VOLUME 32, ISSUE 1

Anesthesiology 2019, the Annual Meeting for the American Society of Anesthesiologists was held in Orlando, FL from October 19th to 23rd. There were 12,365 registered attendees, which was down from the previous Annual Meeting in San Francisco in 2018. The majority of members of the Texas Delegation were housed at the Hyatt Regency Orlando, the site of the majority of the Governance activities and adjacent to the Orange County Convention Center, site of the Opening Session and Rovenstine Memorial Lecture

The Annual Meeting began on Saturday with a welcome by Dr. Joy Hawkins, Annual Meeting Oversight Committee (AMOC) Chair (CO) who then introduced Dr. Linda Mason, ASA President (CA). She began with a film commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo landing on the moon which was highly appropriate given the meeting being in Florida and the proximity to the Cape Canaveral launch site. The speaker for the Opening Session was the well-known physician speaker, Dr. Abraham Verghese.

The ASA Delegates and the Alternate Delegates of the TSA met for the Texas Caucus from 1 to 3 PM on Saturday, October 19th at the Hyatt to review the House of Delegates Handbook and discuss the ASA elections. Dr. Scott E. Kercheville served as Director and Dr. Crystal C. Wright served as Alternate Director. The members then broke into sub-groups with the work divided by Reference Committees with Drs. Kristyn Ingram, Bracken Kolle, Russell McAllister and Scott Lindberg chairing these groups.

The members moved onto the Western Caucus at 3:00 PM for further deliberations and discussions. Dr. Wright is the current Secretary of the Western Caucus. But with the impending retirement of Dr. Peter Dunbar (Director, WA) as Caucus Chair, she will be moving up to Vice Chair at the conclusion of this meeting. Dr. Linda Hertzberg (CA) will become Western Caucus Chair at that time.

The entire slate of returning and unopposed officers with the CEO, Paul Pomerantz circulated the Caucus meetings and took questions from the members. Dr. Randall Clark, the sole candidate for 1st Vice President traveled the same circuit individually to make a brief presentation followed by questions as well. The Caucus voted to give its formal endorsement to Dr. Michael Champeau, ASA Treasurer (CA) next year when he seeks the position of 1st Vice President (currently unopposed).

Dr. Mason, President convened the first session of the House of Delegates to order at 8:00 AM on Sunday, October 20th at the Hyatt. Dr. James Kelly (MO), Chair of the ASAPAC presented the final numbers for contributions to the PAC for 2018-19. As expected, the ASAPAC remained the #1 physician PAC and overall contributions again set a new record of $2.81 million with 8,808 member participants with an average national participation at 21.9%. Texas was the “winner” of the Cup with an all-time record of almost $247,000, besting the next closest state by $70,000. Nebraska was “recognized” as well for their participation rate of 49.65%. Dr. John Scott will continue to serve on the ASAPAC Executive Board for the upcoming year.

Per House tradition Dr. Mason turned the meeting over to the Speaker, Dr. Ronald Harter, who then began the normal business of the House including the adoption of the Rules of Order for the 2019 House of Delegates. Consistent with the new procedures implemented by the Speakers, many items of business were not presented at the House of Delegates but were only printed in the Handbook or in the Consent Calendar. The only nomination speech not given from the floor was that of 1st Vice President and there were no seconding speeches. Dr. Kristyn Ingram served as a Teller for both sessions of the HOD.

Dr. Mason then returned to the podium for her Presidential Address. Her speech centered on the eight key steps taken by the AANA during the past year to undermine relationships and create disharmony with our physician members. Most importantly was the misleading advertising campaign, We are the Answer. Dr. Mary Dale Peterson, President-Elect followed with a forceful and succinct speech highlighting her vision and goals for her upcoming term. The Texas Delegation occupied the first four rows front and center and gave her a well-deserved salute.