Kim Ward, ASHA Candidate for Vice President for Academic Affairs in Audiology
Marlene Salas-Provance, ASHA Candidate for Vice President for Planning
Keywords:
ASHA elections
hybrid election
Committee on Committees
Committee on Nominations and Elections
voter turnout
candidate slate
academic background
clinical practice
membership participation
democratic process
CCC holders
board of directors
election results
candidate bios
grassroots movement.
Hey everybody, welcome back. It's Jeanette. This is Summer School series number four. We are in the dog days of summer. I think I don't know the exact definition of that, but we're in it.
It is Dog Days here.
Yes, it's hot. I'm tired. How was your vacation?
Yeah, I It's good to be back. Vacation was great. I had never been to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, and it was fantastic. One of the places that I had on my list was to see Lake Placid and Jeanette. I'm going to challenge you. Do you know what happened in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York?
No, I'm old, but I'm not that old like you.
Well, I was born in 81 however, it is in sports lore that was where the Winter Olympics was held when the Miracle on Ice occurred and the United States hockey team beat the Russians. So the Soviet Union at the time, and so I got to go to the her Brooks arena and walk in there. There were figure skaters that were practicing, and they still have the scoreboard there from when Team USA beat the Russians. So that was a great thrill. And also got to spend a few days in Montreal, and that's always a delight to a little bit of time up north and enjoying the cool weather.
Is it an operational scoreboard?
It is functional. The lights are on. It is a, I think it's the same one they had. They just finally took it off of the wall inside the arena. And it's actually in the introduction to the museum for the 1980 Olympics.
Yeah, Tech has advanced.
Yes, yes. But it has that charm, those old bulbs on it. It's, it's very retro. So there are...
Unlike ASHA, hockey has advanced.
Hockey has definitely advanced. But, yeah, ASHA is still ASHA.
This is Summer School, so we're going to kind of jump right into this. We have, well, let me just say I really appreciate our ability to pivot on the fly, because Elizabeth and I came up with the best laid plans for our summer school series topics, and we all just roll with it. We always have It's one reason why we're always chasing our tail, but when something comes up, we are all able to just jump in and switch the content at the drop of a hat, and because of my ADHD, I don't fully wake up until 7pm so for the last two nights, I was up until three, and last night, in the middle of the night, I was like, You know what? We're not going forward with the plan. We're going to talk about something else today, because it's hot right now. So we're going to talk about the ASHA elections. We have discussed it before on the podcast. I can't tell you which one, but it has never been a dedicated topic. I have fielded a lot of questions and DMS over the last week about who people should vote for, and I think we just need to discuss the process and really help SLPs to understand that you're not voting for anyone. You are confirming a slate that has been pre chosen for you. And as Preston likes to say, it's this...
listen, no, wait, wait, wait, listen, listen, if you listen down the street, this is why you thought of it. You heard it yesterday. Hear the noise? It's the ice cream truck! It's this self licking ice cream cone that is ASHA and the Board of Directors selection process. I love those emails you got. Who do we vote for? The answer is, you don't choose anyone. They choose.
Yeah, and we're gonna do a little call to action here at the end. We're actually going to encourage you just to go in and vote no for everyone to make a point. So we'll talk about how and why. But yeah, let's jump into it today. Preston, we're gonna break down the this Asha election. It's happening now. It's happening through Wednesday of this week. If you're hearing this fresh, we will probably be pointing people back to this episode every election cycle, because unless they change something, the information isn't going to change. So we're not going to keep recording about this every time there's an election. But currently, as of this recording, the quote, election ends on Wednesday. Elections typically a democratic process.
This is democracy by invitation.
Like it. We can't, we can't call this democratic at this No, you can't. On the surface, it looks like a professional vote. You log in, you see some candidates, and you vote. That's what we're doing, right? Or you're not doing you don't hold the CCC. You're not a member. You're like, peace out.
I'm not a member. Yeah, I am. Persona non grata and enjoying it.
