Sunday at #AAFP2014 was mostly about a travel day getting to Washington, DC. Driving the Pennsylvania turnpike is all about what the weather is like. Luckily for me, it was mostly sunny weather, so driving was not that much of a big deal. I shared some pics during my travels on my instragram account.
Naturally, when I arrived in the city, I took some wrong turns, but my GPS was able to get me re-routed back to the hotel. The subway metro is really close to the hotel that I'm staying at, so it was fun to ride the metro again in getting to the conference hotel.
The main event of the evening was a Town Hall Meeting in which the AAFP President, AAFP President-Elect, Board Chair, and EVP/CEO all take questions from the audience. This is always an interesting back and forth discussion, which sometimes gets into heated discussions. But, at other times, this gathering turns into a type of pep rally for Family Medicine, in which there is applauding and cheering in talking about our specialty.
Here are three random thoughts from Sunday's events:
- The Family Medicine For America's Health Initiative is going to be HUGE: During the town hall meeting tonight, there was a lot of build-up to the announcement later this week. Falsely raising expectations? We'll see. If you haven't already, check out two sites talking about the initiative. FMAHealth.org is a site targeted at the Family Medicine audience. HealthIsPrimary.org is targeted at audiences like patients. payors (like insurance companies), and legislators. A general description of the process can be found at the AAFP website.
- Politics At The National Level Never Changes: I admit that I'm a political junkie sometimes at these AAFP meetings. Even before tonight's town meeting, you can see people "politicking" the candidate that they want elected to national office at this meeting. During tonight's town hall, you can tell which people went up to the microphone to make a speech, and which people actually had a question for AAFP leadership. Some people are always campaigning, and some people never change...
- Time Management For State Chapter Responsibilities: Since I'm an officer in the state level organization, there are more responsibilities and expectations from a state perspective than I've had before at this meeting. And, I've noticed that some of my friends are going through the same challenges, which makes chatting and catching up with them a little more difficult. The "work" and "fun" balance has gotten a little more difficult, but we'll figure it out...