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VOS Members:
The 2009 VOS Annual Conference was fantastic - THANKS TO YOU! The dedication to Dr. Brinker was very special and very appropriate and I sure appreciate Dr. Flo and Dr. Arnoczky for their roles in that. I thought the presentations, questions, discussion, participation, and social components were really exceptional this year - Allison Stewart did a wonderful job heading up the Scientific Program and Sue Schaefer did an incredible job with Sponsorship for all the events. Jeff Godwin also did a remarkable job this year in budgeting and managing our money through the crisis to make sure we stayed on track and could make the meeting happen. The VOS Educational Foundation Directors, Mike Conzemius and Cristi Cook, also did an outstanding job with the Presidents' Breakfast, Foundation Report, Race to the Base, Comedy Night, and the Blackjack Fundraiser - Special thanks to Dan Lewis and Mike Kowaleski for clown racing and to Mike Conzemius and Mark Albrecht for being our blackjack dealers! Our card-shark winners at the fundraiser were:
- Ed Wagner - IMEX hybrid ESF kits and TR matrix
- Avtar Jandi - Arthrex Vet Systems complete arthroscopy instrument set
- Dave Saidel - Original print from Cristi Cook
- Cristi Cook - Synthes Vet locking plates and case
Special thanks to our "biggest loser - Todd Allen - thanks for the BIG donation!! HUGE THANKS to Arthrex, IMEX, Synthes & Cristi Cook for making this popular event possible with your extremely generous and hotly-contested-for donations!!
Our Synthes Vet-sponsored Jacques Jenny Lecturer, Dr. Kurt Spindler, was definitely a highlight of the meeting. Kurt's talks were so timely, informative, educational, interesting, and inspiring - the comments I heard were extremely complementary. Kurt really enjoyed and appreciated the interactions and is so impressed with the VOS!
Another particular highlight at this year's VOS that we recognized was the enhanced international flavor of the meeting. This has been something we have been working very hard toward in recent years and will be further enhanced with the signing of two agreements with our sister organization, ESVOT. We signed agreements for a Presidents Exchange Program (initiated this year with Dr. Olivier Lepage's invited attendance with us) as well as the continuation of the World Veterinary Orthopaedic Congress every four years. This collaboration with ESVOT is a great thing, and we sincerely appreciate Dr. Lepage and Dr. Vezzoni for working with us to make it all happen.
One critical VOS item that I will continue to work on as past-president this year is lodging and conference facilities. This is of MAJOR IMPORTANCE to us if we want to maintain the meeting at its current level. Here are the key points:
- It is imperative that we all make our lodging arrangements through Daman-Nelson - if we do not, we really will lose our ability to leverage the conference rooms, support staff, banquet facilities, catering, and other components of a "highest quality" meeting. We are able to have all of these things only if we meet a room reservation minimum through our travel agent. If not, they will cost us tens of thousands of dollars and we will not be able to maintain our current standards.
- Daman-Nelson has committed to 1) enhancing customer service in terms of responsiveness, efficiency, and clarity; 2) guaranteeing that they will match any price you get for the lodging options offered as part of the VOS conference; and 3) revising the brochure and website to allow for clear and easy choices and "a la carte booking" for lodging, airfare, transfers, lift tickets, and VOS events so that the per person itemized charges are clear and documented.
With good communication and attention to this item, this can be a major win-win and we can continue to have the facilities, resources, skiing, science, and social extravaganza we all love and know as "VOS"! We will continue to work on this and other VOS business based on your great ideas, thoughts, and suggestions from your evaluations, emails, and phone calls - so keep them coming!
I really want to again express my sincerest gratitude to the Board of Directors and Foundation Directors - these volunteers do an amazing amount of work for our organization which is particularly impressive when you think about the extremely busy real jobs they all have - Charlie, Nicole, Allison, Jeff, Rob, Darien, Sue, Randy, Ron, Liz, Mike and Cristi - THANK YOU!! I also want to thank the Past Presidents, especially Charlie DeCamp, Dan Lewis, Steve Fox, and Curtis Probst, who helped me tremendously during my time serving as your president! And, of course, I need to thank Maralyn Probst as much as is humanly possible, as without her, there would be no VOS Conference! THANKS!
Thanks for the opportunity to serve as President! It was truly an honor and a privilege for which I am very grateful! The VOS is in great hands with Nicole and Mike and the BOD and Foundation Directors, and I am confident that great things are to come!
Jimi Cook, Immediate Past President |
Upcoming meeting location:
Breckenridge, Colorado - February 20 - 27, 2010
Hohn-Johnson Research Award - Submission Deadline October 1, 2009
Mark Bloomberg Research Award
Abstract Submission - Deadline November 1, 2009
Our Official Journal: Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology (V.C.O.T.)
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