So you can't look at this stuff, but I because I still have to hold the CCC side note, our lawyer sent 10 emails today, so I've been advised hang on to the CCC, hang on to the membership, because of what we're doing behind the scenes legally. So I do have the ability to go in under the hood of the ASHA car that you're crying in. It's actually a lot less democratic than people think. ASHA has something called the Committee on committees. The Committee on committees is made up of board members, so it's not the whole board, and I don't know how you even get on the committee of on committees, maybe the board members vote or appoint the Committee on committees, I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's board members the Committee on committees appoints people to the committee on nominations and elections. So in this podcast, if we refer to it again, we will probably call it the CNE, and the CNE picks a slate of candidates and then often just puts one person per position.
So by the time that the ballot hits your inbox, you are not choosing between multiple people for President or Vice President. They have chosen that for you. They're merely asking for a yes or no, up or down vote, as they call it, because I went and watched the candidate videos vote yes for the slate as if I'm, you know, picking a platter of, you know, some sort of great dish that was prepared at the ASHA convention charcuterie board of no options, but the cheeses and meats that they chose for me.
Mmm... yes, yes. And ASHA knows better, so I I'm gonna play a little clip here...
The Committee on nominations and elections has taken great care to present to you a slate that represents you, the ASHA members in as many different ways as possible, while complimenting the continuing members of the Board of Directors.
There you have it. They know what we need.
The Jedi Council has spoken.
That was Perry Flynn, your future. ASHA President. Why? Because you can't vote him down. The CNE has already decided that he is who is good for you. They literally rewrote the bylaws a few years ago to allow this. It's called a hybrid election, and their idea was, let's make this a little more simple, SLPs and AuDs. They don't, they don't know. They don't know what's good for them. We we need. They have master's degrees. We're smarter, we're wiser. We're going to simplify things. We're going to lower costs. I don't even know what that means. What do you mean low How do you have any idea what that means Preston, they're going to lower costs.
I think that perhaps because they vet the process more, they're...
They're volunteers.
I don't know. I really, you know, other than maybe it's, they're saving paper again, it's that paper expense that they talked about. Yeah, they can't have any hanging chads. We don't want any paper ballots here, any butterfly ballots. So, yeah, let's, let's save on that paper.
They hadn't raised the dues yet, so they were cutting costs. I don't, I don't know how, what that means, but also, it was supposedly going to improve diversity. Interesting that they were can concerned about diversity a couple years ago, and now they're changing their minds, but that's probably a topic for a different day, but that's why they went to this hybrid election. They are taking great care to do what is best for you and I as an ASHA member or CCC holder. But what it really means is most of the power sits with that very small committee members don't get to nominate. Typically, there is a nomination process, because I did get nominated for president, and actually the lawyer advised maybe just go ahead with that process and see what happens. But I didn't want them calling my bluff either. I doubt I would have gotten past round one. But I did get nominated, because we did go through that nomination process, and I was contacted more than once to fill out my form, and it was a form to apply. So I got nominated, and then I had to apply for the position of president, which I have zero interest in doing, but we don't get to vote in a competitive race for any of the seats other than the Member at Large, which has turned out it's been held by one person flipped over, I think, recently, and you know, maybe was disappointed. Training with that that first go around. So I don't know that that even solved the problem. The member at large is supposed to be the connection between the board and the working clinician, and bring the voice from, you know, the the field, from boots on the ground to the board. And unfortunately, what we saw firsthand was if you didn't agree with that person's opinions, then you were a problem. So lots of history there, but that's it. That's, that's all we actually get to vote for. There's no real alternative on the ballot. Voter turnout tanks. It's, I think it's typically Asha reports, it's 6% I think as of recently, they might have reported it's gone down to 4% because people think it doesn't matter and and that's my question people, and that's why we've, we've switched to this because I've had so many emails asking me, do you guys have an opinion on if I should vote or for people who haven't actually looked at the slate yet have said, Who should we vote for, thinking it's actually contested races. So should we vote? But let's talk about that slate real quick.
I want to go back just one moment to the committee on committees, because you know, who does that comprise? And if you look it's a I think they get three years for their term, and the chairman of that right now is Tena McNamara, the former president. And there's right, I think they pick three SLPs, three audiologists, and then one of the positions is staggered between another previous board member. So I raise that point to say that if you want to maintain that status quo, which is what the euphemism that I use for the self licking ice cream cone, this is something that exists just to keep perpetuating itself over and over and not change. This is an organization that if ASHA were dipped in chocolate, it would eat itself. They are so in love with themselves in maintaining everything, to the point where the people who are chosen to be future leaders are chosen by the outgoing so there is no mandate for change there. When Tena McNamara is the main gatekeeper and then past presidents, it just continues in this self perpetuating cycle. So now we have a slate of members, and yes, I'm all for diversity. I think ASHA, to its credit, there has been a lot of cultural diversity. That's a beautiful thing. I welcome that. But diversity, in terms of background, is something that if you look into the people that are serving in these positions. It is largely stilted toward Jeanette? What?
