January 2004 | Vol. 22/No. 1

Chapter News

Debbie Pirt, RVT FSVU, Chapters Committee Chair

The Chapters Committee Co-Chair Shelly Burns and myself hope that everyone had a very happy and safe holiday season. It came and went so fast. It seems 2004 will be a very busy year for this committee with implementation of the new SVU Strategic Plan and with our new student chapters.

I would like to remind all SVU Chapter presidents that your 2004 SVU Chapter Dues ($100), a list of the current and/or new chapter officers, and a membership list complete with full addresses must be sent to the SVU national office by January 31, 2004, after which they will be considered late. Affiliated Chapter presidents must be members of SVU in order to hold that office, so please make sure your SVU membership is renewed for 2004. In addition please encourage other non-SVU members in your chapters to also become members of SVU. Chapters are the grassroots of our Society and it is the responsibility of the local chapters to help not only with SVU membership retention, but also in cultivating new SVU members.

One of my goals this year is to increase communication not only between the chapters and myself, but to create some sort of online bulletin board with which chapters can communicate with other chapters. In my e-Spectrum column I also would like to devote some space to highlight each of our affiliated chapters and show just what makes each of them special. We hope to announce soon the ability to interactively communicate under the Chapter's section of the SVU website. Thanks.

New Vascular Chapter in New York City

New York City once again has an active local chapter! At the 14th Annual Advances in Vascular Imaging and Diagnosis Symposium in New York City this past November, a number of local area technologists and sonographers met and ratified the formation of a local chapter to be called the New York City Vascular Ultrasound Association.

A slate of temporary officers was approved as follows:

• William Del Valle, RVT RDMS RT, President, NYU Medical Center
• Joshua Cruz, RVT, Vice President, Montefiore Medical Center
• Christopher Shen, RVT, Treasurer, New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center
• Natalia Markevich, RVT, Secretary, Maimonides Medical Center

Congratulations and good luck to the New York City Vascular Ultrasound Association. Anyone interested in joining the new vascular chapter in New York City should contact William Del Valle at delvaw01@med.nyu.edu.

Suncoast Society Announces New Name

The Suncoast Society for Vascular Ultrasound (SSVU) has announced its new name (formerly Suncoast Society for Vascular Technology) in following with SVU's name change in 2002. The SSVU would like to congratulate newly elected officers serving 2-year terms: Ruth Manire, RVT RT MS, President; Maureen Maynard, RVT, Vice President; and Susan McCart, RVT, Secretary. A special thank you to SSVT Past President Jeannie White, RVT and Past Secretary Joanne Spindel, RDCS RVT for all their years of hard work and dedication to our profession. SSVU's fall meeting was held on Nov. 6th in Sarasota at the University Parkway Outpatient Diagnostic Facility of Sarasota Memorial Hospital. A special thank you to Steve Rivers, RT RDMS from Philips Medical Systems for his presentation on emerging technologies in ultrasound. With much excitement, SSVU members look forward to the coming year with plans for their fall symposium in the works.