Happy New Year from the Theta Executive!

The President, Jeffrey Phelps, reviewed his message to everyone, and Colleen Landers reviewed the Theta membership, which is currently at 112 members. Colleen reminded those on the call that they need to pay their membership in order to get the MDRAO membership benefits. Theta has draws and reduced registration for the Education day in April 2018.

MANAGERS	NEW MANAGER	TECHNICIANS	NEW TECHNICIANS	ASSOCIATES	NEW ASSOCIATE	TOTAL
16	0	79	4	12	1	112

Educational opportunities were reviewed, which included:

• THETA Education day-April 20th in the evening and Saturday, April 21st, 2018, at the Best Western in North Bay. Friday night there is a supper and education session sponsored by Cantel Medical. Topics will include "Water Quality in Reprocessing" and "Endoscopy Best Practices." Saturday beginning at 8:30 am, the following topics will be presented: MIS Instruments KRIS ANELLO AMT Surgical/Vantage Endoscopy; Standardizing Sets/Lean Principles in MDRD; Instrument Management System by Getinge; and CSA Z314 New Medical Device Reprocessing Standard Z314. Cost for Theta Members is $30 for technicians and $40 for managers. If 2017-2018 dues were paid by Sept 27th, 2017, cheques will be returned. If you do not attend, the monies will be used to cover food costs. For non-members and members from other MDRAO Chapters, cost is $70.00 pp, which includes breakfast and lunch and breaks plus education. For anyone who does not attend, their cheque will be cashed as we still have to pay for the food ordered. We have 24 vendors that will exhibit from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm. Space is limited, so register early. The room rate is $114.99 plus tax until March 31st. Let the hotel know you are with THETA when registering.

• Refresher: $355.00-Those attending were reminded to register on-line with a credit card before Feb 1st. You have three months from registration to write the exam, which is done on line with a webcam. If you plan to write the CMDRT, register as required reading and preparation material is offered in the refresher course. No face-to-face writing.

• Classroom 2018-Classroom course dates May 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12th, 2018. Sites: Timmins, Sault, North Bay, Thunder Bay and Orillia. Registration posted on www.mdrao.ca until March 1st, 2018. Spaces at each site are limited, so please register early.

• Education Sessions 2018-Book sessions at your site from 1:15 to 3:00 pm on these dates. Once booked locally, send me your site and system that has been booked with your OTN coordinator and OTN central. E-mail Colleen at clanders@fibreop.ca once booked. Feb 7th Event #67723115 Instrument Flexible Scope Repair/Transportation to Repair service April 11th, 2018 Event # 67723500 Care and Handling of Orthopedic Instruments with Ryan Crozier. In April, after our last meeting, certificates will be emailed to those from Theta Chapter that attended the sessions.
  
  
• MDRAO Website-All members have access to resource videos at www.mdrao.ca, and as a member, you should have received an e-mail giving you a password to log in to the members-only site. Go to Members Centre and then New Resource Library. There are over 20 videos there for you to view free of charge. If you do not have a log-in, then e-mail the office at mdrao@ntl.sympatico.ca with your membership number, and they will forward it to the webmaster, who will contact you directly.

A report from our Provincial Representative, Tammy Bennardo, was given:

As Medical Device Reprocessing Technicians, we are now in our busy season. Constantly surrounded by changes in our industry, we must embrace these changes in order to be successful.

The Executive Team really pulled it all together, bringing forward one of the most successful MDRAO conferences, ‘Measuring success,’ with over 150 delegates and a sold-out room full of vendors. Thank you to our vendor rep Andy Straisfeld. He completed his term with us providing another excellent conference bringing a lot of fun into our Canada 150 theme night awards dinner. At the conference, our vendor meeting was held and nominations were put forward for Vendor Reps, where we had five submissions and an election. The successful nominee was Tammara Champoux from Getinge as voted on by the vendors.

I am so excited about all the hard work the MDRAO Executive team is doing right now. The Fourth Edition of the Medical Device Reprocessing textbook and work book has been printed. We now have our distance and refresher course on-line. This is the last year for the course to be taught in the classroom, and it too will be on-line in the future. Translation of our materials to French is also being done. We are planning for our 2019 Conference, which is our 50th Anniversary of the Association. So much to plan and celebrate!

Sitting on the CSA as the MDRAO representative has given me a new level of learning, and the new document is going to be such a great addition to every MDR across Canada.

This coming year is an election year, and I look forward to working with all of you. I encourage you to get involved in your various chapters across Ontario. There are so many great people you can learn from and who will mentor you. It is not easy to maintain work and commit to volunteering, but the benefits are immense!

Thank you all for the hard work you do each and every day to keep our patients, families, and friends safe.

Tammy Bennardo, CMDRT, Vice President, MDRAO

MDRAO Elections 2018 - Colleen Landers, Past President gave a talk on the upcoming elections. Jeffrey will become Past President, Tammy Bennardo President. These positions are not elected but automatic. Nominations for the Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Education at the Chapter level are required as well as the THETA Provincial representative. The job descriptions were attached to the agenda and were reviewed. Terms are 2 years and start June 1st, 2018, and you can serve a second term in the same position if elected. Please consider putting your name forward for one of these positions as there are many great opportunities. There are only 4 meetings a year and all by OTN for THETA Executive and for provincial, a total of 5 meetings, but two are OTN. Contact me for information at 705-266-3201 orclanders@fibreop.ca. The job descriptions were reviewed and updated. Nomination forms were e-mailed to all members with the job descriptions, and they were notified that all nomination forms had to be sent to the MDRAO office. Dates for the Vice President, MDRAO are Feb 15th and Chapter nominations are March 31st, 2018. All voting is done electronically.

Tammy led a discussion as to whether members thought that Lambda and Theta should be joined as they attend our meetings and our classroom course is held together. Great discussion occurred, and a survey will be sent in January to all members for their input as a change in by-laws will be required.

Tammy Bennardo presented a one-hour education talk on Communication-Internal and External. Evaluations that were returned rated the talk as excellent.

Our next meeting is Feb 7th by OTN, with the talk being Event #67723115 on Instrument Flexible Scope Repair/Transportation to Repair service.