Academia.
Academia.
My fine colleagues up in that ivory tower, that full disclosure, I won, sat in Okay? I We, I know we're always getting new listeners. I have a PhD. I was in academia for 10 years. I left as a full professor. That's the highest promotion there is, okay. I paid my dues. I did the ASHA thing, and that's why I bring a very interesting perspective to Fix SLP, because I know that mindset, and I deeply understand it. But I have never left clinical practice, and I deeply understand that as well. In fact, when we get off here, I'm driving an hour to go do PRN at an acute care because somebody needs a modified barium swallow study and the SLP, can't stay that late. I'm in it just like everybody else, we're never going to make the changes we need if we don't have the people like you, like me, like our Fearless Fixers, boots on the ground, struggling every day with workload issues, productivity issues, low pay rates. You know, it's just, it's a problem, and that's when we talk about these systemic problems. This is the foundation of it. This board is picking itself, to pick itself, to pick itself, and they run the committees, and they make the decisions, and they only do what's in the best interest of what they want to happen. And they don't have outside voices. And I imagine if somehow an outside voice quietly makes it through and ends up on that board and is really there for progressive change. They're probably silenced pretty quickly. They're probably accused of being too loud, asking questions that are too hard, and taking up space.
They will not get invited to the meeting after the meeting.
There will be no for... say it.
foie gras
Thank you
foie gras
They don't get that.
Well, the excuse that is used by the fanboys and fan girls is that, well, we couldn't get any participation before, when it was an open process, so now we just have to pick it. And that is so lame, because the participation is still low. You are still. Picking candidates which are within a certain mold. That is, the problem with an organization that has such a compulsory membership is that so many folks are checked out. And then when you are picking the same types of people, and you're not inviting in new ideas, because let's face it, it is going to be difficult to get people from the working class to participate and volunteer that time. But if every single person that is on the committee is all flashing all of their fancy academic credentials right at the start, I don't think that that's welcoming to somebody who's been slugging it out in the rehab sector, or somebody who's been slugging it out doing modified barium swallows or fees out there, or has been working just in a public school for the last 25 years, and they just like to maybe end on a high note giving back to speech language pathology or audiology. You have to reach out. And that's I was never invited to the little you know, inner sanctum here, and I feel better for it. I really feel a lot cleaner now. But nevertheless, you have to be the change, and if Tena and everybody before her are the gatekeepers, then you can keep doing the same thing, and you're not going to see a different result.
Right. Right. It's, it's a problem. So let's talk about these candidates. Let's talk about Perry. We heard that first little clip there that was Perry. Now, Perry, out of everybody, is the only working clinician, correct?
He's spent 30 years. Okay, so I'm, I'm impressed as far as 30 years of school based. SLP, I love that. Now I do wonder I may do a deeper dive. But was Perry actually treating, or was he kind of supervising too? Because that's I have noticed that before, sometimes in the past as well. It's like people that you know might have hacked it out in a certain profession for a bit of time, and then all of a sudden, just kind of drifted over into administration. Yeah, but peruse this a bit more.
I think it's safe to say that Perry did not enter 30 years ago as a supervisor. Perry, however, we all know that 20 years ago, school practice looked a lot different. It has only gotten worse. Workload, caseload caps. Those kinds of the kinds of issues that we face now, and I say we as a collective, even though I'm not in the schools, what we're facing as SLPs in the schools is not the same as what Perry might have experienced on day one. And perhaps we're not accusing him of this, but perhaps became part of the problem as he moved into administration. And my guess is that he did eventually move into administration, because he is in academia. He's a professor at UNC Greensboro in the CSD department, does the public school thing. Is a consultant to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. So, you know, he's got some good things. He does the Special Olympics. We love that. We'll see what comes from Perry and, you know, Preston, the president. They're more of like the face of Asha, I guess there's, they don't have a lot of power, right? They have a vote on the board.
