• Bylaws Committee
• Section on Maternity Care
• Nominating Committee
• Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs
• Other Business
• Commission on Core Delegation

TAFP’s Board of Directors met and dealt with several key issues at the meeting held July 27-30, 2000. Below is a summary of these issues.

For a complete copy of the minutes, contact Debbie O’Donnell at (512) 329-8666 or dodonnell@tafp.org or go to Members-Onlyx

Bylaws Committee

The committee reviewed the goals and objectives of the academy. The board approved the following goals and purposes.

GOALS AND PURPOSES

To support the vision and mission statement, the goals of this organization include:

• To establish, maintain and promote an organization of family physicians.
• To promote and maintain the highest professional standards of family medicine.
• To promote public awareness of family medicine.
• To promote the science and art of medicine and surgery.
• To preserve the right of the patient to choose a physician.
• To preserve the right of the family physician to engage in medical and surgical procedures for which he/she is qualified by training, expertise, and/or demonstrated ability.
• To provide and assist in providing CME courses for family physicians and general practitioners and to encourage participation in such training.
• To ensure availability of high quality family practice residency programs to provide competent family physicians for every Texas citizen.
• To encourage men and women to choose family practice and assist them in achieving this goal.
• To assure the responsibility of public advocacy in health related matters.
• To promote and improve the public health.
• To serve as a public advocate for our family physician members.

A quorum for commission and committee meetings was established: Three active members of the committee/commission will constitute a quorum for any committee/commission meetings.

Regarding student voting privileges on the board of directors, the board approved the following:

CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP AND ELECTION

SECTION 7—Student Members

Any student enrolled in a Texas school of medicine or osteopathy, approved by an appropriate United States accrediting institution as defined by the AAFP’s Commission on Education, may be elected to student membership in the same manner as an active member. Election to student membership shall terminate upon graduation from medical school. Student members may not hold office in the academy, but shall have the privilege of the floor of the assembly.

The Bylaws Committee added responsibilities to the Nominating Committee. It is now responsible for evaluating the job performance and attendance review of elected TAFP officers and delegates.

A new Commission on Healthcare Services and Managed Care was established. This commission will be housed in the TAFP Manual of In-House Statement.

The Bylaws were changed to add an additional Resident Director and Alternate Director to the Board of Directors. The wording reads:

… The Nominating Committee may nominate one (1) Student Director and one (1) Student Alternate Director as well as two (2) Resident Directors and two (2) Resident Alternate Directors to serve on the Board. They shall be nominated to serve a one (1) year term and may be re-nominated to serve additional terms; however, their terms shall terminate upon graduation from medical school or completion of residency or extended training …

Section on Maternity Care

The board approved that a survey be conducted of residency programs to determine the correlation of the percentage of faculty practicing maternity care and number of graduates practicing maternity care. A mechanism for this survey was proposed.

The board also approved from this section that TAFP should promote the listing of family practice maternity care providers on the insurance plan provider listings. A letter will be sent to insurance plan providers encouraging them to list family physicians who do obstetrics be listed in both the family practice section and the obstetrics section.

Nominating Committee

The board approved the following new officers:

President-Elect: Justin Bartos, M.D.

Vice President: Tim Coleridge, D.O.

Treasurer: David Schneider, M.D.

Parliamentarian: Erica Swegler, M.D.

The board congratulated these new TAFP officers.

New officers for the TMA Inter-Specialty Society were elected. The board approved that the immediate past president, president and president-elect will now fulfill this position. This year these members are Marcus Purvis, M.D., Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D. and Justin Bartos, M.D.

Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs

There was much discussion regarding the support of telemedicine and the board approved the following recommendation:

"TAFP understands the value and utility of tele-medicine technology in under-served areas. However, the citizens in these areas deserve quality health care from qualified and properly trained providers. TAFP is extremely concerned that tele-medicine will lower the standard of care if local evaluation is provided by non-physicians whose scope of practice extends beyond their training, experience and competence. TAFP’s concern extends to the question of loss of continuity of care both during normal office hours and beyond."

Other Business

The Section on Medical Students and the Section on Resident Physicians gave a full report. To see the minutes from their meeting you can look at the TAFP Web site at www.tafp.org.

The board elected two members to the 2000-01 Executive Committee: Larry Karrh, M.D. and Karen Schrader, M.D.

The board elected one member to serve on the Nominating Committee for the next three years: Linda Siy, M.D.

Commission on Core Delegation

The Board approved that the commission send the following resolution to AAFP:

TEXAS ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS

RESOLUTION TO THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS CONGRESS OF DELEGATES

WHEREAS, Family Medicine is a distinct discipline that requires a base in the peer reviewed scientific literature, and

WHEREAS, knowledge gained from original research in family medicine is vital to patients, family physicians and all medicine, and

WHEREAS, all current journals that publish original family medicine research are financially imperiled, and

WHEREAS, a journal that publishes original family medicine is of such great importance to the specialty that a financially secure home for that journal is critical, now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the American Academy of Family Physicians, by what ever means are necessary, provide a secure home for the publication of peer-reviewed original research in family medicine.