Rose Schafhauser

It is easy to wake up and feel down about everything that is going on in this industry. It seems that every time we open up an e-mail or pick up the phone, the news is usually not good.

I choose to see the positive side of things, and I wake up excited to face a new challenge. Lately, there are so many challenges that there seems to not be enough hours in the day to meet them.

Part of my responsibility as the executive director for the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services (MAMES) is to write its weekly association newsletter. When I first took over MAMES in 2000, this newsletter was one page. I used to have a difficult time filling up that one page. Boy, have things changed.

Now I have to scale back my weekly newsletters so they do not turn into short novels. Typical stories these days are inevitably related to legislative happenings.

In just about every newsletter, we ask members to contact their Representatives and Senators in Congress. Does it work? Not always, but we have to be hopeful that the few who act are going to make a difference. We have to start somewhere.

Over this past year, I have heard from several members in both MAMES and AZMESA (Arizona Medical Equipment Suppliers Association) who have never contacted their members of Congress—not by phone or e-mail. However, these folks were eventually pushed too far, and could not stand back any longer. Now, these same members are the ones getting on the phone whenever we have asked. They join those folks who have always done what we have asked, and now we have even more people reaching out!

This year, MAMES sent 10 people to the 2007 AAHomecare Legislative Conference—most of them had never been to Washington before. After the conference, all of them were fired up to come back in 2008. In 2008, we are trying to get all of our 21 board members to attend in conjunction with our board meeting.

At the legislative update during our MAMES Fall Conference, John Gallagher (vice president of government relations for the VGM Group) asked everyone with a cell phone to call into the Capitol switchboard. I walked around the room and was amazed to see 90% of the attendees on their phone! It was impressive. The next time we ask those same people to reach out, I bet they will!

We must keep plugging away. While there are still folks who do not do their part in fighting for this industry, we can take heart that more and more people out there are making a difference.

Rose Schafhauser is executive director of the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services (MAMES). She can be reached via e-mail: .