Well, I think that they are a very public face. Jeanette, and, yeah, just a face. Your public face can be, I think, a true agent of change. And it doesn't have to be, you know, wow, we're going to just, you know, go rip the CCC, a new one. It can be that we recognize that there are some ways we need to modernize our organization. That would be a huge statement right there. I mean, if those words came out of, you know, the previous president's mouth, I would be aghast. I mean, it would just be amazing. But right now, it is very much, as I said, just an organization that delights in just, you know, throwing down accolades about our advocacy. And don't judge us by our results, just judge us by how much we praise ourselves. And so, can the President be a change agent? I think so. And I've often said it institutional change is a incremental thing. And so I would like to say that maybe, you know, Perry will be that instrument of change. I, you know, sitting here looking, it's a, it's a very nice CV, with a lot of diverse experiences. But, you know, I guess sometimes I want somebody that's been kind of close to the trenches in the last few years, maybe not to be president, but just to be on the board. And certainly is approachable, because we've had some encounters in the past with some of the board members who are, I think, prickly is perhaps the word that I would apply, not nice. I would not nice. I mean, you know, very, very quick to not even, you know, you can be respectful. But some of them have been quick to just block, you know, flat out block, yeah, just block your ass on Instagram, if you just say hi, so, you know, okay.
The pattern is say something nasty, give the person. In time to read it and then block. That's the pattern there.
Yeah, well, and some of us don't really shoot from the hip right away. And so, yeah, it was like, hmm, we're for a communication organization. You really suck at that. So, yeah.
So... that's, that's present. And I'll say, Yeah, we could see that from from ol' Perry, but I don't think so, given he has already come in hot saying ASHA has already done what is good for you. Not a good way to start your tenure there, buddy. Okay, so flying through. Then we've got Kim. Kim Ward for VP Academic Affairs and Audiology. She doesn't have a PhD. She has an AuD. She is an associate professor at University of Southern Mississippi, which tells me she's been in for at least, probably seven years. Ish, because when you're a professor, you start as an assistant professor, then it's associate, then it's full. So she's gotten a promotion. She's probably got some tenure. It says she has 15 years in pediatric and educational audiology, university clinics, Children's Hospital, school contracts. So I don't know, I don't think we need to go into all of these people super deep, but we're trying to make a point here. The next one is Derek. Derek Stiles, VP for Finance. He gets to decide what they purchase on that Asha food budget for the convention, I think. But he has a PhD in Speech and Hearing Science. He's the director of audiology and Center for Communication enhancement at Boston Children's Hospital. So he's he's not in academia full time. He does do adjunct at Harvard Med School as a lecturer. So he's high up in administration, still, still has his hands and toes in academia. And then Marlene, I'm gonna play a little clip from Marlene. Marlene, 35 plus years. So thank you for your service to our field PhD. She's been in academia most of her life at this point, let's hear what Marlene has to say.
I believe that all of us on this slate are experienced leaders, and together, we bring our expertise in business, clinical work and academia to lead the organization in a positive and exciting and forward thinking manner. And we are all Asha member focused, and I am dedicated to providing you with an exceptional member experience. And as VP for planning, I will always make your needs a priority in planning for the future. Thank you for approving this slate.
You heard it here, folks, she's going to make your needs in planning for the future a priority. But also she said two things that really like, get my hackles up a little bit. First thing, she's gonna lead in a forward thinking manner. Marlene looks like a sweet professor. I bet she does a good job in the classroom, but I also bet that she came up through the ranks at a time where you did need the CCC, where state licenses didn't exist, where she has gotten her grants, her awards, her recognition, her accolades, through the institution. So my guess is her forward thinking is only as forward as, like, the front door of the rockville building, like, I don't know again, maybe we'll be surprised. I would love that. My guess is that we won't be What do you think about that, Preston?
No, no, I don't. I don't see that in our future.
Yeah
No.
The second thing that she said is that she's here for the ASHA membership, and I have a huge problem with that, because the board, the VP for planning, is also overseeing that CCC, that we pay $221 for we're not we're paying $29 for ASHA membership. The membership isn't the bulk, at least on paper, of what ASHA does. What do you mean? You're here for the membership? What about speech pathologists at large? We've got a lot of people dropping membership. We've got a lot of people still sending $221 to that institution who aren't getting anything. And now what you've just said, Sweetheart, is that you're only here for the ones who are paying the $29 and I'm not okay with that.
