2011 AANA Mid-Year Assembly
Posted by Amy in Baptist NAP, SRNA Life on April 23, 2011
I found this photo online.
Let's not pretend that I have an eye for photography.
Whew. Sorry it took me so long to post these photos of our time in DC for this year's Mid-Year Assembly! My computer died (which I believe brings our tally of "The number of times I've been screwed by Dell during anesthesia school" to a whopping 6) and I spent the last 5 days becoming the best of friends with Dell's Customer Service Representatives and technicians. Dell should really consider offering "emotional counseling" as an option for those calling their automated help line.
Aaaaaanyhoo, back to the Mid-Year Assembly. This is the best meeting! I was able to attend last year for the first time and wouldn't have missed it for the world this year. The meeting always runs from Sunday morning through Wednesday afternoon. Sunday and Monday are spent learning about the political issues affecting nurse anesthetists. A few more lectures take place on Tuesday morning and then you leave with other members of your state to meet with your state senators and representatives. Wednesday is spent on Capital Hill as well and you leave exhausted and fired up!
First we met with Senator Kay Hagan. Sorry, I don't have any photos of the meeting so you're just going to have to trust me that it went down. Next up, Representative Virginia Foxx.
Baptist Juniors Matt and Sydney await the arrival of NC Congresswoman Foxx
Meeting with Congresswoman Foxx (in red) in the hallway since our group
was too big to fit in her office. Way to represent, NC!
Congresswoman Foxx is amazing. The woman has so much energy! Someone from our group mentioned this fact and she replied, "well, as long as the good Lord keeps blessing me with a lot of energy, I intend to make the most of it." Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing. Anyway, she is quite a force. She offered to take us to the House of Representatives Chamber (which you need an escort to see) and we sat overlooking the floor as she explained details about the room and the political process. It was one of the highlights of my trip!
Where the magic happened.
We then headed over to Representative Howard Coble's office to chit-chat about how awesome CRNAs are. Region 2 Director, Sharon Pearce, is an old friend of Congressman Coble's and she represented us well.
Look at that wall of accomplishments! If I were Rep. Coble I would at some point have to say to someone, "those aren't accomplishments... THESE are accomplishments!" (Shout out to all my fellow Crocodile Dundee fans out there! Wait, what?)
Many of my classmates left a day early so we could make it home in time to attend our Thursday lectures. Those who stayed in the District had the opportunity to meet with Senator Burr on Wednesday morning:
Meeting with Senator Burr (blue tie, middle of photo). It's a good think I wasn't there because I would have had "Burr, it's cold in here! There must be some Torros in the atmosphere!" on repeat in my head the entire time. Get it? Burr? See what I did there?
But don't be fooled, people. It wasn't ALL work. My classmates and I crashed at my parents house in northern Virginia and did many fun things:
Carie, trying my dad's size 18 shoes on for size
Carie, Anne, Kathryn, myself, Alison following our amazeballs dinner at my favorite DC restaurant, Georgia Browns. After which we explored the FDR Memorial at night. A must see!
Spa night. Don't judge.
