Greetings Members,

Now that the time has changed, I hope that spring shall spring forward as this winter certainly has been a snowy one. I am looking forward to seeing green grass soon. I would also like to let you know of some change that has occurred with our office.

Managing Matters is the new management team that is replacing the MDRAO office executive assistant. As the MDRAO grows and moves forward, the board has decided to have a Toronto-based management company manage the administration for the organization. You may have received an email from Managing Matters; we are currently transferring all of the administrative duties to them.

The THETA chapter has held its third meeting on February 20th, via OTN with an education session from Nanosonics. To date, THETA has 98 members.

THETA will be sending 10 members to the 50th MDRAO conference in Toronto. The drawing is complete, and those eligible have been confirmed.

We held several executive meetings to organize the Education Day. It was a highly successful event with many guest speakers. The participants found the day to be interesting and educational. The dialogue during the question and answer period with the presenters was engaging and informative. One highlight was learning about new future standards for CSA and how it will impact our membership. Another interesting issue that was discussed and is probably an issue for other chapters as well is wet packs. The discussion centred on the plastic lids vs. the aluminium lids. It was felt by the speaker that, due to the plastic not cooling down as fast as the aluminium case, this could be one of the contributing factors for wet packs. Discussion also included the regular maintenance of MDRD washers and sterilizing machines. The speaker and audience agreed that maintenance of these should be done on a regular basis, not only when the machines are experiencing issues. In all, the executive committee felt that the education day was a successful day.