Seems exclusionary. Yeah. And do we want to talk about Patty?
Yep, Patty got her PhD. She's a former Associate Professor, Clinical Director and founder of a CSD program. Tells me Patty might be retired. I don't actually know. She's going to be VP for Standards and Ethics.
She's been doing actually working the Council on Academic Accreditation. She's a site visitor for programs that are up for their renewal. So I imagine that is that probably keeps her pretty busy. That's a lot of academic programs, and usually their site visit is, it's about a several day to almost week process, and so so she's, probably been kind of an arm for Asha for some time now. And, you know, that's, that's our role. That is who they have chosen for us. And, and I want to be clear, I don't mean to belittle any one individual here, all of these people have, you know, rich backgrounds as individuals, but it is the groupthink mentality which I'm pushing back against. So nothing personal against any of these individuals. But also it's an open invitation you can be a change agent, and that doesn't mean that you have to just recreate it all in one day, but perhaps just being able to have an honest conversation, being able to say the status quo is not acceptable, and maybe just getting away from some of that self congratulatory bs of just constantly sort of preening in the mirror about your advocacy, even when it's saying, gee, you know, there are things out there that we know we have not achieved, but by golly, we're going to re engage and reinvigorate the membership, because we are going to achieve those things. Don't sit there and, you know, beat your chest and then, you know, the results are just not there. It doesn't mean you have to, you know, hang your head in shame. But don't walk around like a peacock when you really your feathers are pretty dingy.
We have talked before in terms of dem ocracyPreston, I think when the nominations were happening, maybe you talked about this that you wished that there was more information, or one of those live chats where we could hear from the people who we were voting for. And so I did a little digging. And as it turns out, for these elections, for the nominations, elections, for all of this, there are really, really, really heavy campaign restrictions. And I think it really comes down to just the position where we get to vote between people. So that would be like our member at large. There's a member at large for Audiology. There's a member at large for speech pathology. If you're dual licensed, you get to vote in both elections.
Yeah. And remember, that's the one, and, I guess 14 seats on the damn board that you actually will have a choice, that's it, yeah? And you really don't have a choice, per se, in the sense that it's, it's already pre baked for you between usually about three options, I think.
They will take any of the three, any of the three, three different ice cream cones that have been self licked.
I get that you don't want people aggressively campaigning for this. I could see where that would not serve any purpose. As you know that that could be kind of dirty and problematic, and frankly, I don't think people would want to do it. However, as an organization that loves to try to do live chats and things of that nature, would it be possible just to have a let's, let's do a big Meet the Candidates kind of thing, and you can ask questions, and there is a way, you know, people say, well, it's going to get pointed, you know it that that's where you want people on the board that are able to answer the tough questions. And when I was in politics, and I'll just say this very quickly, there is a difference between people who are running for city council or state representative versus judges. Judges are on the ballot in states, and they have a campaign where you can ask them pointed questions and they have to give these very kind of generic answers because they don't want to forecast judicial intent. That would be an ethical thing for them. There is a way you do this and you communicate. And let's face it, with the participation, as low as it is, if you get 300 members that sign in to participate and get to know this person. Doesn't that make your organization better? Because these little videos, I mean, I appreciate that. It's something, but this is just so one sided communication. It seems like a bad pre served meal on a shitty airline.
They're a joke. They're a joke.
Yeah, I mean, it's... it's uh. I don't know. I would be... I would be really kind of embarrassed to do it. I don't know. It seems almost a little bit demeaming for them. There are people that are - these are professional people. I don't know. They're all the same. It's kinda cringy.
Yeah, after I watched them last night, I thought, Could any of these people praised Asha more? It was like, Big Daddy ASHA is Lord of my life. I mean, that's, you know, that that's what the overall tone and theme at the end, if you watch all five of them in a row. You're like, what am I in a cult? Now? What just happened?
Well, I mean, but if you want to join that world, then you have to just, you know, basically, be a sycophant. That's the message that's out there. It's ALL Yay, smiling, you know, so..
yeah
man
You have to drink the red Kool Aid and walk off the cliff at midnight under the blue moon of whatever, like. That's what it was...
