December 2004

COCSA 2004: Biggest assembly to date

DEC. 9, 2004 — More than 100 delegates from 45 state chiropractic associations participated in roundtable discussions and workshops at the 2004 meeting of the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA) in New Orleans in November.

Host of the meeting was the Chiropractic Association of Louisiana. The objective of the conference was to improve the operations and overall effectiveness of state associations. Most of the sessions were geared towards providing association management training for state-elected leaders and staff.

According to COCSA Executive Director Janet Jordan, "This is really what sets us apart from other chiropractic conferences. Sure, we deal with chiropractic issues because it's important for our state association leaders to know what's going on out there, but we are really the only resource for chiropractors on how to run a state association."

Topics covered at this year's meeting included strategic planning and implementation, volunteer recruitment, membership development, public relations, media relations, chiropractic unity, and HIPAA.

State leaders also received updates from the American Chiropractic Association, the International Chiropractors' Association, the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and NCMIC. Kent Greenawalt of Foot Levelers gave an update on the unified national PR campaign that he is developing and that chiropractic organizations across the board have agreed to support. An official kick-off for this campaign is to take place at the Parker Seminar in Las Vegas.

Another highlight of the program was the official kick-off of Straighten Up America, a short and simple spinal health program that can be used daily to actively care for spinal health in a similar manner to the way that we care for our dental health.

The program was developed through a seed panel and Delphi panel review process, which began in June 2004. Approximately 95 individuals, including over 50 state and national association leaders participated in the program's development. The program was overwhelmingly embraced by Congress members and is expected to be a primary initiative of COCSA in the coming year.

Elected to oversee these and the many other COCSA projects and programs in 2005 were Steve Simonetti, DC (New York), president; Jerry DeGrado, DC (Kansas), 1st vice president; Jeff Fedorko, DC (Ohio), 2nd vice president; Walt Engle, DC (Pennsylvania), treasurer; and John Galbreath, DC (Illinois), secretary.

Sponsors of the 2004 meeting were 3DGrid, American Specialty Health, Breakthrough Coaching, ChiroCode Institute, Chiropractic Association of Louisiana, CEUHS.com, Foot Levelers, Logan College, Mally Enterprises, NCMIC, Parker College, Scrip, Standard Process, Texas Chiropractic College, and TPK Inc.

Source: Congress of Chiropractic Associations, www.cocsa.org

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