislature while we were visiting Capitol Hill in early April. Below you will find several of the proclamations from the various parts of the state. If you received a proclamation from your local government representatives and are not mentioned here, please let us know at communications@tnata.org.

Here the Mayor of Murfreesboro is joined by local athletic trainers during the signing of a proclamation for National Athletic Training Month.

Front Row from L to R: Chance Ragsdale, Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland, Brad Rohling Back Row from L to R: Blake Sissom, Amanda Januchowski, and Stephen Maples Not Pictured (but present): Kristi Phillips

Text of the Proclamation from Madeline Rogers, Mayor of the City of Knoxville

Youth Sports Safety Conference & Gala

The Program for Injury Prevention in Youth Sports at Vanderbilt is hosting the Youth Sports Safety Conference & Gala on July 16th & 17th, 2015. Athletic trainers throughout the state of Tennessee are invited to attend this educational event. Details can be found on the flier below and also at the PIPYS website.

TATS Day On The Hill

On Tuesday April 7th, 17 TATS members, ascended onto Capitol Hill for our “day on the hill”. We were accompanied by Zach Bates, our legislative liaison, who had set several appointments with legislators in advance. While we did not have a specific want or need from lawmakers at this time we were able to continue to foster relationships previously established as well as begin some anew.

It was a good opportunity for athletic trainers to say thank you for the work that had been done with regard to the concussion bill and the protection of health and wellbeing of the athletes that we serve. We even had one legislator who agreed to sign on to support the sudden cardiac bill when we made him aware of the current legislation.

Another byproduct of our meeting was the initiation of talks, with the members of the executive board, to develop a strategic plan as to how we go about strengthening our relationships with legislators and being more of a presence on Capitol Hill.

A special shout out goes to the 10 MTSU athletic training students who showed to support our efforts; Amanda Januchowski, Brandi Caruso, Chris Miles, Colin Biegas, Dabrisha Garner, Isaiah Foster, Matt Warner, McKenzie Leonard, Pali Dingler, and Trey Link.

Call For EB Nominations

It is once again time for TATS elections. This announcement serves as the official call for nominations for all elected offices for TATS. The following offices are up for election to two-year terms:

• President
• Vice-President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• East Tennessee Representative
• Middle Tennessee Representative
• West Tennessee Representative

Any Certified-Active or Certified-Retired member of TATS is eligible to nominate their colleagues for the TATS Executive Board offices. To determine a TATS member’s eligibility to serve in any of these offices, please look at Article IV of the TATS by-laws on the TATS website. You can also download the most recent TATS By-Laws on the TATS website.

Please send all nominations to Kevin Wolf, TATS Parliamentarian. The preferred method of communication for nominations is by e-mail at kwolfatc@yahoo.com. Nominations may also be sent by USPS mail to 1527 Shagbark Trail, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Nominations will officially close at midnight ET on April 16, 2015.

Spring 2015??

I hope that everyone has been able to stay warm during the latest round of weather that has basically stopped the state from being able to function. I applaud the TSSAA for stepping up and postponing the Region Basketball tourney to allow ample time to let schools finish their district finals. Let's hope that the next band of weather will allow that to happen before the regions start on Monday. This years TATS Annual Meeting and Symposium was a tremendous success. I sincerely want to thank everyone on the Professional Education Committee who logged many hours to make this a special meeting. The Executive Board has worked very hard to enhance our visibility and transparency to the membership. Our EB is one of the very finest I have ever had the privilege of working with. As we continue to work toward overcoming challenges that face our organization, I want to continually encourage our membership to stay or become active. The latest NATA election shows that we still have less than 20% (17.2 to be exact) who are taking part in the decision making processes for our organization. 835 Members strong, making us the 3rd largest group in SEATA. I want to encourage our membership to make a statement with the upcoming TATS elections this year. I want to see us reach an easily obtainable goal of 30% voting. Obviously I would love to see that Number higher, but lets make small steps toward a larger goal

We will once again be sponsoring a booth at the 104.5 Sports Fest in Nashville. If you are in the area, please swing by and support the booth and the event. We have confirmed a booth at the TIAAA conference again. Last year was a good start for TATS at this event. 2 schools have picked up full time coverage from the information we were sharing. We have a tremendous support from the Athletic Directors and look forward to making this an annual event.

Please follow us on Facebook or Twitter to enhance our communication with our members! If you have any items you want to be considered for posting on the web site or social media, please reach out to Clint Sanders or one of our TATS board members.

Be on the lookout for information coming out from SEATA regarding the Safe Sports School Award. The SEATA Executive Board has created a fund to allow schools that are making a financial decision not to apply. SEATA will match up to the full amount depending on need. SEATA's D9 NATA SSATC representative will be reaching out to the state SSATC chairs soon to discuss the process for applying for the grant.

Please help us as we continue to make TATS Stronger! Every member has a voice and makes a difference. Please reach out to our Leadership Team if you have any comments or concerns!

Thank You for all you do to make TATS better!

Respectfully,

Scott

UT Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting

We hope this finds you doing well and having a good Spring Semester so far. We are happy to announce that once again, in conjunction with TATS, we are hosting a Free CEU event at the University of Tennessee. Please see the information and link below for details and registration – space is limited for this event. We know it is a little late notice, but we look forward to seeing you there!

What: 2015 University of Tennessee Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting

When: Monday, May 4, 2015 - 8:00 AM – Noon

Where: University of Tennessee - Anderson Training Center, 1551 Lake Loudoun Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996

Topics: Hip Arthroscopy, Concussion, TATS Discussion

CEU: 3.0 EBP CEU’s

Cost: Free

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

We will send additional information to all registered attendees a few days prior to the event. If you need additional information, please feel free to contact me at Duncanson@utk.edu or 865-293-6345.

Thanks, Robb Duncanson, MEd, ATC, LAT, CSCS Assistant Director of Sports Medicine University of Tennessee Sports Medicine 1551 Lake Loudoun Boulevard Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

C: 865-293-6345 P: 865-974-1231 F: 865-974-1259