Board of Directors Meeting, Feb. 19, 2016, Tampa Bay Marriott, Tampa, Florida

Roll Call

President Cynthia J. Boyle welcomed the Board and staff members present at the Tampa Bay Marriott at 9 a.m. on February 19, 2016. The following Board members participated in the discussion: J. Chris Bradberry by phone (Treasurer), Patricia A. Chase (Immediate Past President), Craig D. Cox (Council of Sections), Edward M. DeSimone (Council of Sections), Joseph T. DiPiro (President-elect), Natalie D. Eddington (Council of Deans), Schwanda K. Flowers (Council of Sections), Anandi V. Law (Council of Faculties), Lucinda L. Maine (Executive Vice President), Evan T. Robinson (Speaker of the House), Steven A. Scott (Council of Faculties), and Todd D. Sorensen (Council of Faculties).

AACP staff included: Jennifer L. Adams, Lynette R. Bradley-Baker, Melinda D. Colón, Stephanie Saunders Fouch, Barbra A. Gustis, William G. Lang, Joan M. Lakoski, Colleen M. Miglio, Janet A. Mudd, Ruth E. Nemire, Cecilia M. Plaza, and Sibu Ramamurthy. AJPE Editor Gayle Brazeau attended as a guest.

Conflict of Interest

President Boyle read the Conflict of Interest statement and Immediate Past President Chase noted a conflict on the selection of the Chalmers Award. Schwanda Flowers noted a conflict with the selection of the Student Community Engaged Service Awards. EVP Maine noted a conflict with the Paul R. Dawson Award. All recused themselves from voting on these selections. Speaker Robinson and Craig Cox, Immediate Past Chair of the Council of Sections, reminded the Board members of their associate editor roles for another education journal and noted that they would recuse themselves from any matters related to the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

Approval of the November 2015 Minutes

On MOTION (Chase/Allen) the Board approved the minutes of the November 11-12, 2015 Board of Directors meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Report of the 2015-16 AACP Strategic Planning Committee

President-elect Joseph T. DiPiro, chair of the 2015-16 AACP Strategic Planning Committee, provided an overview of the initial work of the committee. This included the release of a request for proposals to a group of consultants, proposal review and selection of Denise McNerney, Principal of iBosswell, as the lead consultant for development of a new strategic plan. The Committee held a meeting at AACP headquarters on January 5-6, 2016 where results from surveys of members of the current Board of Directors, AACP staff, and delegates to the 2016 House of Delegates were reviewed and the highest priorities from these results were affirmed as topline priorities for the plan. A dyad consisting of a member of the committee and a senior AACP staff member have accepted responsibility for assimilating input on goals, objectives and key performance metrics (KPM) for each priority. The Board emphasized the importance of writing a concise preamble to provide context for the plan and priorities and for using this as an opportunity to engage members, preceptors, students and other stakeholders.

President-elect DiPiro will present an update on the strategic planning process, including a discussion of the topline priorities, at the Interim Meeting townhall session on February 21^st. The expanded plan, including draft goals, additional tactics/objectives, and some proposed KPMs, will be prepared for the March AACP Leadership Forum where Joe and Denise McNerney will lead participants in activities to elaborate further on plans for the next 3 to 5 years. The draft plan will be released to delegates and opened for general comment in early May. A dedicated email box will be established to provide a central location for anyone wishing to provide input on the plan and priorities for action (2016plan{at}aacp.org).

Strategic Issues from the Councils

Todd Sorenson, Chair of the Council of Faculties, presented a report to the Board from the task force on Accelerating Change in Pharmacy Education and Practice on behalf of the COF and Council of Deans. Co-chairs Patricia Kroboth and Marie Smith had guided their task group over the previous seven months to generate the recommendations for a new model that aims to result in rapid cycle engagement projects involving AACP members willing to collaborate on activities that will create meaningful change in practice and/or education. Todd described a program that he and task force leaders were presenting as part of the Interim Meeting agenda. The Board will engage and observe the response from members during that session and subsequently guide decision-making on implementation of the recommendations and initial targets for implementation of the proposed approach.

Preliminary Report of the 2015-16 Argus Commission

EVP Maine, staff liaison to the Argus Commission, provided an overview of the discussions of the Commission related to AACP structure and governance models. She related that AACP operates with a dual form of governance which is shared by the Board of Directors and House of Delegates. The Argus Commission feels that there is a reasonable degree of clarity related to the roles of each governance body. The Commission has studied the organization and staffing of several other education associations to identify potential ways AACP might modify its member affinity groups. She described a pilot of an interprofessional education (IPE) community of practice that has been embraced by the group proposing to establish a new IPE Special Interest Group (SIG). This is seen as a possible alternative to continuing to establish many new SIGs and possibly even an avenue for transformation for several current SIGs.

