President's Message

Dog Days of Summer

by Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU

Oh, the dog days of summer, we are now well into the second half of 2008 and the year has seemingly flown bye. The SVU 2008 Annual Conference in San Diego was a great success where we saw the introduction of SVU’s new Professional Performance DVD series produced in conjunction with GE Healthcare. We also had our first and very successful joint clinical session there with SVS on Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR). There was also a special focus group session designed to evaluate the need for long range vascular ultrasound profession forecasting that will supplement the data collected for this fall’s SVU Board of Directors meeting.

This is a strategic planning year for SVU and thus when the Board convenes for the fall meeting an entire day will be dedicated to the development of a new two-year Strategic Plan under the guidance of facilitator Marc Chinoy, President of The Regis Group (TRG) in Leesburg, VA TRG is a company dedicated exclusively to strategic planning and corporate/industry development. Marc has worked with SVU several times on the development of our past Strategic Plans. To learn more about TRG, go to www.TheRegisGroup.com. The SVU Board will be developing a shorter two-year Strategic Plan (2009-2010) to enhance our ability to respond to environmental changes that occur at an ever increasing rate in the vascular ultrasound profession.

One of the key issues will again be membership and how to enhance the value of the products, services and representation that SVU delivers to its membership. Just a reminder, as SVU Past President George Berdejo (2004-2005) often said our membership theme should be “each one -- reach one”, so we need to continue to grow membership not only by adding new members but retaining current members as well.

So far in 2008 thru July we have a total of 486 new members. SVU gained a record 890 new members in 2007! SVU has added 76 new student members in 2008 and we anticipate more as the fall semester begins. We had 203 new student members in 2007, up from 108 new student members in 2006. We currently have a total of 228 student members. I am especially pleased with SVU’s continued growth in the area of student membership, including the transition of student members to regular members. Students are the future of our society and industry. If Bonnie August of Cuyahoga Community College, Parma, OH, the 2008 student representative on the SVU Board, is any indicator of the future, rest assured the vascular ultrasound profession will be in good hands. Bonnie is the fourth student representative who has served a year on the SVU Board to bring the student perspective to the Board’s discussions and decisions.

Lastly, our membership renewal rate currently stands at 85.5%. Last year we experienced an 88% renewal rate, slightly above the industry average. If you have not yet renewed your SVU membership for 2008, I invite you to do so. Please contact the SVU national office for details on how to do so.

As always, the Advocacy Committee, Chaired by Dave Parlato, has been very busy with a number of important issues some of which are detailed in this issue of e-Spectrum. Please stay abreast of these issues, reading and responding as requested. Your continued support of SVU through membership and contributions to the SVU Government Relations Fund, as well as the Anne Jones Scholarship Fund, are critical to our continued success as a society.

Thank you all for your consideration and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU