My name is Ken Brown and I am your new ASHHRA Region 6 Consultant. I am honored to have this opportunity to serve our organization in this capacity. As you probably know I am new at this and hope you will bear with me as I learn the ropes for this position.

I probably should first start with an apology for taking so long to communicate with you. Just like everyone else this is a busy time of year and coupled with the time it takes to learn all there is to learn with a new position, well I find the hours running a little short. Having said that, I hope you will allow me to put forth the effort to work for you and provide support as your regional consultant. Things may have started off slow, but I can assure you we are gaining speed and it will be full throttle for the rest of the year.

I was elected to this position just before last year's national conference. Since January I have been working to learn about the organization from a new perspective. I must say I am impressed and I am a little awestruck with the magnitude of this organization. ASHHRA is indeed impressive.

I thought I’d use this opportunity to give you a brief biographical introduction of myself. I am the Past President of the Kansas Hospital Human Resources Association. I have been a member for a number of years and have served in all of the KHHRA board positions. Kansas has a fine organization of 97 members and it is from them that I received the inspiration and encouragement to serve in a new capacity with ASHHRA. My background is healthcare. I began my career as a registered radiology technologist working my way from a staff position to chief tech. My interest and career development

took me to a Human Resource Management program graduating from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, with a dual degree in HRM and Radiological Technology. I also hold a Masters degree from Central Michigan University in Health Services Administration. I have worked in the human resources profession since 1987 and my current position is VP and CHRO with Pratt Regional Medical Center. I have served as the Executive Director of the Miss Kansas Scholarship Pageant, Board Chairman of Pratt Community College and as Chair of the Pratt Travel and Tourism Committee. My hobbies and pastimes include; reading, baseball, and spending time with my family, especially my two grandsons.

Although I am in a learning mode as the Regional Consultant I think part of the learning experience is to learn about you and your organization. In the next two weeks I would like to spend some time on the phone with you to visit about your state organization and the things you are working on. I would like to spend some time visiting about ASHHRA and hearing from you the things that I might do to assist you. I will also spend some time talking about the exciting upcoming activities of ASHHRA and of course to take note of anything ASHHRA can do to assist and improve your work life activities in the HR field.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to visiting with you soon.

Ken Brown

Region Six Consultant
VP & CHRO
Pratt Regional Medical Center
200 Commodore
Pratt, KS 67124
Email me: kbrown@prmc.org
Phone: (620) 450-1170

This will be my last region newsletter, as I transition into my new role with the ASHHRA Board and as Ken Brown becomes our new Regional Consultant.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my two years as your Regional Consultant.  It has been a pleasure (plus lots of fun!) getting to know you.

As I look back on these two years, I thought I would summarize the accomplishments that ASHHRA has made via its bolstering of the Regional Consultant role:

• A formalized program of sending newsletters out each quarter.  This helps to get national information out to chapter members.
• Helping to strengthen chapters through the Leadership Conference.  Generally each chapter’s President-Elect attends these conferences.  The content has improved so that it is a great resource for new chapter leaders.
• More involvement with ASHHRA’s annual conference planning.  I had the opportunity to assist in 2007; Sarah Fredrickson was our region’s representative for the 2008 conference.
• Informational emails.  ASHHRA sends me periodic emails on “hot” topics.  I try to forward these on to chapter members.  Many of these deal with legislative issues that will have an impact on our work.  They are able to lobby at a high level in Washington, DC on our behalf.
• A growing library of resources.  Each month, ASHHRA asks me to solicit sample policies, procedures, documents regarding a specific topic.  ASHHRA is using these to build a robust resource section on its Web site.  (A big thank you to those of you who have submitted materials to me!)
• A keen interest in improving the chapter management program.  Expect to see some very positive changes in the upcoming award program.  These come from suggestions from all Regional Consultants. 
• Great networking sessions at the annual conference.  ASHHRA continues to build the networking breakfast session into its annual conference.  This has been a great way to meet others in our Region 6.
• Help with new chapters:  ASHHRA provided some great guidance to Nancy Scattergood who established an ASHHRA chapter in Nebraska this year.  Kudos to Nancy for all her great work!
• Help to develop new chapters:  ASHHRA will be working with Ken Brown to continue to support Iowa and Missouri in their desire to establish state chapters.
• Financial support to visit other chapters.  ASHHRA kindly helped to fund my trip to the Kansas annual conference.  They will be looking at other ways to help Ken Brown in networking with each state chapter in the next two years.
  

