President's Message

By 2009-2010 GAA President Gerry Drumheller, Au.D.

It’s been a great year to reflect on at this time of year.  We certainly have been busy and I want to thank all the members of the Board of GAA and all the committee members for their incredible work this year.  I keep wondering how all these people are so generous with their time and cannot thank them enough. 

Our organization continues to be strong because of their hard work.  We still, however, are contending with serious financial concerns.  That is why our annual convention must be a success. The convention committee has this weight on their shoulders and I know they will be successful. The Cerumen Management Workshop certainly helped our bottom line by generating close to $3000.  And hopefully, our next planned event, Coding and Reimbursement will also be as successful.  I hope you will all register. 

Other accomplishments this year include hiring a CPA this year to perform a compilation of our financial bookkeeping. That looks fine and I thank Jennifer Reddaway, our secretary, for all her hard work. 

We renegotiated the contract with our lobbyists in view of our financial situation.  We significantly reduced this expense by employing them during the legislative session only, from January to June, 2010.  The members of the board feel strongly that this effort is an integral part of our academy mission. 

Our marketing committee, led by Jiovanne Hughart, has done a fabulous job this year – and it’s not over yet!  I’m sure you were all impressed with their efforts for “October is Audiology Awareness Month”.  The committee is hard at work planning the “Day at the State House’ event on February 16, 2010. Watch for more blasts! 

The membership committee has completed 2 telethons this year to recruit new members. We currently have 135 members! That’s 1/3 of the total audiologists in the state, we could do better. 

And our Webmaster has worked very hard redesigning the academy website. It continues to be a work in progress as issues arise. Our publications committee of one has done a great job with these newsletters, especially getting me to write.

MISSION AND VISION STATEMENT: The Georgia Academy of Audiology is a professional organization of audiologists and friends of the audiology community that promotes quality hearing and balance care by advancing the profession of audiology through leadership, advocacy, education, public awareness, and support of research.*

The Georgia Academy of Audiology’s vision is to be essential in the professional lives of audiologists by:

•        Advancing the science and practice of audiology, and

•        Achieving public recognition of audiologists as experts in hearing and balance.

The Georgia Academy of Audiology shall be recognized as the professional organization for audiologists in the State of Georgia.

*We would like to acknowledge and thank the American Academy of Audiology for their inspiration in creating a mission statement that we have adapted for our state association.