Membership and Credentialing Committee

Gerry Celia, Ph.D., HCLD/TS(ABB)

It’s hard to believe we are a month into the New Year already! It seems that ASRM and the Holidays just zip by, and suddenly it’s time to start thinking about what 2014 has in store for us. 

For the Membership and Credentialing Committee, this means a brief look back at what happened in 2013 and a long hard look at what we can do to make 2014 even better. 

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, our industry is growing and membership is growing along with it. Never has there been a greater demand for reproductive Lab Directors, Technical Supervisors, and trained laboratorians. I think it is reasonable to surmise that this need will continue well into the future, and I believe it is the responsibility of the CRB to ensure that it’s membership is up to the task. 

For our part, the MCC (I just made that up) has been focused on two major undertakings. First, we have been busily attempting to submit current and relevant questions for the board exams. This can be a time consuming process, but it is also quite educational. Each question must be referenced with respect to source material, as well as the defined framework of the board exam. I am continually amazed at the number of times I have looked up what I thought was dogma in our industry and discovered the number and variety of ways in which I was wrong – or even more interestingly, set out to write an incorrect answer and found there were an awful lot of ways to be right. So this is a bit of a win-win for me, as I am a much better lab director for the effort, and those sitting for future exams will have some interesting and appropriate questions to think about. There are currently 6 of us working on this task, and we could really use some help. If anyone is interested, please contact Marina, the AAB, or me, and we can get you the information you need. Best of all, you can earn up to 4 hours worth of CEUs in a 24 month period for submitting properly formatted questions. 

This brings me to our next point of focus – CEUs. One of the issues that has come up repeatedly regarding CEUs is that it always seems we are limited to specific symposia at specific meetings to fulfill our requirements. This is not actually the case, as there is a process by which we may submit hours from any educational event for consideration, but the illusion lingers for many of us. Another problem is that a lot of the criteria that exist for evaluating the relevance of an event is based on traditional laboratory responsibilities, and I think we all know that working in a reproductive lab is far from traditional. To this end, several of us have been working to redefine the scope of our educational needs, and hopefully to broaden the opportunities we have to earn CEUs. This is only in its infancy, but I am hoping this project will grow in a way that encourages us to explore all aspects of our field.  

So, that is what we have been working on behind the scenes. Now, for the details on the exams…

The Embryology, Andrology, HCLD, and ELD examinations were given prior to the ASRM meeting held in Boston last fall. There were 30 individuals who sat for the Andrology examination, 37 for the Embryology examination, 11 for the HCLD examination and 4 for the ELA examination. 

The next ABB examinations will be held on May 14, at the Red Rock Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, prior to the AAB annual meeting, or on October 17, 2014, in Honolulu, Hawaii, prior to ASRM, with an additional sitting on the same date in St. Louis, Missouri, (for those of you who don’t wish to recover from the exam by sipping a Mai Tai on Waikiki Beach). A pretty exceptional choice of settings, all in all!

Before sitting for the exams, however, you may want to consider the review course. The Andrology & Embryology Review Course is now back in a live format and includes a new third full day of content. The course will be held March 21-23, 2014, at the Embassy Suites-Outdoor World in Grapevine, Texas.

The Review Course is designed to help you:

• Study and prepare for ABB and ABOR certification examinations
• Earn continuing education credit -- up to 2.25 PEER-approved CEUs
• Update and add to your knowledge of the field 

The new three-day format includes extended question and answer periods, which will give you an opportunity to see and discuss questions from past ABB and AAB Board of Registry examinations. If you are attending the review with plans to sit for an ABB or AAB Board of Registry examination, these Q & A sessions will better prepare you for your examination.

In addition to preparing you for your exams, if you register for and attend the 2014 A&E Review Course and you sit for an ABB examination on May 14, 2014, in Las Vegas, Nevada, or on October 17, 2014, in Honolulu, Hawaii, or St. Louis, Missouri, you are eligible for a one-time 15% DISCOUNT on your 2014 ABB examination fees. The discount applies for one ABB examination in 2014. If you have already paid ABB examination fees for the May 14, 2014, examination and you attend the 2014 A&E Review Course, the 15% discount will be refunded to you. For more information, contact Tina Huelsing at the ABB office by email: abb@abbcert.org or telephone: (314) 241-1445. 

Along with the changes in the course format, the Andrology & Embryology Review Manual will receive substantial updates for this course. All course attendees will receive a copy of the updated manual as part of their full registration.

If you have never attended a review course, I would encourage any of you to do so. I still find it to be a great refresher, and if you are lucky you may have the opportunity to witness some of the lecturers trying on ridiculous headware in the neighboring Bass Pro Shops outdoor world, after the classes are over. That alone can be worth the price of attending.

Hope you all have a wonderful year ahead, and I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!