|
|
WESTERN
GROUP ON EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS Members Present: Nancy Alexander Koff, PhD, Univ of Arizona
(Chair) Nancy Koff called the meeting to order and self-introductions of those in attendance were made. Nancy began the meeting by extending congratulations to LuAnn Wilkerson (UCLA--Immediate Past Chair of the WGEA) on her election as Future Chair of the Group on Educational Affairs. Nancy also noted another example of the national leadership being provided by members of the western schools with the election of Mia Savoia (UC San Diego) as incoming chair of the Group on Student Affairs, likewise extending congratulations to Mia. Plans for Spring 1998 Program Nancy noted that the Spring WGEA meeting will be held from April 26-28 or 29 in conjunction with the Western Group on Student Affairs at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. She reminded the group that the WGEA membership had recommended the rotation of Spring meeting sites so that every other year the meeting would be held at Asilomar, with the meeting scheduled at member schools in the intervening years. She explained that significant negotiations and planning with WGSA have taken place during the last several months and the WGEA Spring Program Committee members are optimistic that this jointly planned meeting will be successful. Special thanks go to Jan Carline (University of Washington) for serving as Program Chair for the Spring 1998 meeting. Jan discussed aspects of the program planned for this meeting. The theme of the meeting is creating collaborative learning environments. He noted that the program will include workshops and poster sessions to encourage participation of our faculty as presenters. The meeting will start with a joint plenary with the WGSA. Dr. Diane Halpern of California State University, San Bernardino has been invited to speak on collaborative learning. Dr. Fred Wolf (University of Washington) will provide a WGEA plenary on informatics. The Program Committee is discussing providing an intensive workshop on Tuesday evening (April 28) or Wednesday morning (April 29). Time will be available for Special Interest Groups to meet. The current deadline for receipt of workshop and poster proposals is January 1, 1998. Some discussion ensued regarding extension of the deadline to January 15, 1998 in order to encourage more people to submit. This will be considered although it is necessary to have the program planned by the end of January. A special request was made for attendees to stay on site at the Asilomar conference grounds, because availability of meeting rooms and maintaining our position in the availability of Asilomar is linked to the number staying on grounds. Nancy Koff also asked the participants if they wanted to continue the policy regarding alternating the site of Spring meetings between member schools and Asilomar. This policy seemed to be generally acceptable to the meeting participants. She asked that members begin to think about hosting the meeting at their schools in 1999 and 2001. GEA Sections The reorganization of the GEA was reviewed. Four sections are being organized: undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, continuing medical education, and research in medical education. GEA members are being asked to select two sections for primary membership. Scott Obenshain (University of New Mexico) currently serves as interim chair of the Undergraduate Medical Education Section. He provided a brief discussion of the progress being made in organizing this section, noting that members will receive requests for nominations of a chair soon in the mail. Nancy called for comments on the methods that might be used to identify regional representatives of each section, and strategies for involving the sections in program planning and regional decision making. Discussion indicated that regional representatives for the sections could be identified in several ways, including a more informal process since the WGEA is constituted of so few schools. The participants agreed to consider a change in the WGEA Bylaws, to be presented for discussion at the Spring 1998 meeting, to include section representatives in WGEA program planning. Nominations Committee LuAnn noted that the Member-at-Large position currently is held by Jan Carline. Jan accepted this position at the Fall 1996 business meeting for a one-year period in order to establish the required rotation with the Chair position. Jan will be placed in nomination for a regular two-year term. Members will receive ballots to vote on this position within the next month. Regional Special Interest Groups Regional SIGs were discussed. Some of the SIG’s that have identified leaders in the western region include those for Faculty Development, Standardized Patients, Computers in Medical Education and Curriculum. Nancy encouraged others to pursue identification of regional coordination. Time and space can be made available in Spring meeting agendas to support SIG activities. GEA Projects Recently, Jeff Turnbull (outgoing GEA chair) and Brownie Anderson met with the AAMC Governing Council to discuss the GEA, its activities and purposes in meeting the goals of the AAMC. The leadership of the AAMC indicated that it is depending on the GEA to take a leadership role in educational activities, providing guidance and information for member schools and other constituents of the AAMC. The GEA Steering Committee recently has responded to this important request and statement of expectation by identifying several areas of critical importance in medical education. Each of these areas will be the focus of a project to deliver tangible products to the AAMC leadership and its members. These first sets of projects are:
Each project will involve a working group that will design the projects. Regional representation on each project is being solicited. Those present at this meeting signed up expressing their interest in working on these projects. Nancy will forward their names to the GEA. With a brief reminder to the participants to access the WGEA Web page for information about the Spring meeting, the meeting was adjourned. |
