Presidents

Adriane Gaffuri - Past President

Welcome to the Spring OARP newsletter. It was so good to see so many of you at the recent Spring Conference in Wilsonville. The conference was a good one. The speakers were interesting and informative. Special thanks are due to the members of the Program Committee (Margaret Moore, Sandy Johnson, Clayton Rees and Cheri Ballantine) who were so instrumental in making speaker and facility arrangements and in making sure things ran smoothly during the conference. Thanks also to the several vendors who have always been so supportive of OARP functions.

I was proud to have been able to nominate and to present the Employer of the Year Award to Russ Farmer of Bio-Oregon, Inc. This is a medium-sized company in Warrenton that I have worked with that has a very pro-active and enlightened return to work policy. In my experience, a lot of employers are willing to provide temporary, modified work to injured workers. What sets this employer apart is their willingness to go that extra mile to research worksite modifications as well as to provide permanent modifications in job duties and extra assistance in order to keep their injured employees working with them. This company understands and appreciates the importance of loyalty to employees and keeping trained individuals working with them.

As I end my year as OARP President, I see that the rehabilitation community has continued to flow with changes both in Oregon and nationally. More and more of us are working with clients in a wider variety of settings, including career counseling, expert witness testimony, medical case management, social security assessments, federal, Oregon and other state workers’ compensation, long term disability, in the Ticket to Work arena, ergonomic consulting, with both private and public sector clients. OARP has and will continue to support those of you working in the many diverse areas of vocational rehabilitation, mainly by supporting continuing education in these various areas. OARP Board members worked hard to bring you two successful conferences this past year.

As past President, I will continue to be involved on the OARP Board. Please continue to contact me personally, or any board member, to give feedback on what we’ve done, to give suggestions, or to volunteer some of your time. We welcome your input and help.

Scott Stipe - President

Thank you for electing me to be your OARP president . Hopefully you were able to attend our successful Spring conference in Wilsonville. The comments I received and overheard were very positive. This leads me to an issue that I would like to emphasize during the next year. I am very proud of this organization. I believe that if this organization and it's committed members were not involved, that rehabilitation services in the workers' comp area would probably not be around. I believe that there would also be far fewer of us involved in alternative service areas. I tend to be pretty direct in asking other rehabilitation professionals if they plan to attend our conferences, or if they are members. Too often I hear that they are not, that OARP hasn't done anything for them. It always fascinates me, thinking about the nonsense of how in the world an organization could do anything for someone who has chosen not to be a member or chosen not to attend our conferences.

The next time you are interacting with another rehab professional I urge you to ask them these questions. Tell them about the excellent quality of our conferences and educational seminars. If they complain about conferences in the past that they did not find to meet their needs ask them to assist us by suggesting a few names of speakers or topics that they would find interesting. Discuss with them the reasons why you belong. Is it more than just Liability insurance? Isn't it really a sense of professional committment. Perhaps it is more practical for you, a part of your network, a way of remaining connected to the profession as a whole, or a chance to find out about new issues and new opportunities.

Tell them that for the price of less than a half an hour of travel/wait-time per month they can do something that not only provides them with numerous direct benefits, but also indirectly benefits the clients we serve as well as our profession as a whole. Combat the pessimism that seems so pervasive in our field with practical examples of how this organization helps you. Can you really imagine being a professional without belonging to a professional organization specifically charged with the mission to promote the services you perform?

As I said at the conference, I am confident that if each of us convinced just one colleague to join, we would have a much more vibrant organization, far better equipped to meet the needs of our membership . Our field is diverse. Please don't limit your approach to people who practice only workers' comp. Talk with students, VRD counselors, VA counselors, Community college counselors, school representatives, vendors, insurance professionals and anyone else you can think of with an interest in our field. We very much welcome the new interest areas and insights that our new public sector and other members have brought to our organization. Our new president-elect, Dan Irwin, a public sector professional, said it best the other day when he provided his opinion that at this point with the organization's move away from only private sector that it truly is THE organization which best meets the needs of rehabilitation professionals as a whole.

I look forward, along with our committed new board, to making this organization work for you. Please give me a call at (503) 234-4484 or send me an email at: sstipe@careerdirections.com with any question,idea or offer to assist.