Houston's second annual National Advocacy Dinner took place on April 9th at West Alabama Ice House and was an amazing success. This year's planning committee, made up of Texas Woman's University second year's Rachel Macneill, Avery Huessner, and Savanna Golson, planned an innovative happy hour style evening. The night started with mingling and pizza, and a brief introduction of National Advocacy Dinners and all of the experienced advocates and policy experts in attendance. Students and other attendees were then encouraged to network and circulate among three "discussion stations" focusing on federal advocacy, state advocacy, and the PT PAC. Students engaged in conversations about how to fit advocacy into their busy schedules, how to get involved as a student, why advocacy matters, and discussed practical tips to start advocating for our profession today including downloading the APTA Action App and donating to the PAC. Over 75 attendees from 5 Houston-area DPT and PTA programs, as well as local clinicians were in attendance and enjoyed engaging in dialogue about advocacy in a casual setting over pizza and beer.
As the current APTA Student Assembly Professional Advocacy Project Committee chair and part of last year's inaugural Houston NAD planning committee, it was an amazing experience to be a part of such a fun and creative event with so many students interested in getting involved. We were also extremely fortunate to have Lindsey McAlonan, the APTA Student Assembly SPT Delegate attend our dinner as she was in Houston for a clinical rotation. In addition to having the opportunity to share our student experiences with local, state, and federal advocacy, she and I, as well as other experienced students in attendance were also able to talk with many attendees about how to start getting involved with the APTA. It was so encouraging to see so many first and second year students looking for ways to contribute to making our profession better.
As a student on the brink of graduation, and with experience attending many different advocacy events including Federal Advocacy Forum as a student, I always feel like I learn something new and am re-invigorated by attending events like NAD's. My favorite takeaway from this year's Houston dinner came from Tim Schauer, the Senior Vice President of Cornerstone Government Affairs. When giving a short speech before the networking portion of the evening, he spoke to us about the importance of professional advocacy and stated, "99% of success in the political arena is just showing up, consistently. Get involved for the long haul." This rang so true to me for not just advocacy, but for involvement and elevating our profession in general. Even if things haven't been going our way in Texas (cough*Direct Access*cough), we still have keep showing up and talking to our policy makers about why what we do matters. If we don't show up for our profession and our patients, nobody else is going to do it for us. And if we're not showing up, somebody else will be, for themselves. It's up to us to stop letting other's dictate our profession. And while you may not always know exactly what you're doing, just starting somewhere and doing something is better than doing nothing at all. I've also learned that someone who has been in your shoes before will always be there and willing to help you figure it out. While this applies to advocacy, it also applies to involvement in our profession, or following other interests or passions you might have. Just start and you'll figure it out.
I'm thrilled that Texas has had three dinners this year (Houston, Dallas, and El Paso), and hopefully another in San Antonio later this year! If you have questions about attending or planning an NAD, getting involved in advocacy, or just getting involved in general, please reach out to me at aptasa.advocacy@gmail.com or abeck1@twu.edu and I'd love to talk with you! Students are the largest part of our professional membership, and I love that so many of us in Texas are getting involved and making our voices heard!
Aly Beck, DPT
TWU Houston - Class of 2018
PS. Below you'll find some photos from the Dallas and El Paso National Advocacy Dinners:
Dallas (April 19, 2018)
Dallas (April 19, 2018)
El Paso (April 12, 2018)
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