Greetings!!

Welcome to the 2008 Occupational Therapy Association of Colorado’s Annual Conference!!

This year’s theme is “Celebrating Our Past and Future” – and we have much to celebrate! It is the 30th Anniversary of OTAC’s incorporation (papers were signed 1/10/78); it is the 50th Anniversary of Occupational Therapy Assistants being part of the profession; and for the first time in our history, CO has Registration regulation for its Occupational Therapists! I know you also have much to celebrate – your clients’ accomplishments, surviving fieldwork and passing the boards, passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R.6331), a program director at CSU, your birthday, exceeding NBCOT’s expectations for 36 PDUs in a 3-year cycle, and much more. Plan to share some of your celebrations with your colleagues at conference!

Already you are noticing a change in Conference – we are grateful for the assistance from Kesselman-Jones, Inc, a communications firm that specializes in conference and event management. (Kudos to the New Mexico State OT Association, as they use KJ as well!) Online registration will be a breeze! You will also notice over the next couple of months that OTAC is becoming even more tech savvy and green – we are using the web-based services of Avectra for association management and for the e-newsletter. And staying in the ‘green theme,’ all registered conference attendees will receive a recycle-reuse bag when they pick up their conference packet the first morning of conference.

We are so tickled to have Dr Penny Moyers Cleveland, AOTA President, as our Keynote Speaker this year. Her time with us, exploring the Centennial Vision, will be inspiring and uplifting. We are further delighted to host a Plenary Session with Dr Wendy Wood, the new OT Program Director at Colorado State University. And to round off a packed two days, we will have a presentation and Q&A with DORA (Department of Regulatory Agencies) – the actual people who will be working with the OTs in CO on the new Registration regulation.

Some happenings will be familiar – the Silent Auction with proceeds benefiting students’ OT/OTA education, Exhibitor Bingo, the Marjorie Ball and Agatha Jackson Award speeches, and of course, the 5th Annual OTAC Soirée

(NM is doing that this year for the first time – interesting what we learn from each other, huh?!), celebrating the OT leaders in CO. And several more goings-on will be new – unopposed vendor time, breakfast and roundtable discussions (well, new last year), and ‘eating our cake too’ during Saturday’s Celebratory Luncheon.

Plan to attend this year’s conference – learn, network, have fun, be inspired, laugh, rub tired feet, re-engage with ‘old friends,’ earn PDUs, learn from the students, reflect on the Centennial Vision and what it means to the profession and to you, and celebrate being part of “Living Life to Its Fullest”!

Continue to be an inspiration!
See you at Conference!
Janice

Janice Hinds, MS OTR
OTAC President