The Argus Commission has reviewed recommendations from the past and current AACP Program Committee regarding changes in the allocation of program slots to sections and SIGs and will endorse these changes in their report. They also have reviewed a recommendation from the SIG Cabinet to introduce a modification in SIG affinity by members. The proposal suggests that a member might select 2 or 3 primary SIGs and as many secondary SIGs as they wish. A primary SIG would be one where the interest is sufficient for the member to hold office, work on committees, and take on other leadership roles. The secondary status would reflect that the information on the topic is of interest to the member and could be monitored by being on the SIG list or other community information systems.

Finance Review

Treasurer J. Chris Bradberry joined the meeting by phone and provided an overview of key financial issues, including the volatility of the US and global stock markets, revenue trends important to the AACP operating budget, and Professions Quest, AACP’s wholly owned subsidiary company. Sibu Ramamurthy, Senior Director for Finance, reviewed the meetings and recommendations from three meetings held in late January (Professions Quest Board of Managers, the AACP Investment Committee and the AACP Finance Committee).

On MOTION (Sorenson, DeSimone) proposed investing up to $250,000 in additional support for the activities of Professions Quest through June 2016. On MOTION (Flowers, Law) the Board tabled the motion until additional information could be circulated on the use of the funds and expected outcomes. Additional information was sent to the Board of Directors via email with an opportunity to vote on the original motion. The motion passed by a vote of 9 affirmative votes, 1 negative and 4 abstentions on February 25^th.

The Board also discussed fiscal considerations related to implementation of the emerging strategic plan priorities. A resolution for a dues increase was circulated and discussed briefly with a decision to defer additional discussion on the matter until the March AACP Leadership Forum.

Selection of 2016 AACP Award Recipients

On MOTION (Scott, Allen) the Board affirmed the selection of Terrance Schwinghammer (West Virginia University) as the 2016 recipient of the Robert C. Chalmers Award (DiPiro, Chase abstained). Board member Steve Scott noted that this is the first of Dr. Chalmers former students to receive the award named in his honor. Melinda Colón brought the Board members’ attention to recommendations for modification to the award criteria for future discussion and action.

On MOTION (Scott, Flowers) the Board affirmed the selection of Albert Wertheimer (Temple University) as the 2016 recipient of the Paul R. Dawson Award.

On MOTION (Chase, Eddington) the Board affirmed the selection of the University of Arizona as the 2016 recipient of the Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Engagement Award.

On MOTION (Eddington, Chase) the Board affirmed the selection four student teams as recipients of the 2016 Student Community Engaged Service Awards: University of Medical Sciences of Arkansas, University of Colorado, University of Florida, and the Ohio State University. (Flowers abstained).

On MOTION (Scott, Flowers) the Board affirmed the selection of “Towards an Operational Definition of Clinical Competency in Pharmacy”, AJPE Article 54, Volume 79, Issue 4 co-authored by R. Douglas Ried and Charles A. Douglas as the 2016 Lyman Award paper.

2016 Distinguished Service Award Selection

On MOTION (DeSimone, Allen) the Board selected the Institute for Safe Medication Practices founded by Michael Cohen as the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Service Award.

Establishment of a Lifetime Achievement Award

On MOTION (Cox, Chase) the Board approved the establishment of the AACP Lifetime Achievement Award honoring an individual whose dedicated service to pharmacy education and AACP warrants such a recognition.

AAMS Update

Cecilia M. Plaza, Senior Director for Academic Affairs, provided an update on the release of the new Accreditation and Assessment Management System in December 2015. She reviewed the new and improved features of AAMS 2.0, which is mapped to the 2016 ACPE accreditation standards, and described video tutorials that are available to guide users through various components of the system.

Update on the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

AJPE Editor Gayle Brazeau provided an update on the status of the Journal, including the number of manuscripts received and published, personnel, and other relevant matters. Key issues regarding the quality of many manuscripts and the need for responsive reviewers were discussed. Associate editors have prepared a revised set of instructions for authors that will hopefully address the quality issues and decrease the time needed for editing manuscripts for publication.

PharmCAS Participation by Emerging Schools

President-elect DiPiro and Jennifer Adams, Senior Advisor for Student Affairs, presented information related to the timing of when schools become eligible to participate in PharmCAS, which currently is prior to receipt of Pre-candidate status from ACPE. The Board requested staff to prepare a fiscal analysis related to fees/dues charged and the relevant workload associated with on boarding a new school into PharmCAS and other AACP services. This will be reviewed at the July 2016 Board of Directors meeting.

Information Items

Several information items were included in the agenda. This included mention of the passage by the Board of Directors of a policy statement related to the commitment of academic pharmacy to work on the opioid drug epidemic and the information that AACP policy staff have met with Vice President Biden’s staff to discuss the cancer “moonshot”. Brief updates on the Council of Sections January business call and recent meetings attended by members of the Board were reviewed.

After a period of roundtable sharing of other updates the meeting was adjourned at 5 pm.