President's Message

February 2022

Craig A. Meek, MD, MS, FACEP
TCEP President

Board Update on Advocacy Restructure

At the January 29th Board meeting, the Board held a high-level discussion pertaining to the Government Relations Committee transition. They reviewed a report from the TCEP Leadership and Development Fellows who had discussed possible scenarios and made a recommendation to change the way Advocacy work has been done in the past.

Let me give you a little background information on why we are creating a transition plan. Last fall, Dr. Theresa Tran , announced her intention to step down as Chair of the GRC. Dr. Tran has been the face and voice of EM the past two Legislative sessions and has done a tremendous job. It was not until she announced her intention to step away, that the development GRC Chair “job description” was created. During that process, it became clear that the job of GRC chair was unsustainable if held by one person. It was just too much for one person to handle. Therefore, a smaller “Council” is being discussed as a solution.

TCEP has been extremely lucky to have had Dr. Tran, and before her, Dr. Diana Fite, devoting so much of their time to ensuring that the specialty of EM was represented before the Legislature, overseeing all related bills, developing relationships with legislators, testifying, and working closely with our lobby team, Imperium Public Affairs.

The goal of our new plan, is to ensure that TCEP has a strong bench of members who understand the legislative process, TCEP’s issues, can work with related medical groups, our lobbyists and legislators. This Council will handle the GRC work instead of one Chairperson. The larger GRC committee will probably stay in place with periodic updates from the Council as well as seeking input.

To create the structure of this new advocacy team, the Executive Committee will work with Dr. Tran and Beth Brooks, Executive Director, to outline the division of the work among the Council members, and vet qualified candidates for the Council positions.

A proposal will be presented to the Board at the April 23 Board meeting.