Abstract
The business of the 37th spring meeting of the Representative Assembly (RA) is presented here in summary. A complete copy of the official minutes can be obtained from your election area Representative, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) website under Get Involved/Governance, or the AOTA National Office.
The spring RA meeting was held online March 14–28, 2014. After the initial roll call and approval of the Rules of the Day, RA members met in five online task groups to discuss the motions and documents that had been submitted and bring recommendations forward to the Assembly. The following are the results of the Assembly votes:
The Assembly approved the document The Role of Occupational Therapy in Primary Care.
The Assembly adopted a position in support of programmatic accreditation of professional degree programs in occupational therapy and recommended that the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE
The Assembly approved the following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)/Job Descriptions/JDs:
– Representative JD
– OTA Representative JD
– Agenda Committee SOP
– Credentials Review and Accountability Committee SOP
– RA Leadership Committee (RALC) SOP
– Commission on Practice SOP
– Commission on Continuing Competency and Professional Development SOP
– Board and Specialty Certification SOP
The following motions were defeated:
A charge for the AOTA President to request that occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistant program directors appoint or elect a representative to serve on the RA as a member with voice and vote
A charge for the Commission on Continuing Competence and Professional Development to develop a student version of the Professional Development Tool and to seek the collaboration of the Assembly of Student Delegates in the development of the student version of the tool
A charge for the Speaker to have the RALC appoint an ad hoc committee within the RA to review and develop leadership initiatives that will foster leadership skills within the RA and facilitate succession plans for growing leadership for future leaders across the profession.
In addition to planning and running the online meeting, the RALC hosted a leadership training seminar for Assembly members at the AOTA Annual Conference & Expo in Baltimore and presented a session, “Impact AOTA Policy: Take a Notion and Make It a Motion,” to guide attendees on how to identify important professional issues as the basis for action items to be brought forward to the Assembly.
These minutes and approved official documents are available in their entirety on the AOTA website at http://www.aota.org by clicking on Get Involved/Governance.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:57 a.m. EST on March 28, 2014.
Representative Assembly Special Meeting 2014 Summary
The RA held a special online meeting June 13–June 25, 2014. The primary purpose was to hold an election for two Assembly leadership positions: Agenda Chair and Recorder. Ingrid M. Provident, EdD, OTR/L, was elected Agenda Chair, and Emily Pugh, MA, OTR/L, LHRM, won the election for Recorder. They will be members of the RALC, and their 3-year term began on July 1, 2014.
In addition, the Commission on Education (COE) SOPs, with attachments outlining responsibilities of the Academic Leadership Councils for occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistant programs, were passed with a substitute motion to reinstate the voting rights of the student representative on the COE.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:46 a.m. EDT on June 25, 2014.