Welcome summer! It is hard to believe that just a little over three months ago, we held the INAPTA Spring Meeting at Bradford Woods in what best could be called treacherous winter conditions. Several attendees could not make it to the meeting due to the dangerous road conditions, and the flights home for our speaker, Jennifer Green Wilson, PT, MBA, EdD, and our Executive Director, Suzie Callan, were delayed/canceled due to the ice.

Despite the snow and ice on March 29, 2018, we had 30 attendees at the 2018 INAPTA Spring Meeting. The topic of the meeting was High Performing Teamwork: The Why, the What, and the How! continuing with the leadership development that Dr. Green-Wilson has been facilitating over the past 2 years. At the same meeting, the INAPTA Board of Directors (BOD) brought the following motion before the INAPTA members who were present: “To reduce the dues across all categories of INAPTA membership by $10, encouraging members, when renewing their membership, to contribute this $10 toward the INAPTA Political Action Committee (PAC).” This motion was passed unanimously. This means that beginning in January 2019, your Chapter membership renewal will reflect a $10 decrease in membership dues. Prior to January 2019, you will see communications aimed at educating members on the upcoming legislative agenda and why it is important to support the INAPTA Political Action Committee (PAC).

In 2019, INAPTA leadership will bring an updated Indiana Physical Therapy Practice Act to the Indiana Legislature. As you might be aware, our current practice act was written in 1957, which makes it over 60 years old and no longer reflects contemporary practice. Over the past year, the INAPTA State Legislative Committee has been working hard on amendments aligning with the Model Practice Act put out by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT). Each one of you has the potential to help us move this legislation forward. There will be several opportunities to hear more about the practice act changes over the next few months. At this time, if you would like to hear more, please contact Pauline Flesch directly at PFlesch@IUHealth.org. Chapter leadership will be attending district meetings, the INAPTA Fall Conference and holding additional Town Hall meetings around the state. During these meetings, we will share how you can start a dialogue with your local legislator about the practice act changes and why they are important. As part of our campaign, we are planning a 2019 PT Day at the Statehouse for Tuesday February 5, 2019, so please put that on your calendar. We hope to see over 500 PTs, PTAs, and Students of Physical Therapy there so that the Indiana Legislature can appreciate that bringing the practice of physical therapy into this century is in the best interest of the people of Indiana.

Legislative change does come with a price, and that starts with supporting those legislators who support our profession. As mentioned previously, INAPTA is committed to increasing our PAC funds. In 2019, you will have the chance to contribute the $10 that you save on your membership back to the PAC. Per state law, not one penny of your membership dues can be contributed to the PAC, this needs to be a voluntary contribution. In June, Brad Shupe, PAC Chair, and members of the INAPTA PAC Committee organized a very successful golf outing which raised over $6,500 for the INAPTA PAC. Ten teams played and there were 10 sponsors. A huge thank you to Brad, those who participated and to the sponsors for a successful event.

This Fall, we are excited to be hosting a joint conference with the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association on September 21^st and 22^nd in Louisville, KY. The programming looks incredible and made it very hard to make up my mind when choosing which educational sessions to attend! At the conference, in addition to these sessions, there will be a Research Forum where posters will be displayed, a PAC fundraiser involving beer, wine and chocolate, the INAPTA awards luncheon and the INAPTA Business Meeting. For the complete schedule, please access it HERE. I really hope to see many of you in Louisville that weekend with our version of APTA’s ‘Better Together’.

Also coming up this fall is PT Day of Service (PTDOS). In March, the INAPTA BOD approved the formation of the INAPTA Service Committee. This committee was born from the work last year of the INAPTA Service Task Force who helped coordinate so many of the PT Day of Service events around the state. Thank you to Hannah Enochs, PT, DPT, Sara Keenan, PT, DPT and Jessica Prothero, PT, PCS for all their work thus far. Expect to hear from them soon about PTDOS events in your part of the state.

Indiana was well represented at the recent APTA House of Delegates in Orlando, Florida in late June. Thank you to William Staples, PT, DPT, DHSc, GCS who ran for the position of Director of APTA and to Sean Bagbey, PTA, ATC, MHA, CIRS who ran for Chief Delegate of the PTA Caucus. The seven delegates who represented Indiana took part in the election of the leadership of APTA and debated the many motions brought before the 400+ PTs, PTAs, and student representatives at the House this year.

APTA recently approved a new Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Wellness (PHPW) in Physical Therapy. As part of this effort, Component Ambassadors have been recruited to serve as a liaison from the PHPW Council to States and Sections/Academies in order to connect people and disseminate information in regards to prevention, health promotion, and wellness. Anne Mejia-Downs, PT, MPH, PhD (adowns@uindy.edu ) will be serving as the Component Ambassador for the State of Indiana and the Cardiovascular/Pulmonary Section. Further details of this Council can be found HERE.

Chris Gale, PT, DPT, MS and Jonah Meier, SPT are heading up our recently formed Tech Task Force. Their focus will be to look at ways that we can use technology to connect members with all that is going on in the districts, improve meeting opportunities for the INAPTA BOD, and to explore the area of telehealth.

As always, I want to thank you for your membership. APTA has a simple, but powerful slogan and that is ‘Better Together’. We have the opportunity to move the profession of physical therapy forward in Indiana, and that can only happen with us all working together. Please consider getting involved, as your input can make a difference!

Emily Slaven, PT, PhD
President, INAPTA