Expect more great things from ASHHRA in 2009.  They are currently developing an online community called “myashhra.org.”  Watch for training and information materials soon on this. 

ASHHRA REGION 6 ADVOCACY UPDATE
Steve Hodges, VP of HR at Regional West Health Services in Scottsbluff, Nebraska is our Region 6 Advocacy Representative. November, 2008 email: hodgess@rwmc.net

Thanks to all who attended the Annual Conference in Austin, and additional “kudos” to those who attended the Region 6 breakfast and the one or both Advocacy sessions.  It was great to see you all and to have the chance to share about the work of the Advocacy Committee!

I’m sure you all have been inundated with e-mails, fliers, program notices and other forms of contacts regarding the impending changes in employment laws and regulations that are expected to emanate from the November 4th elections (and follow-up activities in places like…. Minnesota ?).  I don’t want to take up a lot of space sharing about those same issues, but I do want any members in Region 6 to feel comfortable contacting me for discussions, questions, or any other type of support I might provide to you regarding the myriad of issues.

Unfortunately, the planned “Election Impact” webinar to be hosted by the Advocacy Committee has been postponed from December 3rd to January 21st.  Please mark this date on your calendar; we intend to have the most current status report possible, and guidance about how to respond to the changing legal environment.
Finally, my primary goal for 2009 will be to establish a regional “network” for communications about both state and federal legislative happenings.  While I will be working through the chapter leaders to get the network organized, I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who is interested in being included in an e-mail group, blog, or other forms of group interaction.

Thanks for your hard work as HR professionals, keep your eye on Washington, and have a great Holiday Season! - Steve

We had a great time at the ASHHRA annual conference in Austin, Texas.  Lots of Region 6 members were able to attend.  Here are a few pictures:

Thanks for a great two years!  I hope you have a great holiday season!
Karmen Reid
ASHHRA Region 6 Consultant

P.S.  As a reminder, please send your new Chapter Affiliation Agreement to ASHHRA immediately, if you have not already done so.

August 2008

Dear Region 6 Colleagues:

The ASHHRA national conference is coming right up. It promises to be a great conference with interesting speakers, social events, networking opportunities and interaction with vendors. Participants will again be getting together by region for a networking event called Regional Breakfasts on Sunday, Oct. 12. This will be a great chance for us in our region to get to know each other. At that breakfast, I have the honor of awarding several ASHHRA achievement awards. Make sure you come to this fun event! 

I attended a regional consultant meeting in Chicago in July. At that meeting, a representative from AHA Solutions presented to our group. AHA Solutions can be a wonderful benefit to chapters and individual members. For chapters, they have an extensive list of potential speakers. If you are ever looking for a good speaker to present at one of your state conferences, let me know and I can provide you with contact names. They also review different HR products and can help members with products that they have already reviewed very diligently. Also at the meeting, we judged the applications for the various ASHHRA awards. Watch for some new improved methods to be used to review the Chapter Management Awards next year. 

Our region had many applications for the ASHHRA Conference Scholarship (sponsored by MetLife) which will be awarded to one individual to help offset costs to attend the upcoming ASHHRA national conference. The winners will be announced soon. One of the requirements of receiving the scholarship is for the recipient to write a short article about something he/she learned at the conference. We will congratulate the winner at our Regional Breakfast in Austin, and then await the article in one of the 2009 regional newsletters.

Here are some news items from our state chapters….

From Nancy Scattergood, Chapter President, Nebraska Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (NSHHRA):  

“The Nebraska Chapter is officially up and going! To date, we have 58 members from all over Nebraska. We recently added a legal chair position to our board and welcomed a local healthcare/employment law firm to fill this position. We are working on fundraising efforts to assist with a conference planned for early 2009. One of our new members recently completed a Joint Commission survey and is interested in sharing her experience with the chapter. We have also been in touch with the Nebraska MGMA to find ways our organizations can collaborate.”

From Ken Brown, Chapter President, Kansas Hospital Human Resources Association: 

“The Kansas Hospital Human Resources Association is busy this summer hosting district meetings and educational seminars. There have been some excellent presentations thus far. The KHHRA board is reviewing its bylaws and looking at making some changes to our election process and duties of board members. Our chapter is thirty one years old, the bylaws have served us well, but many things are different now and it is time for a few changes.