Yeah, I would like to hear more about their individual experiences and how that benefits, rather than just that continual, you know, just group think speak, it is. It's just, I don't know, it's like invasion of the pod people.
There's a lot of value in getting to know people, and I'll talk about this a little bit, just so people can understand where we're coming from. Is when Fix SLP started, we were just posting a podcast. There were no faces, there were barely any names, and nobody wanted to really, especially me, really wanted to put a face forward, but I recognized that some of the accounts and things that I was involved in where I was the most invested were those where I felt like I knew the person. And I'll give a shout out. Sarah Baar with Honeycomb Therapy does a great job of that. She is a med SLP, still working. She has her little business where she sells a ton of functional materials. And so again, this is not sponsored in any way, but I just want you to have something to look to. One of the things that makes Sarah so successful is that she puts her face on the internet as a real person and shows you how to use the materials that she's developing. And I really think she does a great job with that. So I recognize that really early on, and we had to have a conversation- Fix SLP, needs to have a face. There needs to be a real person who's actually talking about their life, who's actually talking about struggles in the field, because we are all still working. Who also shares a little here and there, like I've got ADHD struggles today, you know? Or who shows up just looking like I look today with my you know that that we need to, you need to see that I'm someone, it turned out to be me, and I didn't want to do this, by the way, I didn't want to be the person. There was a true conversation about who's doing this, um, you know, you all need to see that I am a real person with kids who butt in and, you know, a husband and all those things, to be more invested in this movement. And I think if Asha took that approach, like, let's see Perry in his pajama pants, run, you know, run and run in the show for Asha, like, let's see that kind of stuff. It it humanizes people. It takes them off the pedestal, and it brings them down to our level, and it makes them a real person. And people want to be led by people who are like them, at least. I think, you know, we don't want to be led by people who think they're better than us. And maybe these people don't think that, but when they put off the air like that that they do. It's really hard to connect, and that's where that separation is, of them versus us, the ivory tower versus the peasants who have to see 120 people in the middle school today. And I think that's that's a disconnect. They need to humanize these people, and maybe we wouldn't hate them so much, and we don't hate them. We, like we said earlier, we hate the status quo of it all.
We feel no sense of connectivity. That's if you sort of put it into politics and some of the people that are the most successful, and I'll go back to my own home state, Love him or hate him, Bill Clinton, one of the things is that he was able to make people feel that he understood their experiences. There was a famous moment where people said, well, you know, how has the recession affected you personally? And President George HW Bush just kind of looked uncomfortable and like, Well, what do you mean, you know, and are you saying people a means don't feel and he looked out of touch, and Bill Clinton goes over there, and he he kind of tilts that tilts that face a little bit. He gets that draw going. He's kind of looks at him. He bites that lip. He says, you know, when people in my state are laid off, there's a good chance I know him by their name. And that's the thing you want. Someone who feels like that, they've actually. They understood what productivity was in the last few years, that they have managed a caseload. I understand it may not be something that they did yesterday, and because they might have gone to an administrative role, but somebody who can actually relate a little bit, versus somebody who has been making, you know, all these little PowerPoints for the last several years, and has been doing site reviews for, you know, academic accreditation and just kind of living in the academia world of eating at the Marriott, you know, 30 times a year. I want something different. I want to see a day in the life to know that this person understands what the average working class SLP is going through. Because if you don't get the struggle, then you can't represent the membership. You have no idea what the hell the needs are of the SLPs. I don't care how many damn focus groups you do, and it's evidenced by the fact that when you go to the convention, my God, you know, if you actually go to one of these board meetings, or, excuse me, one of the little meetings in the ballroom, it's like, turn off your cameras, you know, and it's, it's more of just that preening. And anybody who's on the outside is just a bastard and is, you know, an ASHA hater. And so that's the disconnect. Humanize these people, make your membership feel connected to them, and that's when you get better participation,
Right, exactly. And so, you know, these people can't do big ads. SIGs can't endorse them. It's neat. It's controlled. It also means there's no grassroots movement of members rising up to self nominate or run or be chosen. So the sleep Preston, it obviously heavy tilt towards academia, big organizational leadership folks here, three of the five have PhDs. All have university or major hospital ties. Currently, there's basically no one whose day to day is solely direct, private clinical practice anymore, and even Perry, our future president has a master's degree, still a professor and a state consultant, and that's going to shape his priorities. That's that's going to shape all of their priorities about what they're voting for and what decisions they're making, and it means all of our leadership is mostly people who've lived in academic hospital or state agency bubbles, not necessarily small clinics, fighting for Medicaid approvals, or school therapists juggling caseloads of 120 kids supervising an SLPA and, oh, by the way, will you take a student for free?
