Kim Gartland *
Robin Bozarth *
Linda Wojcik
Chris Curless
Sina Tim
Ellen Kaimakis
Judy Roark *
Terence McIff *
Bethany Wright
Nicole Callisen
Bianca Harris
Jesse Truett *
Amanda Varner *
Michael Dold
Geoffrey Gelings *
Victor Machado *
Sheri Hess
Jamie Decker *
Robin Bozarth * Chair
Amanda Varner *
Amy Oddo
Bethany Wright
Sherri Kohmuench *
Kim Gartland * Sheri Hess
Terence McIff
Vana Blanker
Ellen Kaimakis
Sarah Dawson
Lorena Kieser *
Giselle Cabada *
Victor Machado * Co-Chair
Amanda Varner *
Sherri Kohmuench *
Jamie Decker * Chair
Pat Cichlar *
Kim Gartland *
Robin Bozarth
Justin Panasewicz *
Andrea Davis
Christine Steiger
The communications committee serves as the connection between the ABLE Board and ABLE members by maintaining lines of communication for ABLE members, industry partners and those who support the mission of ABLE and the Bioskills Industry. This committee includes working with the website administrator to ensure the ABLE website and social site information is current and accurate.
This committee is responsible for providing feedback and recommendations to the ABLE Board, participate in the development, production and distribution of materials that transfer information from, between, and amongst ABLE members, as well as the ABLE Board of Directors. As well as providing avenues of communication to express or exchange information or ideas and thoughts to ABLE members, industry partners, and public in the form of printed materials, social media activities, key messages, and strategic planning for ABLE communication/public relations initiatives.
Our ultimate goal is to enhance open communication and sharing vital information to ABLE members and positively position the ABLE organization to be recognized as the leading expert organization in the Bioskills Industry. The committee’s activities shall promote awareness of Bioskills Best Practice Guidelines and the Bioskills industry role.
This committee is also responsible for the following:
This committee also provides information to the website administrator who will perform the updates to the website.
**The website is the organization’s main method of advertising. It is imperative that the information is always maintained to keep the members of ABLE informed and what is happening within the organization**
Participation in once a month phone conference or consistent email communication to stay up to date on web communications, newsletters and their content, and to include new ideas for the upcoming annual meeting. Participation in the production of distributed material such as content development, formatting and mass distribution.
Estimated time commitment: 1-3 hours per month depending on needs
Busiest time period: 4-5 months prior to Annual meeting and leading up to event
Communication to past registrants on the upcoming meetings, hotel information, deadline dates, working with sponsorship, membership, education and symposium committees to see what their needs are for communication to the members to include follow up after meetings on evaluations.
To develop a set of guidelines, regulations, and processes by which ABLE Board of Directors will use for the education of Bioskills labs and its staff and/ or learners. The committee will also develop steps for issuing CEU's for Symposium attendance, e-learning courses for ABLE members and institutions, and review and prep of abstract submissions for the annual meeting.
The education committee will be responsible for developing the processes by which ABLE board of directors will issue CEU’s for Bioskills lab staff and/ or learners. The committee will also identify key Bioskills lab industry educational topics and develop content, reviewing & approving submitted content by ABLE members, (i.e., abstracts) and develop potential courses offer during the annual symposium.
Approximately 2-3 hours per month. The committee will have a 1hr monthly video/teleconference for the review & discussion of the progress of the committee on its goals. Committee members will be asked to potentially review submitted content prior to committee meeting or develop ideas to the rest of the committee requiring approximately 1-2 hours.
The Guidelines Committee will be responsible for developing the highest standards of practice for a growing industry that is dedicated to serving the healthcare community. They will formulate, monitor, approve (with Board of Director guidance), and distribute the archived, current, and future guidelines established. The guidelines provide best practices for organizations that engage in surgical and medical training, research and the development of new medical devices, biologics, and general healthcare education.
This committee is responsible for maintaining the archived, current, and future guidelines created, processed, approved, and maintained by ABLE for the benefit of the bio-skills industry.
The guidelines are reviewed and voted upon yearly at the ABLE Annual Symposium for any changes set forth by the organization or committee. As part of its work, the Guidelines Committee also makes extensive use of the resources and knowledge provided by voting members of its organization (ABLE).
The Guidelines Committee considers each of the following:
Effective July 9, 2018, the following processes are approved and implemented and distributed July 10, 2018 to ABLE members:
Any comments and/or suggests for changes/edit may be made by completing the attached Request for Changes Form (RCF). These will be voted on by Regular Membership at the 2019 Annual ABLE Symposium . However, if there are three (3) or more requests for changes to the same guidelines section, the section will be submitted to the Guidelines Committee for a (2) two- week review and comment period, at which time the section will then be sent to the Board of Directors for a 30-day review and recommendation or approval. At that time, the section will then be sent for final comments to the ABLE Membership for 21 days and if comments are submitted then, they will be returned to the Guidelines Committee and Board of Directors for final vote. The outcome of a vote will be for the approval or disapproval for the section in question and not the entire set of established guidelines. Upon completion of the section voting, the ABLE Membership will vote electronically and if approved through majority vote, the change will be implemented at the (6) six-month review. If the interim vote is not approved by ABLE Membership, the requested change will be re-evaluated at the ABLE Annual Symposium. All requests for an immediate change will be evaluated and voted on by the Guidelines Committee and ABLE Board of Directors. Any edits made to the current standing guidelines will have a 90-day grace period for implementation and will be communicated to all Individual and Institutional Members via email and the ABLE website.
All guidelines voting results will be counted and tallied by legal counsel at the ABLE Annual Symposium.
Participation in two to four committee meetings per month.
Estimated time commitment: 2-4 hours per month.
At least 40% of the committee must be present for voting as a quorum. Majority vote rules and if there is a tie vote then the Board of Directors will be the final decision for the voting process completion.
Ultimately, these guidelines may be converted to accreditation standards, should the association wish to offer accreditation in future.
To sustain and grow ABLE’s membership.
This committee is responsible for encouraging current members to renew and for recruiting new members through strategic initiatives and recruiting activities.
Participation in four committee meetings per year
Estimated time commitment: 1 hour per quarter depending on needs, with more time committed if volunteering to contact current or potential members
Busiest time period: 4-5 months prior to Annual meeting and leading up to event
To develop, maintain and grow the sponsorship of ABLE.
This committee is responsible for organizing and developing a plan for soliciting corporate sponsorship for the annual ABLE symposium.
The sponsorship committee includes each of the following:
Participation in once a month phone conference or email communication to stay up to date on web communications, new ideas for upcoming annual meeting, etc
Estimated time commitment: 1 hour per month depending on needs
Busiest time period: 4-5 months prior to Annual meeting and leading up to event
To develop, execute, and improve ABLE’s annual education events and address those needs; assessing the extent to which those needs are met, and otherwise contributing to the educational mission of ABLE.
This committee is responsible for soliciting input from the Board of Directors and other members at the annual symposium regarding desired subject areas and potential speakers; consider program format changes based on past experience and prepare a conclusion from this review leading to an approach for the next symposium.
The symposium committee includes each of the following:
Participation in once a month phone conference or email communication to stay up to date on web communications, new ideas for upcoming annual meeting, etc.
Estimated time commitment: 1-3 hours per month depending on needs
Busiest time period: 4-5 months prior to Annual meeting and leading up to event