KHHRA is co-sponsoring a series of Management Development Institute webinars on harassment in the workplace, improving interview skills, and basic budgeting. The series is directed toward the department manager level. This is the fourth year for this series of programs.

We are also preparing for our annual meeting in November in Kansas City. I would like to extend an invitation to come and join us for a day or two.  Anyone interested in attending please contact me.”

From Healthcare Human Resources Association of Minnesota (HHRAM)

            HHRAM is busily preparing for its fall conference “up North.”  The conference will be September 10 -12 at Ruttgers’ Sugar Lake Lodge in Grand Rapids. The speakers look great: one on LEAN practices in the HR setting, and a super keynote speaker doing a “productivity and accomplishment” workshop. HHRAM would love to invite ASHHRA members in nearby states. For registration information go to www.hhram.org.

I am finishing out my two-year term as your regional consultant. A slate of candidates will be sent soon from ASHHRA to select my replacement. Make sure you vote when you receive the e-mail ballot from them. 

On a personal note, I am hoping to stay very involved with ASHHRA, and have volunteered to be considered for a Regional Director position. The ballots just went out from ASHHRA, and we’ll see if I get elected or not!  J

Again, I’m hoping to see many of you at the national conference in Austin. If you haven’t already registered, there is still time. Just go to www.ASHHRA.org to register.  Hope to see you then!

Sincerely,

Karmen

Karmen Reid

Region 6 Consultant

Dear Region 6 Colleagues:

The 2008 ASHHRA Chapter Leadership Conference was very successful. No only did we learn a lot, but it was also fun to network with MN Chapter President-Elect Becky Thiesfield and Kansas Chapter President-Elect Bob Brazil. Nancy Scattergood attended to prepare for starting up a chapter in Nebraska. Here is a summary of what we learned:

1. ASHHRA has established five priorities for 2008:
2. Web Resources – to include e-commerce, (e.g. employee recognition gifts) career center, content resources such as policies, and a “catalog” of endorsed HR products.
3. Leadership Institute: At last year’s national conference, ASHHRA offered a pre-conference special learning session for senior HR Leaders. This was so successful that ASHHRA the former “Leader Forum” into a year-long institute.  This will be kicked off at the 2008 national conference.

1. Building the ASHHRA Foundation: Last year, for the first time.  ASHHRA offered scholarships through the Foundation for one attendee per region.  Steve Hodge, VP of HR at Regional West Health Services in Scottsbluff, Nebraska was our Region 6 winner last year. Information from ASHHRA for the 2008 conference scholarship was recently sent out.  If you did not receive the information and are interested, please let me know.
2. ASHHRA is starting a mentorship program.  The goal is to connect mentors and mentees.  For more information, go to www.ASHHRA.org under the Learning/Education tab.
3. ASHHRA will enhance the HR Metrics Tool. Streamlined questionnaires and improved analysis of data is to be implemented this year.

• Networking and Best Practices

We then broke out by regions to learn about programs other chapters offer.  Everyone picked up great ideas on how to start a chapter, rebuild a chapter, or enrich an already thriving chapter. Examples are 1) a DVD produced by Maine’s chapter with local high school students on interviewing; 2) a quarterly magazine with articles written by chapter members; 3) membership campaigns; 4) and wine and cheese events with HR educational programs to build membership.

• Nominating Committees for 2009 Officers

ASHHRA will be forming a nominating committee, comprised of members in all regions. Several positions will become available in 2009.  If you are interested in any ASHHRA position, please let me know. Once the nominating committee has been established, I will pass on names to our Region 6 reps on the committee. 

I have been working with Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa to establish chapters in those states.  Nancy Scattergood has just sent me the great news that she has been successful in getting Nebraska’s chapter established. Steve Cassells is working on one for Missouri, and Gena Garber is doing some preliminary work with Iowa. If you would like to hear from any of them, let me know, and I will connect you.   