Yeah, that's, what it is. And I kind of wonder at this point, it goes back to those emails that we're getting. Who do we vote for? Jeanette, this is not democracy. This is, as I said earlier, this is democracy by invitation at best. And it's, it's just a it's an odd thing. It makes me think, like, I think our lawyer, Bob may have said something about this, but it's like an HOA board, or I'm even recalling because you came from Orlando recently, it's like Disney World. So for those who may have been down there before, Walt Disney World is actually not in Florida. It's in Lake Buena Vista, which is actually an improvement district that I think has either three or five commissioners who basically serve until life, and then they're just appointed by the board. And the reason they do that is that it's so Walt Disney World can say, To hell with any kind of zoning laws. We're going to make up our own laws here and do things the way we want to do it as a business. That's fine. That's their business. That's their world. But this is a nonprofit that is selling a product that is covertly disguised as a license and boasting about keeping this membership that they proclaim is sort of this active, vibrant, open, you know, participatory thing. It is not. It is very much this shackled kind of membership that is asked to pick people that the committee has selected made up of the previous leadership. It is not democracy, folks. This is a closed governance system at best, and the fact that they help make people think that there's a choice here is that's a sad it's a sad example of how we are so gaslit as a profession, as individuals, right down to the fear that people have to not knowing how to sign their damn name on a document, to then thinking that, well, who do I vote for you? You don't vote. You vote yes or no. And in this case, we're going to have a different call to action for that.
And that's by design. They changed to this hybrid election. Do you think they educated all of us on what was going on? No, sir, they did not.
I mean, I guess it does. It come back to the question that we have from people, should we even vote? And it's funny, because I met the same advice. I. Give to people about politics these days, when they're disenchanted and they're like, you know, I don't like either of these people. And I tell some people, you know, you don't have to mark anybody on there, or you can vote no, in this case with a yes or no. And people say, Well, no, I have to vote for somebody. No, you don't. Yeah, you don't. And so your vote can sometimes be a tiny protest. It can be message sending. And as much as we have people that are, you know, dropping their membership, and you know, some people say, well, it's only 20, you know, 9 dollars, you know, so why bother? But the answer is, is that there is a way to show that you have a voice, and I think that's what we want to tell our listeners today.
Yeah, should we vote?
You do... you have a choice.
It feels pointless, but your no vote is a very tiny protest in showing ASHA that you mean business, that we mean business, and that they need to start listening to the membership. They can't go on a live chat and say, "We ask for feedback, and we get reaction." Reaction is what comes after we've not been heard. Reaction is what comes after we've not been heard. Hear us!
Turn the slate down.
Mmm-hmmm.
For anyone else who's still struggling with the semantics of a no vote, it is. Think of it as a vote of confidence. Do you have confidence that ASHA has prepared a balanced diet for you with people that will represent your interest and will be change agents to really sink their teeth into the needs that are out there for our field, or did they serve up the same foie gras plate that came down, you know, from the convention, the same kind of people who have kept us in this perpetual cycle of judges by our own self promotion and not by Our results? Do you want to keep voting yes for the self licking ice cream cone?
