Page 130 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2014

OMA is continuing to expand and was requested by the uniformed SOF med-
S grow. Our relationship with our new ical leadership and one that in the end will
management team at Applied Measure- help us get more enlisted medics to SOMSA.
ment Professionals (AMP) and our new In addition to being a great town to have
Executive Director, Stephanie Newman, is a meeting, Charlotte, NC, is within a day’s
going very well. We continue to add capa- drive of the majority of SOF medics. As
bility and functionality to our website that TDY costs are capped, this will save sub-
allow us to connect with, to serve, and to disseminate stantially on airfare allowing more medics to attend.
information to our members. Be sure to check the web- We’ve also moved the meeting to the spring, a time that
site (www.specialoperationsmedicine.org) regularly be- is more budget friendly to most SOF units. Finally, this
cause new items are being added every week. We recently also means this will be our last meeting in Tampa and
opened the Gear Store on the site, and a new job board that there will not be a SOMSA in December of 2015.
section will be opening in the coming weeks. The site is We think this move will significantly improve our ability
also the best place to look for all of the latest informa- to reach enlisted medics and the SOF medical force in
tion about registering for the 2014 Scientific Assembly. general as it will allow for substantially more uniformed
SOF medical Operators to attend.
We just concluded a board meeting at SOMA’s new
headquarters outside of Kansas City, MO. Much work Growing our membership is key to SOMA’s mission
has been done and continues to be done in preparation of improving SOF medicine. Currently, we have only
for the upcoming Special Operations Medical and Sci- about 150 SOF medics who are members. We need ev-
entific Assembly (SOMSA) in Tampa, FL, this coming eryone’s help in reaching out to the enlisted SOF medics
December. The Constitution and Bylaws Committee, to join SOMA, to participate in SOMA committees, to
headed by COL (Ret) Craig Llewellyn, MD, presented speak and present at SOMSA, and to become more in-
the draft of SOMA’s new Constitution and Bylaws. The volved in the only professional medical association for
committee has done great work taking input from the SOF. My goal is to have at least half the SOF medical
membership as we look to improve our governing docu- force as SOMA members and regular readers of their
ments. As soon as the committee finishes their work, we professional journal, the Journal of Special Operations
will get these documents out to the membership in an- Medicine. MSG (ret) Sammy Rodriguez is the Chair of
ticipation of voting on them at the 2014 SOMSA mem- the Membership Committee. Going forward, we need
bership meeting. ideas and input as to how to reach more medics and
get them involved with SOMA. Please let Sammy know
Other key items we discussed at the board meeting in- your thoughts and consider getting involved and joining
cluded our financials, the 2014 SOMSA in Tampa, mov- his membership committee.
ing the SOMSA to Charlotte, NC, in the spring of 2016,
and expanding our membership. Thanks to everyone who continues to improve the care
of SOF Warriors. I am very excited about where SOMA
As many of you may have heard by now, we are moving is going and what we will accomplish in the future.
the date and location of our annual Special Operations
Medical and Scientific Assembly to the spring of 2016 —LTC Bob Mabry, MD
in Charlotte, NC. This is a big move for us, but one that SOMA President

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