Snowy Day Thoughts

I am pretty well trapped here at home under several feet of snow.
I felt a little bad calling off work, but they haven't plowed my parking lot and barely touched the street outside the apartment. I really didn't want to walk 2 miles through the snow on the ground (and still coming down hard) to get to the metro (which is running on a delayed schedule) to get to my shuttle bus (also on a delayed schedule) to get to work and then possibly not be able to get back. And now they've actually pulled buses from the roads, and SNOWPLOWS due to dangerous conditions. It's just a little over the top.

I do feel like I made the right decision yesterday though... instead of my usual drive-metro-shuttle bus trip, I got up EARLY (I've been waking up at 5am for a few weeks unintentionally), drove to work and paid to park. Despite driving 30 miles instead of 4, I got home before the worst of the snow started. It was already pretty bad driving at that point, several of the roads having large piles in the middle of the road that got caught on my car's undercarriage, and turns being made hazardous by snow piles taller than my car.

So I'm taking my day off to try to catch up on some fun stuff... reading, finishing my puzzle, but I had a couple OT things to share.

Been trying to come up with some fun OT Month things to do... we are talking about having a carnival at work to promote awareness and need to come up with fun events, favors, etc. I would like to have some ways to increase interest in OT outside of the hospital staff too. I thought about wearing my OT t-shirts to work, but I try to keep all but my scrubs from the germs of hospital-land (to the point that my scrubs are kept in a separate hamper and washed separately from all other clothes). I just got a cute little OTR pin from NBCOT, but it may be a little too little to attract attention. Thoughts?

The other thing that I am currently finding interesting is the proposed restructure of the AOTA governance. This is found in the previous issue of OT Practice (here for members) and causing quite a stir. The theory is that the current structure of the RA and ~dozen large committees is unwieldy and not encouraging quick action, leadership development, or involvement from the membership. The plan is to dramatically shrink the RA, and get more participation from the membership at large through volunteer opportunities and ad hoc committees.

As I said, people are up in arms. This is an interesting OTC thread on the topic with a few people "in the know" in the fray. Here's another, it just hasn't developed much yet.

Personally, I have no attachment to the RA. I observed a portion of a meeting as a student delegate and was not impressed (bored out of my skull might have been more accurate). However, my conference roommate thought that it was really cool and wanted to become a member someday. Elections to the RA in my state were almost always unopposed and run by the same person. I don't recall getting any updates on RA progress at conferences or through state association newsletters. Since I didn't have a close back and forth relationship with my RA rep (not a bad thing necessarily either) I don't know that I will miss out on anything by decreasing the number of members.

I do agree with the theory that it's hard to break into the AOTA leadership... you see a lot of big name people running for offices again and again. So opportunities within the new COOL program that are easy access will make it easier to get feedback from some new blood. From a casual observance of AOTA releases and annual meeting conduct, I could tell that a lot of the work was being done by ad hoc committees instead of standing committees, so I don't know that we're losing much in that department either. I don't know that having the ASD classified as an organizational advisor makes much sense either. As a former member of the ASD, my involvement was limited to one day of mostly being presented to, not really involved with anything until we started the Centennial Vision talks. I'm sure the steering committee is more involved, but some of them aren't even students.

Lots to think about and bring forward to your reps before the AOTA Conference at end of April. Read up on the issue. Talk it out online, especially on OTC. And don't forget to vote in the AOTA elections before March 3.