From the President

Hello fellow NCBA members! It is hard to believe that 2011 is ending and 2012 is around the corner. First, let me say that I am honored to have been elected the NCBA president for the 2012 year. We had a great 2011 and I am looking forward to another successful year for the North Carolina Biomedical Association.

Let's take a minute to review 2011, especially the symposium. We made some adjustments as we do every year to try and make the event successful for everyone that supports the NCBA from our general membership to exhibitors and even students. One adjustment that we made that was not well received was the additional vendor time on Friday. We were trying to have vendor hall times available to all attendees including those who only attend on Friday. The feedback we received indicated that Friday's vendor time was not well attended. We always encourage the feedback and we have listened so we will not have vendor time on Friday in 2012.

We also switched registration software to Wild Apricot. This software has a membership maintenance piece that would allow us to manage our members in addition to event management. Wild Apricot is excellent for membership, but those who registered for the 2011 symposium did not find the process very user friendly. We will be using RegOnline for future events as most of our members liked RegOnline from the prior year.

Now, on to 2012...we already have lots of items in the hopper for the coming year. We will be adding stand-alone classes throughout the year in addition to the educational offerings at the symposium. The first offering will be a Medrad Injector class that will allow for significant cost savings by allowing technicians to perform preventative maintenance in-house. Look for the write up in the newsletter for details. An email should be forthcoming as registration opens at the first of the year.

Other stand-alone classes in the works are a 4-day CBET review, a one-day leadership class, and an ECRI incident investigation. These topics are subject to change based on availability and schedules. Our goal is to offer a stand-alone class every quarter. Please check our website or email any of the board members for any updates.

The NCBA exists to "advance the development of personnel involved in the selection, operation, repair and support of biomedical instrumentation of Health Care Institutions." We continue to support our mission and can only do so with continual feedback from our members. We are here to serve you and always want to know how we can better assist you in the biomedical equipment world. I encourage anyone to contact me at with any suggestions, comments, or any feedback. I am looking forward to working with all of you to keep the legacy of the NCBA intact.

Alison Lauer