THE COMMUNIQUÉ
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
I have been reflecting on the accomplish-
ments of 2019 and busy with planning for ILOTA
events of 2020. We hosted another successful con-
ference at Tinley Park and our second annual Stu-
dent Conclave at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. We raised
money for the ILOTA Student Scholarship and pro-
vided another scholarship to student member Megan
Hunzeker. ILOTA provided continuing education for
ethics on-line to help everyone meet requirements
for license renewal, and introduced an Early Inter-
vention education series rated as 4.73/5 by those
who attended. We rebranded the organization, cre-
ating an updated look for the ILOTA logo. We have
welcomed new members to the ILOTA board, Anne
Kiraly-Alvarez (President-Elect), Carol Michels
(Director of Advocacy), and Molly Bathje (Director of
Communications) and they have introduced exciting
new ideas for the future of our organization.
The board has worked to clarify and stream-
line our strategic plan which can be viewed in the
governance section in the ‘About ILOTA’ tab on our
website. We are exploring and adopting new tech-
nology to increase access and participation in our
meetings, organize our documents, offer more web-
based learning options, and update our communica-
tion with ILOTA members. One example of this is
our new ILOTA blog, In the Now, which you can find
in the quick link section on the right side of our web-
site homepage.
We hope the blog will be a place for sharing
the kind of things that excite us about being Occupa-
tional Therapy Practitioners. A blog offers a less for-
mal format to interact with your peers. As you run
across stories in the media that warm your heart or
ideas that open your mind, we hope you consider
writing a short reaction to post to the blog with a link
so others in our community can share your inspira-
tion. Please take a moment to go to the website, ex-
plore the blog, and consider submitting your idea to
Stephanie McCammon at [email protected].
ILOTA has remained steady at about 1000
members since conference last year. This year we
hosted Glen Gillen as the keynote speaker for our
third annual student conclave. We had a great re-
sponse with 146 students participating, making it the
largest conclave to date. We have started to plan the
2020 ILOTA Conference, which will be held at the
Hilton Double Tree in Lisle-Naperville on October 15-
17.
There is so much that is happening at ILOTA
and so much more that could be done. I want to ap-
peal to anyone who might be curious about getting
more involved with making Illinois an excellent place
to be an Occupational Therapy practitioner. ILOTA is
a great platform to develop resources and communi-
cate ideas. Our ability to advance best practice for
Occupational Therapy in Illinois is directly related to
our resources. The most important resource we have
is the involvement of our members. Without this we
cannot respond to legislative threats or opportunities
that arise, we cannot provide high quality educational
events, or help practitioners collaborate. Perhaps
you have an idea or an interest in knowing more
about the projects we are working on. Maybe you
have been active in the organization in the past and
have an interest in getting reinvolved. It’s as easy as
sending an email to [email protected] to start adding
your voice to the future of Occupational Therapy in
Illinois.
I am very excited to see the amazing accom-
plishments we make together in 2020. Thank you for
your membership!
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~ James Hill