From the executive vice president

Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, Nov 2000 by Cuneo, Garrett F

The following description covers some of the major activities that I have been involved in on behalf of ACA this past year.

Membership: Our Primary Focus

During this past year, Mr. John Wanda has chaired a weekly task force meeting on implementing non-dues income proposals and identifying other sources of nondues income. Eventually, we would like to see non-dues revenue provide 40 percent of our income.

I believe we are peeling away many of the negative reasons doctors didn't join in the past through improved communication and prompt service, but there are still perceptions that we need to change. This year, I would like to focus on where we stand in local chiropractic politics, and what non-members think about us from a philosophical standpoint.

What Happens Nationally Counts Locally

I spoke recently with some doctors in California who are doing moderately well in their practices. My question was: How are we doing?

One ACA member said, "You guys are doing a terrific job and I am always promoting membership. But, of course, I promote membership in my state association first since that has the most direct impact on our doctors."

Another was a former ACA member. I asked, "When you attend local society meetings, what's the impression of the attendees regarding the ACA?" He said that-- seriously-the ACA never comes up in discussion.

How can we expect people who are non-members to respond favorably to our mail requests for membership if we aren't even discussed at society meetings where the politics of the profession are discussed?

Now I understand that you shouldn't draw conclusions from such a small sampling, but I have heard from too many other sources that the volunteers put their emphasis on state over national associations. Maybe this was justified in the past because what happened nationally didn't have a strong local impact. Medicare represented only 6 to 8 percent of a doctor's income and its influence over private pay and workers' comp as a payment model hadn't evolved to what it is today. Also, we were not as successful in getting legislation to move forward in part because we hadn't reached today's level of respectability. In the past, a state association was where the action was and national association membership was more a matter of professionalism than survival. Things are different today. We need to communicate to doctors that what happens nationally does count locally. Membership in a state association is important. Membership in the national association is equally important.

The visibility issue is more difficult. Delegates and alternates cannot be expected to cover all society meetings. On the other hand, the more ACA members there are who attend local meetings and speak about the ACA, the more positive the comments about our organization. We have attempted to provide doctors with the information needed to discuss our activities through ACA Today.

What Does ACA Stand For?

It's not always fun to be the largest association in the country. You can't demagogue an issue or take the position many doctors of chiropractic would like you to take since you have to be responsible -your actions can affect how an entire profession is treated in this health care environment. I have always believed that the actions we took during the Clinton health care reform days concerning vaccines, the advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, the Mercy Guidelines and the focus on the low back were correct when the public's expectations of accountability regarding health care groups reached their peak. These politically reasonable positions helped ACA carve out an important niche for chiropractic in the administration's health care plan. If the Clinton health care plan had been successful, the profession would have perceived the action of ACA as heroic. But the health care plan failed, and the only thing that doctors from that time remember was the fact that we took issue positions that some couldn't support. They don't remember why we did it.

Legal Action Fund

The ACA Legal Action Committee has worked well with the ACA staff in keeping the profession's attention on the lawsuit. Included on the committee are Drs. Flynn, Mertz, McClelland, Edwards, and Maurer. To assist in this effort, the committee appointed a new member, Dr. Monte Greenawalt, a well-known and highly respected doctor who has been working hard to gain the support of the non-members of the profession. The success of this committee is remarkable since we decided last year to shift the focus of the office staff from fundraising to membership recruitment. Frankly, I was concerned that this would have a significant impact on our efforts. Fortunately, I was wrong. Let's review some of the statistics since 1998 when we began to actively raise money.

As of July 17, 2000, we have raised $1,382,394. Of this amount, $624,000 came from members; $75,697 from non-members; and $682,688 from chiropractic organizations. Forty state associations contributed $212,165; 42 regional or district societies contributed $51,250; nine chiropractic colleges contributed $54,500; 10 SACA and/or student chapters gave $8,000; and 10 PPOs and IPAs gave $45,325.