Steve Hodges, our Region 6 Advocacy Committee rep, has been active in that role and gives us an update of the committee’s recent activities:

“Since becoming a member of the Advocacy Committee I have been appointed to the Hill Visit Subcommittee, and it’s been a hectic pace for the last 30-45 days.  We are finalizing all the details for our trip to capital hill next week, and I am responsible for coordinating a group comprised of representatives from ASHHRA Regions 4, 5, and 6 who will be visiting all of our congressional representatives. Issues we’ll be communicating about include:

• Protecting Caregiver’s Health and Preventing Injuries (HR 378)
• The RESPECT act (S 969/HR 1644)
• The Employee Free Choice Act (HR 800/S 1041)
• Workforce Challenges

“Following our Hill Visit we will be preparing a webinar for the general ASHHRA membership that highlights the visit and related outcomes. We will undoubtedly have information available for HR PULSE, and I’d be glad to provide an update for Region 6. I’m very excited about this opportunity to serve, and look forward to more interaction with ASHHRA members from Region 6 as we consider how to be influential in the legislative processes on a state and national level.”

I’m hoping to see many of you at the national conference in Austin. We’ll have an opportunity to network at the Regional breakfasts. Go to www.ASHHRA.org to register.

Sincerely,

Karmen

Karmen Reid

Region 6 Consultant

Dear Region 6 ASHHRA Members:

I am delighted to begin my second year as your Region 6 Consultant.  One of my responsibilities is to be a liaison between you and ASHHRA.  I will be attending the ASHHRA Chapter Leadership Conference in April. If you have anything you would like me to share with ASHHRA while I am there, just drop me a line.  You are valuable members of a great organization, and ASHHRA leadership is committed to meet your needs.  In this quarter’s newsletter, I am “showcasing” activities from some of our state chapters:

Kansas
The Kansas Hospital Human Resources Association is going strong.  Bob Brazil, president elect, from Abilene Memorial Health System will be attending the Chapter Leadership Conference in Chicago.  If you would like to attend their upcoming spring conference in Wichita on April 24 – 25, go to their Web site for information: www.khhra.org. 

Iowa
Gena Garber, president elect of the Iowa chapter, is interested in building a stronger relationship with ASHHRA.  We just had a telephone meeting; she will lead a discussion at the upcoming ISHHRA April meeting about this ASHHRA affiliation.  They would welcome members from other states to attend their conference on April 28 in Des Moines.  Interesting topics include “Rewards Beyond Pay Day” and “Understanding Hospital Reimbursement.”  For registration information, go to www.IHAonline.org.  

Minnesota
President Jennifer Gryte from Minnesota Gastroenterology reports that a lot of activities are happening with the Minnesota chapter (Healthcare Human Resources of MN).  They are  planning their spring conference on April 3 - 4, 2008 in Bloomington (think Mall of America!).  The agenda looks great, with the theme “I Love HR.”  All Region 6 ASHHRA members are welcome to attend.  For information, go to their Web site:  www.hhram.org.  They are also planning their fall conference to be “up north” in Grand Rapids.  Hopefully neighbors from nearby states can join the fun!

Nebraska
Kudos to Nancy Scattergood, HR director, Complete Children’s Health, who is working on an ASHHRA chapter re-started in Nebraska.  Nancy will be attending the ASHHRA Chapter Leadership Conference in Chicago to “learn the ropes.”  I’m sure we will hear more from Nebraska soon. 

All States - National ASHHRA
In addition to the states above, we hope to see our colleagues from Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota at one of the state conferences or at the upcoming ASHHRA national conference in Austin.  We typically have a Region 6 get-together, and it is fun to network.  Lots of folks have already told me they plan to attend. 

Register now for the ASHHRA 44th Annual Conference!   Dates are October 11 – 14. 2008 in Austin, Texas. The national conference is really shaping up well!   Sarah Fredrickson from Mayo Clinic is our region’s representative on the planning committee.  In February, she visited the conference location and helped to select the presenters.  Not only does the conference look very informative, it also looks like Austin will be a great venue.  Sarah learned about Sixth Street, described as….”the heart of downtown’s entertainment district, the epicenter of after-dark excitement in Austin.  Live music is the common thread on Sixth Street and visitors will hear it all – blues, R&B, Texas rock, alternative and classic rock ‘n’ roll.  When in Austin, be sure to head down to Sixth Street – it’s center stage for the Live Music Capital of the World.” 

So, why wait?  Register now!  For conference details and online registration, click here.  Remember that there is a $50 Early Bird discount for those who register before May 15. Think spring!  It won’t be long!

Best regards,

Karmen Reid
Section Head, Salary Administration
Mayo Clinic
507-266-0895
Reid.karmen@mayo.edu

ASHHRA - One North Franklin, Chicago, IL, 60606
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