NCOR Report

Brenda King National Council of Representatives

Greetings from the speaker of the National Council of Representatives (NCOR). The NCOR is the one forum for you as a professional to air your concerns on the greatest landscape available. It is at this table, consisting of 18 locally elected representatives, that your future as a recognized allied health care professional is advanced, protected, and ultimately decided. The process is not unlike what happens on Capitol Hill.

The speaker is a new concept for the NCOR. Historically, the nationally elected president of the SNMTS facilitated the mid-winter and annual meetings of the NCOR. Major changes in the governing process led to a separation of powers akin to the separation of the U.S. Executive Branch (the executive board of the SNMTS, which is elected by the entire SNMTS membership) from the U.S. Congress (the NCOR, which has representatives from each chapter and certain national committee chairs) and the U.S. Judicial Branch (the SNM).

Your local concerns can be heard and discussed only when you reach out to the NCOR from your chapter. Reports submitted to the NCOR from chapters highlight news of your local meetings, your newly elected local officials, and your local concerns about jobs, professional advancement, and related issues. Communications are not unidirectional. Your representative receives vast information from peers at the table that should be shared with you once the representative returns home. Examples of some recently discussed topics were how the SNMTS can help nuclear medicine technologists with job shortages, what steps other chapters are taking to assist members with CT training and certification, and whether membership in the SNMTS has any value beyond continuing education.

As the speaker, I am challenged to facilitate the NCOR meetings, encourage participation by new representatives to the table, and stimulate lively discussions on some heated topics. All representatives and committee chairs feel strongly that their project, issue, or resolution should be heard. Some sessions can be quite stimulating.

I sense the concern we all have about the future of nuclear medicine. Throughout history, whenever there have been revolutionary changes, humanity has struggled to adjust from the status quo to embrace its future. It has always been survival of the fittest. We will take some losses, but just imagine the great things that are in store for the nuclear medicine technologist of the future. He or she will be certified in multiple disciplines, with a bachelor's or master's degree, a truly recognized member of the health care partnership. The “fittest,” or best-trained, will survive. Will you be counted among that number?

What would I like to accomplish during my tenure? I would like to help the NCOR recapture its claim to be the “VOICE” of the nuclear medicine technologist. However, in order to meet this goal, your NCOR and I need to hear from you. We need your help and guidance in finding novel ways to demonstrate that membership in the SNMTS offers benefits beyond continuing education. I personally want to hear your ideas about increasing the value of your SNMTS membership.

Share with us, your colleagues, how you are preparing for the change—preparing to become the fittest. Change we must; the future is coming whether we are ready or not. Let us find ways to help each other prepare to succeed in our future!