The Meeting was held at Osaka Japanese restaurant in Mandarin.
Dr. Rebecca Williams called the meeting to order.
Dr. Nicoletti gave a report on the U of FL Animal Science Dept.- Food Animal Admission issues. The Weeks family of South Florida made a $6 million donation that will be used to enhance food animal research. Graduation is May 24th.
Dr. Rick Williams (FVMA committee) said that there will be a board meeting Wed 19th. Update on the pharmacy bill - the wording has been tweaked to allow veterinarians to continue stocking, prescribing and supplying medications as they have in the past. A meeting concerning microchipping maintained that microchipping must still be performed under veterinary supervision.
Dr. Fred Forbes from AC&C discussed the urgent issues regarding their budget crunch. At this time the rabies-licensing program still falls under “strongly suggested”. The new program starts April 1st. If most clinics participate by selling the tags, we will avoid a mandatory program. However all veterinarians could be forced to sell the tags if more clinics do not step up to the plate very soon. Drs. Sutliff, Rick Williams and Gordon met with the city to avoid the mandatory licensing decision and have suggested we organize an owners meeting to rally for volunteer sales ASAP. The disabled and senior citizen waivers still exist. The fees will be $15 for all tags with $3 per tag reimbursement to the clinic that sells them. For clients that refuse the point of sale tag purchase, they will still have 30 days to buy the tag from the tax collectors office. Construction on the new AC&C building starts June/July this year. Adoption is up 20% due in most part to the hard work of Dr. Niessen. AC&C is in the process of making their facility a clinic, but not a private practice. They wish to employ vet techs vs. lay staff and are looking to hire a second veterinarian. They are still averaging 100 pets per day with only about 15% of those admitted coming from owner surrenders. The remaining 85% are strays.
Dr. Niessen is recruiting 6 veterinarians to chair a committee to oversee AC&C protocols. They will likely meet 2 - 3 times a year. Dr. Silverness and Rebecca Williams both volunteered. All current members of the AC&C committee will likely also wish to participate.
Dr. Acree reported on the state of affairs with all the vaccine clinics occurring around town in front of Walgreen’s provided by Petcaravan.com. There has been an investigation by Dr. Woods as to the complete legality (i.e.- permitting) of their activities. Apparently they do not have an occupational license and a complaint with the board of medicine has been filed.
Dr. Pope gave a report on his stay at the U of FL participating in the Charlie Bild VIP Program in orthopedic surgery the last 2 1/2 months. They give a $1000 stipend per month and provide a 2-bdr condo in which to stay, an office, lab coats and scrubs. He highly recommends the experience for anyone.
Dr. Rebecca Williams would like to organize a family day. The ZOO has been picked; we just need to pick a good day for the event.
Committees:
X-mas - Dr. Gordon needs someone to take over the X-mas party planning. Drs. Tracy Ladue and Alicia Esser have said they would help.
Website - Dr. Silverness was given the ok to proceed with starting from scratch on building the website herself if the project was not completed within a 2-week deadline.
Updates since this meeting
A hospital owners meeting has been scheduled for 3 pm on March 30th to be held at Companion Animal Hospital to discuss the pending city legislation changes regarding tag sales. ALL OWNERS SHOULD COME - THIS AFFECTS YOUR BUSINESS!
Dr. Silverness has ordered a prepackaged website builder and together with Dr. Cindy Miller has the site ready and will be updating it frequently. The domain name is JVMS.org. This had historically gone to the old website that was not being updated but as soon as the paths get changed, our new website will appear. In the meantime, you can see the website by going to www.jvms.citymax.com. Once the domain name transfer has been completed, you will be able to access the website through www.jvms.org. You will need to use a password to access the members-only portions of the website. It is “pope”.