From the desk of the President Sara Sundeen

Happy Spring Everyone!  The weather is finally warming up and the grass is green! 

In March, Sara Sundeen, Pat Beinfang, Doris Illies, Shawn Zimmerman, Amy Veches, Susanne Strack-Smith and Christine Paul went to the Governmental Affairs Conference in Alexandria, V.A. In addition to the conference, we had a successful trip to Washington D.C. this year to meet with legislators.  Thanks to the hard work by Nick and Ross, we met with nine of our ten Minnesota legislators.  I strongly encourage all of you to consider attending the NRA Governmental Affairs Summit!

Despite the snow on the ground, the Spring Conference in Grand Rapids was a huge success!  We had over 150 attendees and many exceptional presentations.  Thank you to Doris, Judy and Sue for the leadership and hard work.  It was fun to mix things up with a competitive team building scavenger hunt!

Most of you have heard, but NRA is undergoing some changes, Linda Winslow is no longer the Executive Director of NRA.  The association would like to thank her for her hard work and dedication to the field and our association.  NRA is actively recruiting a new Executive Director.  In the meantime, we are so pleased Patricia Leahy has agreed to work as our interim Executive Director.

Membership is going well – Thanks to Jody and Shawn’s efforts we have updated a lot of information on our membership database.  With our new database, we are now able to send off monthly membership reports to district representatives.  We hope this will help us stay connected with members. 

Summer is just around the corner, which means it’s time to think about our Third Annual Presidential Fundraiser.  The money from this fundraiser goes to an MRA scholarship fund that MRA members can apply for support in NRA, MRA or division trainings.  Our 2008 Presidential Fundraiser will be on Thursday August 7^th in the afternoon.  Get ready for fun and “games” followed up with an optional Saints Game.  We are hoping to have many past Presidents attend as well, so start spreading the word…

Our Fall MRA conference will be in Mankato, October 9-10 with a pre-conference on the 8^th.  We are welcoming all Rehabilitation Professionals!  Any rehabilitation professional who pays dues to their own associations will be able to attend our fall conference at the MRA member rate.  We will have our annual awards and recognition.  It’s not too early to submit nominations…  We are also seeking speaker proposals.

The NRA Annual Conference will be in St. Louis, MO October 24-26.  It’s only nine hours by car.  It’s sure to be a fabulous conference in a fun city to visit. 

I wish you a warm and sunny spring and look forward to seeing many of you at the MRA Fundraiser in August.

Sara Sundeen, MS, CRC

2008 MRA President