President's message.

The Annual Meeting of the Members of the Indiana State Nurses Association was held on September 30 in Indianapolis. There were approximately 50 nurses in attendance.

We spent time reviewing the recommendations of the Public Policy Task Force. They have reformatted our public policy statement using the ANA Code of Ethics as the framework. The members in attendance commended them for their hard work and charged them to complete the document. It will then be sent out to members for review and comment and the Board of Directors will approve. The ISNA Public Policy Platform was first adopted by the ISNA Board of Directors on August 11, 1990. The Statement is a compilation of ISNA House of Delegates Resolutions and Board of Directors' position statements. After each House of Delegates and subsequent Meetings of the Members, positions adopted were incorporated into the document. It was last amended at the Meeting of the Members in 2004. The Platform serves as the foundation for decision-making on legislative and policy decisions.

A discussion was held on the Nurse Licensure Compact and two resolutions were passed: Minimum Lift Environment Resolution and Resolution to Support Increase in Tobacco Excise Tax.

The keynote speaker was Janet Archer, RN, MSN, Chief Nurse Consultant for the Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response for the Indiana State Department of Health. She spoke about the Department's plan for dealing with a pandemic influenza outbreak. A number of ISNA members will participate in the planning process by serving on advisory committees.

The ISNA-Nurse PAC contributed $10,800 to 2006 campaign committees. There are three ISNA members running for office this election--Sylvia Graham, RN, D-Valparaiso, House District 4; Peggy Welch, RN, D-Bloomington, House District 60; and Pat McQuade, RN, D-South Bend, Senate District 11.

The Region to Chapter transition has been completed. The Board of Directors has already approved five Chapters: Northwest Indiana Chapter, Elkhart/Goshen Chapter, Wabash Valley Chapter, Chapter of Psychiatric Nurses, and North Central Indiana Chapter. The Regions gave over $10,000 to the ISNA Chapter Growth & Development Fund, so we are well on our way to strengthening this structure and the work of the Chapters.

The first ISNAP Conference was held Friday, September 29. Over 100 were in attendance. I was very impressed with the program and received many positive comments from the attendees and vendors about the ISNAP program. You should all be very proud of our hard-working staff.

The Board has committed to spending time at each meeting to discuss issues affecting nursing and health care in Indiana. We have also spent a lot of time discussing how we can determine what value membership in ISNA brings to current members, and what it is that would attract nonmembers to join. I am certainly concerned by the continued decline in our membership numbers. We have spent time studying best practices for Associations, and are committed to developing an infrastructure to become a more information-driven organization. We need to develop mechanisms to continually track members and potential members' needs and issues as well as the environment and its impact on our profession. We are working toward developing this process.

As always, I am very interested in your feedback about how you think your Association is meeting your needs and welcome your calls and emails. I would also like to hear from non-members. What issues are foremost in your minds? What are your expectations of your professional organization? What do you value most from membership in ISNA? Why are you a member--and--why aren't you a member? I look forward to hearing from [e-mail].