I know what questions are coming next, so I'm going to address those here in a second. But a no vote has never happened to scale with ASHA, and we're thinking of this today is Friday. The vote is over in five days. I'm gonna release this episode couple days early so we can get this in, but we will re air this episode. Probably every time a vote is coming, we will be pointing people to this conversation, and I'm sure every year it will happen more and more so by voting, no by voting, by going to that page, by watching those 45 second videos, you stay informed. And even if you're not an ASHA member, if you're a CCC holder, go look, stay informed, because this is still your board, even though they're only here for the ASHA members. What is my $221 paying for exactly then? But you're learning who's actually leading this field, what their priorities are, how disconnected they may or may not be with their clinical work. But if we want to change this system, we need to push to allow nominations for members again and not inside this cloaked process of this heavy vetting process by the CNE. We need true, contested elections. We need to be able that show that members are paying attention. And so here's the question we're going to get well, should I rejoin Asha? Should I have dropped my membership? Our answer to that is, no, no, no, you should not rejoin Asha. No, you should not have stayed a member. To remain to be able to do this by pooling your membership, that is the number one thing you can do to put your foot down. If you're someone who works for the now filing bankruptcy Powerback in Genesis Rehab, you've been also required to maintain your membership because you've had to use the ash and noms as part of your evaluation process. Also a topic for another day, that we've been dealing with legally. So some of you have still had to keep membership. So by voting no, if you're someone who has kept membership out of fear? Kept membership because maybe you've loved it until recently. Kept membership because you had to go vote no if you dropped membership. Good on you keep on going. Don't ever look back. Okay, this is for the people who haven't been able to leave, and so the people who have remained. That is another way to take a stand. Just like recently, we have said, remove your CCC from the signature line if you need to keep it. Make a point. This is another way to make a point if you are stuck in the system for whatever reason. Vote No. Put your foot down. Vote no. Make them hear you. It's. Not hard. Just vote no. I'm gonna I wasn't gonna vote, but until I started last night at 2am researching for this uh episode. Now I'm gonna vote no as soon as, as soon as we turn this off, I'm voting no.
Well, and we now have some homework. I have not looked at the yes and no results in years past, because, let's face it, it's pretty boring to decide, you know, how much did the slate get approved by? But it would be interesting to look in, you know, a year or so, yeah, or whenever the results are officially released, how many voted no, and then also perhaps even increasing a little bit, you know, maybe they've lost some members, but maybe even increasing the participation. I think it's okay to participate, as long as your confidence is I don't have confidence in it, and you're accurately showing what your feelings are on it. And for those of them, or for those of us that are out there, I'm no longer in this camp, that are just CCC holders, you got co workers that are part of that 94% of membership out there that are just not even paying attention. Give them a call. Say, Hey, I need you to go vote. And, you know, word of mouth, it, you know, it's if there's a little bump there, it's another thing, just like cutting off the membership, it's, it's one other way to send a message. And you have an opportunity, and you have a voice make it heard. Even if you really aren't making a choice, you can make your voice heard.
Yeah. Yeah. So bottom line, ASHA, if you're hearing this, could be five years from now, we're pointing back to this episode. Asha, elections are open. It's not a real choice still, if you're hearing this, but your vote still matters. So go engage. Show them what you really think. Maybe someday, if we make those changes, Preston talked about, it'll be a more democratic process. It's not right now. Go read the candidate bios, watch their little 45 second clips, and then tell us what you think. Did you vote yes? Did you skip it? Are you frustrated by the lack of options? Tell us. Leave us a minivan meltdown. Preston can't wait to hear you.
It's always great to hear from folks. We've got a lot of smart people out there.
Yeah, if you're listening to this, in July of 2025 we are now on our way to 100k we are having contests every week. We want to hit 100,000 downloads before our anniversary on 9/23, that'll be our two year anniversary. Really cool. So there's probably a contest going on right now, maybe more than one. Go check out our social media pages to see how you can win surprises. We're asking people to subscribe, we're asking people to share. We're asking people to listen to some back episodes. Push us there we are. So close, it literally means nothing for anyone other than, like, we're gonna have a second between the five of us to, like, jump around like fools on some kind of zoom meeting. But other than that, it means nothing but help us get there. It's kind of a cool thing to say that we were were there in two years. And you know, it's a fun thing for us. So, yeah, I guess we'll be back next week. Preston, who knows what we're talking about, but always a pleasure.
Same here, Jeanette.
Yep. All right, guys, thanks for fixing it!
ASHA members should approve a slate.
I hope you will vote to approve the slate.
Thank you for approving the slate.
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Oh Preston, you know what I should have hung behind me?
What?
There has been a ice cream truck backdrop on my dining room wall, where I literally sit and...
missed opportunity
record with you. Jon took it down the other day. It has been up there since March with ice cream cones hanging above my buffet from Sadie's birthday.
