AAFP Congress of Delegates – Day 2

Day Two of COD: Fire up the Sausage Maker, and Watch the Snake Eat It’s Own Tail!

Greetings from Day Two of the AAFP Congress of Delegates! Today marked the start of organizational policymaking, with remarks from president Tochi Iroku-Malize, president-elect Steven Furr, and speaker Russel Kohl, who demonstrated his evergreen talent for filling technical delays with dad jokes. The opening call for new business brought forth three late resolutions from New England states. While resolutions typically undergo a submission and review process well before the convening of the Congress of Delegates, late resolutions may be proposed from the floor on the first day of business if the submitting delegates feel that an issue cannot wait until the following year. These late-breaking resolutions must have a 2/3 supermajority to even be considered for debate; and this year, one resolution from Connecticut made the cut: a resolution to include an estimate of reputational impact on the AAFP for future proposed organizational policy. Clearing this supermajority hurdle did not mean that the resolution passed; it will be debated on the floor tomorrow.

The day also brought forth the report of the Elected Leadership Nominations Process Committee. Under current procedures, the AAFP found itself in a place where leadership positions (AAFP Board, president-elect, speaker and vice-speaker positions) were only being selected from a minimal number of candidates, several of whom faced no opposition and repeatedly came from a small selection of states. As a medium chapter, we Utahns understood one of the major barriers well: scraping together the resources to launch a national campaign was much harder for us than for a larger chapters with deeper pockets and greater manpower. The Process Committee was formed to help understand this as well as other issues that might be creating an uneven playing field.

At the Process Committee’s recommendation, the Congress of Delegates voted for a new bylaw that created a Nominations Committee that could seek out viable candidates. The details of how this Nominations Committee would be formed were left to be discussed as standing rules in the afternoon session, where delegates debated amendments within amendments, amendments contingent upon other later amendments, and tendrils of confusing language until the speaker called for recess. With a mix of cautious optimism and dread, we look forward to continuing debate and voting tomorrow.

~ By Thea Sakata, MD
Delegate