Letter
from the President
June 2005
AAMR PRESIDENT’S FINAL REPORT
AND SUMMARY
My term as AAMR President will end on July 1, so it is appropriate
now to provide a final report and summary of what we have accomplished
this year and to suggest some issues we will need to address
in the year to come.
My term began on June 4, 2004, at the conclusion of the 128th
Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, which I had the responsibility
to direct. That meeting was focused on the concept of community
health supports, which describes activities that promote physical,
mental, emotional, behavioral, spiritual, social and environmental
health. A paper describing the community health supports model
was distributed at the meeting in Philadelphia. The program
was successful and it attracted more attendees and generated
more revenue than previous meetings. Bill Gaventa gave an inspiring
Keynote Address on the meaning and importance of spiritual
health. Wendy Nehring organized a very successful preconference
that examined the evidence on health promotion for people with
developmental disabilities. AAMR will publish the proceedings
of this health promotion program later this year.
Thanks to the diligence of AAMR’s Executive Director
Doreen Croser and her staff, with the assistance of the Executive
Committee and the Board of Directors, AAMR finished the 2004
budget year successfully. Our auditor considers AAMR to be
in good financial shape. Throughout the year we have focused
on developing and promoting the Supports Intensity Scale, which
is already quite successful and should be widely adopted by
the field very soon. Work has also proceeded on development
of the new Adaptive Behavior Assessment Instrument and the
next edition of the Terminology and Classification Manual,
both of which should be ready for publication within 2-3 years.
Last Fall we asked the AAMR membership to consider and vote
on a new plan to reorganize AAMR that would make us more efficient
and responsive to the challenges of our field. The membership
voted overwhelmingly to support this plan, which becomes effective
on July 1, 2005. The size of the Board has been reduced and
all Board members are now elected by the full membership. Lines
of responsibility are clearer and more direct, which allows
for more rapid response. AAMR members can now develop action
plans to carry our member-initiated initiatives with the support
of the Board, which will hopefully allow for greater participation
by the membership in meeting the needs of our field. Our Midwinter
Leadership Meeting in January 2005 was focused on developing
the vision and the goals to implement this critical reorganization
of AAMR.
In order to realize and implement these goals, the AAMR Executive
Committee met in April 2005 to begin a strategic planning process.
Perhaps the most important conclusion from that meeting was
the realization that the work of AAMR now encompasses the broad
field of developmental disabilities. Most of our members work
on developmental disabilities, and most of AAMR’s products,
publications, activities and services (including the Supports
Intensity Scale) relate to the broader scope of developmental
disabilities. The Executive Committee concluded that AAMR must
maintain our primary interest and expertise on intellectual
disability but should also expand our focus to other developmental
disabilities as well. The Board of Directors voted in May 2005
to revise the AAMR Mission Statement to reflect this fact.
The Mission Statement now states: “AAMR promotes progressive
policies, sound research, effective practices, and universal
human rights for people with intellectual and related developmental
disabilities.” The Board is currently exploring the implications
of this change for the development of a new strategic plan
and name for the association.
In the area of public policy, AAMR participated with the Arc,
UCP and ANCOR in the development of specific goals for the
current Congress. These goals are available on our website.
Our jointly-sponsored Public Policy Seminar in March 2005 was
very successful and attracted more attendees than ever before.
In January 2005 the Board of Directors voted to endorse the
Montreal Declaration on Universal Human Rights, making AAMR
one of the first major organizations to officially support
this important World Health Organization sponsored document.
The Disability Summit in September 2005, which AAMR is cosponsoring
along with 10 other agencies, will explore further these issues
of policy and leadership.
Many of us watched the sad story of Terry Schiavo unfold in
the media through the winter and spring of 2005. Realizing
the public need for guidance in this area, the Board of Directors
developed a Position Statement on Caring at the End of Life.
This document was officially adopted on June 8, 2005 and is
available on the AAMR website. We are currently planning a
professional conference on this topic to be held in December
2005.
Two topics that are currently in development should be mentioned
here, although they were not brought to fruition this year.
One is the ongoing effort to expand AAMR membership. Our Membership
Futures Committee, ably chaired by Sharon Gomez and Bernie
Wagner, has been very active all year developing strategies
to reach out to students, young professionals, self-advocates
and others whom we would like to join with us. With our new
organizational structure that encourages all members to become
more involved and provides opportunities for them to do so,
and with our revised Mission Statement that broadens our areas
of interest to the entire field of developmental disabilities,
these membership recruitment strategies should be successful
in the years to come.
The other topic that is currently in development is the need
to develop a mechanism to translate research in our field into
a format that is readily accessible to the public. Our journals,
books and other publications are consistently rated very highly
in the academic community but they do not always meet this
public need. AAMR’s online newsletter FYI is one mechanism
to meet this need, but more should be done. A number of additional
strategies are being explored, including the expansion of AAMR-sponsored
teleconferences and web-based resources for accessing specific
information whenever it is needed. This will remain a challenge
that AAMR must meet to successfully accomplish our mission.
Normally, the outgoing AAMR President delivers a Presidential
Address at the Annual Meeting in May or June and then turns
over the gavel to the incoming President. This year, AAMR’s
129th Annual Meeting will be held on September 21, 2005 in
conjunction with the Disability Summit on September 22-24,
2005. Thus, I will deliver my Presidential Address on September
21, 2005, long after Val Bradley becomes AAMR President on
July 1, 2005. Please come to Washington and join us at the
129th Annual meeting, where I will explore in my Presidential
Address how the concept of peace-making provides a timeless
and enduring strategy for ensuring that our work benefits people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
I hope you will support our incoming President Val Bradley
and her leadership team as she moves AAMR forward in the coming
year. I would like to recognize and thank Liz Obermayer Weintraub,
who was very articulate and effective as my Presidential Advisor
on self-advocacy this year. Thank you also to the Board, other
leaders and AAMR members for your encouragement, guidance and
support this past year. I look forward to maintaining the friendships
we have made and will do whatever I can to help AAMR in the
future.
David L. Coulter, M.D.
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