December 2007

"Strength Thru Professional Unity - Version 2.0"

Dear Colleagues:

I hope that this communication finds you well. I last wrote to all of you prior to our Semi-Annual Fall Conference held in St. Petersburg, Florida. I'm pleased to announce that the conference was a success - we had participants that represented over 30 corporations throughout the United States.

As you may or may not be aware, the Fall Conference is slightly different from our reputable and well-established Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The Annual Meeting focuses on a robust legislative agenda, featuring many significant and influential people on Capital Hill. The Fall Conference, on the other hand, focuses more on practical business tools and resources relevant to what we experience on a daily basis in delivering rehabilitation therapy care (i.e. billing and coding, reimbursement solutions, program development).

Now, our momentum continues. Since the Fall Conference, we've welcomed several new members to our association, and the reviews and feedback from conference participants have been exceptional. Of course, as always, both of these conferences have something historical and increasingly valuable in common - NETWORKING.

It is refreshing to see so many of you interact as business owners, leaders, and decision makers throughout our conferences. Throughout the years, this relationship building has proven to be invaluable to our members. (In keeping my central commuincation theme of relating to music, what comes to mind quickly are the lyics to the classic Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends" or the soon to be U2 classic "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.")

As we approach the upcoming New Year, NARA is focused on increasing the access and value of networking to its members on an ongoing basis. More specifically, we are committed to providing convenient and consistent information and updates from NARA Central. We are enhancing our website, www.naranet.org, with tools and resources to poll members, receive questions and inquiries, and therefore, gather intelligence as to what the trends, needs and issues are for our membership throughout the United States. This is critical in order for us to focus and deploy resources, lobbying efforts, and more importantly, facilitate relationship building. It is vital that NARA members be able to turn to each other for sharing and solutions that can sometimes best come from peer experiences.

In that spirit, I'd like to call your attention to the following initiatives:

Profiling - For a true "strength through professional unity", NARA continues to grow and increase its influence on the industry. For this reason, it is crutial that you participate in a simple and confidential survey that will aggregate information to better quantify and articulate NARA's "voice." This survey will be forthcoming within the next week.
Committees - NARA has redesigned its committees such that it can serve, respond to, and more proactively gauge trends and needs in the industry for more optimal support. We call upon your support to increase the participation in these committees.
NARA Career Center - In response to the growing needs of our members for recruitment and retention of qualified professionals, we have created a centralized source that contains NARA's resources, NETWORK and credibility. It is our hope that the Career Center will assist our members with their staffing needs during these critical and unprecedented times.

Things have certainly changed in the rehabilitation therapy industry since NARA's inception in the 1970's. However, some things haven't changed. Similar to our industry, there will always be a need for quality services to enhance quality of life, there will always be a need for us to NETWORK and assist each other. Welcome to NARA's "Strength thru Professional Unity - Version 2.0!"

We are here for you...

Respectfully,
Gregg J. Altobella, MS, CCC-SLP
NARA President