By LtCol John R. Allen, Ph.D.
From a distance, this would appear to have been a quiet year for the MAA. In reality, that is not the case. Issues such as the Audiology Awareness Campaign, the AuD, Audiology Strategic Planning, and elevating the organizations visibility through the establishment of a Website, while not all purely MAA initiatives, have been areas in which the MAA has a keen interest and has been asked to provide input.
This organization continues to be blessed by dedicated and talented individuals who keep the Associations name ever present at a national level.
LTC Vause has remained our champion in the Audiology Awareness Campaign. We are all too aware of the obscurity under which the name audiology has existed. We have also talked endlessly about the need to make this profession a household word. However, for years, efforts never advanced beyond discussion of the need. The Audiology Awareness Campaign has changed all that. Now through their efforts we should expect to see the name audiology appear in many different forums. At the same time, we are seeing the Military Audiology Association appear at national levels, as one of the organizations that is bringing this to reality. We have LTC Vause to thank for this.
Much like the Audiology Awareness Campaign, the establishment of a distance learning program for attaining the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree has been advanced through the Herculean efforts of one of our members, Dr. Brian Walden. What began a few years ago as a gathering of tri-service representatives, interested in the finding ways to facilitate the acquisition of the AuD, has led to formal contract agreements with the Henry Jackson Foundation, financial backing from each Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and monetary support from extra-mural sources. Requests for proposals have gone out to universities and those proposals have been submitted and are now under review. Results of these evaluations should be available by the time the Military Audiology Short Course (MASC) convenes. Dr. Walden will brief us on the status at the MASC. Only through the diligence of Dr. Walden, Col (ret) Hepler, Col Dennis, CDR Hartman, Dr. Lou Beck (DVA) and a host of others, would this have been possible. What is noteworthy here is that the driving forces have been the members of the MAA.
This year has continued to present us with contrasting messages regarding the future of the audiologist in uniform. Once again, members of the Military Audiology Association seized this period of turmoil as one of opportunity. A group of audiologists met at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in May, and spent two days being guided by a professional facilitator, in order to produce a vision of our future. The participants included both Company and Field Grade officers. The result of this meeting was a Strategic Plan which, by now, all of you should have seen. Once again, while not purely a MAA proposal, the success of this effort will be a testimony to the bridges built between the Services over the life of the MAA.
Each of these activities has been disseminated to the membership through their respective Service Consultants. They have also been noted in the MAA Newsletter and will be reviewed at our annual meeting. However, our accomplishments are often little known outside this very narrow community. All that should soon change as MAA comes on-line through the implementation of an MAA Website. We will owe a great debt of gratitude to Capt Rob Pluta for his work on our behalf. He has done a marvelous job building an Air Force Audiology Association Website and now brings those talents to the MAA. However, the level of sophistication of this site will depend on the membership, as some financial commitment may be involved. We will be discussing this at the coming MASC. However, I envision that future newsletters will be web-based and the need for hard-copy publications will drop dramatically or disappear altogether. Our hope is to be able to link this to our respective Surgeons General Web pages, thus making it possible for those interested in our activities to be able to check-in on us at their leisure, and for those who do not know about us, to have an opportunity to do so.
All in all, it has been a pretty busy year! Before I close, however, I would like to thank the wonderful support I have had from the Executive Council, LTC Jim Beauchamp, Dr. Paul Lacroix, and all those mentioned above. As I have been distracted by other duties, each has helped keep me on track. The successes that the Military Audiology Association has had over the past year are then, once again, the result of the membership, not the leadership. I have been honored to be the President. I know that the up-coming officers will take us to new heights over the next few years. God bless you all at this holiday season. I look forward to seeing you all in February.