FASN Conference








		Conference News 2012 State Conference FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL NURSES PRESENTS Their Seventeenth Annual Conference February 3-4, 2012 Rosen Plaza, Orlando, FL A Conference Not to Miss! We listened and read your evaluations! Our next FASN State Conference will be held at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando. Even though the conference is months away, the committee is already working to develop a conference worth coming to. We’ll have excellent speakers, vendors, marketplace, poster presentations, and of course, our baskets and 50/50 split! As the conference gets closer, you’ll see the Save the Date form, the Conference Brochure, the Registration Form and the Scholarship application taking up this space. We’re also working on a direct link to the hotel to get the FASN hotel discount for our attendees. For a sneak preview of what to expect, see the photos from our 2011 State Conference. FASN believes very strongly in increasing the professionalism of school nurses. Your input is very valuable and taken into consideration when educational offerings are planned. These educational offerings increase our knowledge and make us better school nurses, but they also offer opportunities for us to network with other nurses and learn from each other, too. A state conference is held yearly, in February, usually on a Friday and Saturday. There are nurses in our state who are not given time off during the week to attend conferences. This is why FASN made the decision to have a Saturday session. In addition, each of the Regional Representatives is given a small stipend to help provide an educational offering in your region. This may be an evening offering or one on an inservice or preschool day. She may decide to work with a County Liaison to help provide an inservice to the nurses within a county. FASN members receive information about the yearly NASN national conference. It is an incredible experience to go to a national conference and network with school nurses from all across the country and world. FASN is so committed to our educational goals that we try to provide scholarships to the state and national conferences every year. While the conferences, regional and county offerings are open to all, only members of FASN can apply for scholarships. It is a benefit of your membership that you should take every opportunity to apply for! Why Attend Our FASN State Conference? Let’s “face it”… in person meetings offer HUGE value! While on-line learning opportunities and the explosion of “social media” opportunity resources certainly hold value, I would suggest that nothing can replace the benefits of a “human” resource interaction. While personally attending the NASN Annual Meeting in Boston, I quickly observed a refreshing and admirable behavior amongst attendees: A sincere and genuine outreach to one another. Whether to uncover business or personal commonalities, share inspirations, or exchange best practices, nothing substitutes the tremendous value of personal interaction stemming from a face-to-face experience. “LOL” can hardly convey all the emotions that may come from a light hearted personal exchange, nor can one be certain in the interpretation of a faceless email. Now, perhaps more than every before, amidst very challenging economic restraints, I would urge you to take full advantage of the strengths that lie within the “community” of your peers…in person! Peter O’Brien, CMP, CASE Association Account Executive Marriott International 2011 State Conference: Expanded My Expertise by Billie Alvarez, R.N., B.S.N. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in this year’s FASN conference. The conference was a great success and brought together many nurses from all over the state. The conference had a great a variety of speakers, open discussions, vendors and breakout sessions. The information in each of the sessions presented helped to better inform me of the current issues that nurses face today in school nursing. The breakout sessions enabled me to network with many other nurses from all over the state. It was great to collaborate with other nurses and gather new ideas and techniques to bring back and utilize in my schools. There were many vendors with new equipment/health supplies, revised equipment and updated information to share and sell. This was great! I was able to ask questions about products, as well as, seek out different organizations and resources to take advantage of for future use. Not only were there educational sessions but there were times to kick back, chat, and win big! There were many chances to win prizes and raffles to participate in. I won a beautiful basket in the raffle to bring home this year. I even had the opportunity to apply for a Registration Fee Scholarship to attend the conference. I won one of those too! There were many chances to win something. So, if you’re looking great educational information, friendly people, prizes, and a lot of fun. You should come to the next FASN conference and add to the experience. Thanks again for all of those who made the conference possible.