President's Letter

Greetings y'all!

I hope everyone is safe and healthy during these times. I appreciate all of the feedback from members over the past weeks.

ASATT holds your safety and your family’s safety in the highest regard. And since we are in uncharted waters during COVID-19, I have a response to many questions regarding the ASATT 2020 Annual Educational Conference in Ft. Worth.

The ASATT 2020 Annual Educational Conference in Ft. Worth is officially postponed until September of 2021.

All members who have already registered and paid will be contacted by ASATT Headquarters at AEG about refunds or transfers. Registrants will have the option of a full refund or the ability to apply their paid registration fee toward the virtual conference.

This does not mean that we will not have an educational conference! Quite the contrary!!!

This means we will have the very first…

ASATT Virtual Educational Conference!!!

September 11-12, 2020

I have a fantastic line-up of terrific speakers! All killer and no filler!!! I am looking at 15 speakers over three days. The Annual Educational Conference Committee will be meeting soon to collaborate and make this conference a fantastic experience for all attendees. So stay tuned to asatt.org for updates.

Saturday, June 13, 2020 was a milestone for ASATT. We had our very first, but not the last, Virtual Webinar. This was open to members for $10 for one (1) CE. Automatically loaded into the database for members, there is no paperwork for you to keep track of! Attendance exceeded expectations and attendees were very happy with the results!!

I would like to send out a “Thank you” to Bryan Fulton of Oklahoma City Community College who graciously donated his time and expertise to provide a fantastic presentation on simulations in Anesthesia Technology. He, once again, has hit it out of the park with an engaging and entertaining presentation.

Many of the ASATT Regional Directors have expressed interest in coordinating a…

ASATT Sponsored Virtual Regional Meeting

Some people have asked questions…

Q: “Why have a Virtual Regional Meeting?”

A: To provide members with approved CE’s at a fair price.

Q: “But why even have it as a Regional Meeting?”

A: Because of time. If an east coast Regional Meeting is organized in the morning because of speaker availability, it would cause a huge time inconvenience for members on the west coast and Hawaii. Conversely, if a tech that works the night shift needs CE’s and is on the east coast, their sleep schedule will not be affected too much to attend a live virtual webinar.

Q: “How much is this going to cost? Because times are tough, what are YOU going to do about it to help?”

A: That is why we are moving to a virtual platform. We are able to provide applicable CE’s at a reasonable cost to members: $10 per CE, the same price as a Sensor Quiz. The Virtual Regional Meetings will be open to ALL members. No taking several days off work to travel. No huge travel expenses for members. The Regional Directors are expected and have agreed to coordinate their meetings and topics. In this way, two meetings will not be on the same day. Also, there will not be repeated topics. We want members to have the ability of gaining all of their CE’s through the ASATT Academy.

Q: “So what happens if a member is not able to attend any of these meetings? What are YOU going to do about that?”

A: The Virtual Regional Meetings will be available on the ASATT Academy in a single purchase per CE. The difference being, if it is a LIVE virtual webinar there will not be a test at the end of each presentation. If it is taken as a single CE by registering for and viewing the recorded presentation, there will be a test at the end of the presentation in order to earn credit. The ASATT Board of Directors has been working very hard on this to help members obtain their CE’s.

Q: “Why is it $10 per CE? Who came up with that price? YOU??”

A: I did not come up with the price point. I am President, not a king. I work collaboratively with the Board. We have discussions about issues to come up with an equitable solution for membership.

The price of $10 per CE was decided upon because it is the same as the Sensor Quiz. Why make it different? We want membership to have an opportunity to be able to obtain their CE’s in a cost-effective manner.

Q: “Then why charge at all? If you want to help members so much, why charge?”

A: ASATT has substantial overhead that must be paid for. While ASATT is volunteer-driven, we must employ a management company to provide operations for membership. That part cannot be handled via volunteers. It is way too big of a job. And we are getting a bargain for what we pay. AEG has really helped ASATT out with professional guidance and management.

So everybody stay tuned!

Greg Farmer, Cer.A.T.
ASATT President