CRB Legislative Committee
Liesl Nel-Themaat, Ph.D., HCLD(ABB)

Dear CRB members,

Since the last newsletter, the CRB Legislative Committee continued to work diligently on the proposed OH Cryostorage bill. Senator Schiavoni’s office received the line-by-line critique prepared by the Legislative Committee early August of last year. The Senator graciously implemented many of the changes that the Committee proposed in their initial letter to the Senator. In October, we received a second, much improved version for the proposed bill. There were still areas of concern, such as unreasonable residence location requirements for personnel. The Committee once again did a full revision and sent out our critique and recommendations to the Senator’s office a few days later. Again our comments were well received and considered for the final version of the bill, which was received in December. Although there are still some concerns with the bill, the Committee has certainly helped to significantly improve the bill to benefit both patients and clinics. I therefore would like to thank each of the Committee members for their OUTSTANDING work, responding so promptly and effectively.

On a more personal note, since I became a lab director in September, I no longer qualify to serve as the CRB Supervisor Member, which is also the Legislative Committee Chair. Therefore, I will not be able to complete my term in this role and will be handing over the baton after the upcoming election. Thank you for entrusting me with such an important task to lead the Legislative Committee during what was definitely a roller coaster of a year. I would be honored to serve as a committee member with the dedicated current members if needed.

Liesl Nel-Themaat, Ph.D., HCLD(ABB)
Chair, CRB Legislative Committee