ATAF is now taking nominations for the 2007 fall elections for the positions of Northeast Representative, Panhandle Representative, and South 2 Representative.  All candidates must be BOC certified Athletic Trainers, licensed through the Florida state Department of Health as athletic trainers, members of ATAF and must reside and/or work in the region for which they are running.  Nominees should be contacted before submitting their names to gauge their interest in running for office.  Nominations should be sent to Craig Portwood, MS, ATC, LAT, Nominations Committee Chair at acportwood@tomokachristian.com.  Please include the name of the nominee, the position for which they are being nominated and their contact information including e-mail and phone number.  The deadline for nominations is Friday, September 14^th.

It is that time of year again!  It is time to nominate deserving professionals for awards at the NATA and SEATA levels.  Since I am the WATC person for Florida, I am concentrating on nominating deserving women.  Since I don’t know all of the ATs in Florida, I am asking for some help from ATAF members.  Below, I have listed the awards and criteria.  I am asking the membership to look at the list and let me know which women deserve recognition.  If you know of a deserving person, just let me know the name of the person, and I will do all the work it takes to get them nominated.

Thanks!

Kristen Schellhase
kschellh@mail.ucf.edu

NATA Hall of Fame (25 years, leadership on all levels, scholarly activities, honors and awards, volunteerism, promotion of the profession) Most Distinguished AT (20 years, leadership on all levels, honors and awards, volunteerism, promotion of the profession) Athletic Trainer Service Award (15 years, state and district participation and leadership, service to the profession, volunteerism, PR) We have many names of women with 15 years.....please just let me know who you are thinking of and I will verify that they meet the criteria.

SEATA Awards information can be found at http://seata.org/Awards.htm.  This site gives a complete description of the award criteria.  Please consider nominating someone, or telling me the name of someone that I can nominate.  There are awards for ATs as well as other "Sportsmedicine people".

Thank you so much for your help.  I cannot hope to know every woman in Florida, so I really rely on the ATAF membership to help me nominate deserving people.

Also, the awards are for everyone, not just women (that just happens to be my focus), so if you know of someone who is deserving, please nominate them!  You can do that at www.nata.org/honors/08nominations.htm by November 15, 2007.