President-elect message.

Redican, Kerry J.

Advocacy is a priority for AAHPERD. In order to increase organizational capacity for advocacy, AAHPERD hosts an annual Leadership Development Conference for State President-Elects and Executive Directors. I attended (along with Henry Castelvecchi) the AAHPERD Leadership Development Conference, June 21-24, 2006 in Washington, DC. During the conference we heard many different presentations regarding on the importance of advocacy, protocols to follow in contacting legislators and strategies to influence legislators. This was followed by an opportunity to go "on the hill" and visit our elected officials (Senators and local Congressman)

The purpose of our visits was to discuss (lobby) for both incorporating Health and Physical Education in No Child Left Behind and continued support for the PEP grants. While we were not able to personally talk with Senator John Warner or Senator George Allen we did spend approximately 30 minutes each with one of their staff members (education staff). Also, we visited Congressman Rick Boucher (9th District, Southwest Virginia) and we were scheduled to see him personally, he was tied up on the "floor" so we discussed No Child Left Behind and PEP with one of his staff. All conversations went well and the "staffers" we talked with seemed interested and concerned.

Since our LDC-related meetings, Michael Ochs, Director of Government Relations National Association for Sport and Physical Education reported the following:

"The Senate Appropriations Committee this week approved their version of a fiscal year 2007 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. As a result of the intensive lobbying efforts by NASPE/AAH-PERD members and staff and our PEP coalition partners, they included a funding level of $73 million for PEP. This level is equal to current year funding and should be sufficient to allow the Department of Education to award new grants in the upcoming fiscal year. Particularly strong in their support for PEP were Senators Stevens (R-AK), Cochran (R-MS), Harkin (D-M) and Reid (D-NV).

At this time, the Senate has not scheduled any floor action for their Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. Meanwhile, the House leadership has continued to delay any floor action on its version of the bill (which includes only $26.4 million for PEP) while they try to find ways to avoid inclusion of the minimum wage increase provision that was added to the bill by the Appropriations Committee.

The next challenge will be to ensure that the PEP number in the Senate bill survives a vote by the full chamber, followed by efforts to make sure the Senate prevails in conference as it relates to PEP. It now appears that the most likely scenario is a House-Senate conference sometime after the November elections. The battle is not over, but it is looking better for supporters and friends of the PEP grant program"

His update sounds encouraging.

It was clear from both the conference and meetings, that if anything positive was going to happen with respect to Health and Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance that the emphasis will be on "us professionals" to make it happen--so the theme to my Presidency which officially begins in November, 2006 will be "MAKE IT HAPPEN!!"

Finally, one of the key responsibilities as President-Elect is to make recommendations to the Board for appointments to VAH-PERD Standing Committees. All Standing Committees have specific membership requirements. Standing Committees where there is some flexibility in appointments include the Legislative Affairs Committee, Membership Committee, Necrology Committee, Nominating Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, and the Structure and Function Committee. I believe that the appointment process should be transparent and so with that in mind if you are interested in serving on a Standing Committee please let me know kredican@vt.edu Even if appointment to a Standing Committee is not possible because of specific requirements there are still many opportunities to become involved in VAHPERD. If I know of your interest, I will make every effort to get you involved. I am looking forward to seeing all of you in November in Virginia Beach.