GAC Hardship Fund

A Bare Bones Feature

 
A feature within the SAVMANews highlighting just what your national SAVMA team, executive board and delegates, are doing for you. Each edition showcases a SAVMA officer and what all their job entails. This featured officer this month is Lincoln Memorial University’s senior delegate, Aaron Maness.
Anthony Pizzelanti from the University of Pennsylvania was the designer behind the Bare Bones logo. 

All SAVMA delegates sit on a committee within the House of Delegates (HOD). Aaron is a member of the Government Affairs Committee(GAC). Within the GAC, he is the liaison to the Legislative Action Committee(LAC) of the AVMA. A lot of acronyms, I know. The general purpose of the LAC is to make sure that veterinarians and the veterinary community are properly represented in the federal government’s legislature. As liaison, he gets to listen and weigh in on the LAC’s monthly conference calls about new and current legislation involving the veterinary community. The LAC helps to advise the AVMA on what stance to take on new legislature and how to appropriately lobby for our profession. He travels to D.C in the spring to meet with the LAC and discuss issues concerning SAVMA, the AVMA, and more importantly the veterinary community. He has learned so much from holding this position in the HOD and is always grateful for the knowledge he has gained. It has taught him the importance of advocating for our profession because nobody else will. With that being said, please represent your profession any chance you get and get involved with your government!

Find out the many ways you can get involved in government and advocacy in both local and national issues here.  

Checking in on SAVMA's Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC)

SAVMA's very own Governmental Affairs Committee helped sponsor three Economic Initiatives and Education Integrated Outreach (EIEIO) Events. Read on to see how SAVMA is helping to empower students in this difficult economic climate:

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On February 27, 2013, the Purdue University VBMA Chapter (Veterinary Business Management Association) hosted a panel of Veterinarians and office managers that spoke about a variety of topics relevant to the successful management of Veterinary practices. The panel consisted of Equine, Swine, and Small Animal Veterinarians, a manager from a Chicago shelter, an administrator of the VCA hospitals and a director of a wildlife clinic. The panel answered questions concerning how to run a practice in terms of hiring and firing, decisions about cost of services, what to look for in an employee, how they manage their staff, and other similar questions. Along with the predetermined list of questions, there was also a part of the meeting where students would be able to ask the panel more directed, specific questions. The event also provided opportunities to network with these members of the profession, both before and after the question sessions. This event was made possible by the cooperation of several other clubs that helped to arrange the speakers for the panel. The other clubs included SCAVMA, Shelter Medicine, Exotics, SVECCS and Food Animal Club. The panel was attended by over 170 students, staff and faculty of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Thank you to SAVMA for their help in funding this event!

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The Minnesota Chapter of the Veterinary Business Management Association (VBMA) hosted a day-long seminar for members on February 23, 2013.

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SAVMA's Gov't Affairs Committee speaks on loss of subsidized loans

Dear Veterinary Medical Students,

As some of you may know, in response to the current economic challenges, there have been some adjustments to Federal budgets. A significant change that has taken place is the loss of subsidized loans to graduate and professional students. The Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 was signed into law on August 2nd, 2011. The signing of this act into law made two very important changes to the William D. Ford Direct Loan Program, which affects the majority of veterinary medical students utilizing loans to pay tuition and living expenses.
We would like to make you aware of the effort that the AVMA and your SAVMA representatives have put forth urging Congress to maintain the subsidized Federal Stafford loan for graduate and professional students.

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