Invitation to attend the 2008 AVMA VLE
From our letter to deans of AVMA Accredited Veterinary
Schools, January 15, 2008
Please Note: English speaking students or faculty
from any College of Veterinary Medicine are welcome to attend with the
permission of their dean.
Greetings! The organizers of the AVMA
Veterinary Leadership Experience (VLE) are pleased to announce that
registration for the 2008 AVMA VLE is now open. It is anticipated that
this VLE, the fifth annual program, will be the largest and involve the
most diverse international audience to date.
The 2008 VLE will begin with a reception at the Red Lion hotel in
Spokane, Washington on the evening of Tuesday June 3, 2008. The next
morning, attendees will be transported to the Ross Point Conference
Center in Post Falls, Idaho, where the actual training sessions will be
conducted from June 4-8, 2008. You can learn more about this unique
program by reviewing the material under the
VLE Overview and Rationale.
We recognize that in some cases the 2008 program dates may conflict with
final examinations or other end-of-semester activities at your
institution. Although considerable effort was made to avoid this
situation, unfortunately no single date exists on which students and
faculty from all schools along with the Ross Point Conference Center and
its facilitators are all available. We apologize for any inconvenience
these dates may pose and hope that with this advance notice, you can
make necessary adjustments to allow your students and faculty to attend.
College administrators, SCAVMA and other student officers are encouraged
to collaborate in the identification of two students and one faculty
member who will best represent your institution at the 2008 VLE.
Candidates should be selected who show great prospect for leadership and
who have a record of positively influencing others. It is not a
requirement, nor an expectation, that attendees would currently hold
formal positions of leadership; they need not be SCAVMA or Class
officers. We would expect these individuals to return to campus and
advance your program through direct application of the leadership
training they have experienced. It has been suggested that you consider
asking candidates to submit a brief statement of what they would hope to
gain for themselves, and their schools, as a result of attending the
AVMA-VLE.
As a result of the generosity of our sponsors, no registration fee is
required for individuals to participate in the five-day AVMA VLE.
Unfortunately, we are unable to cover individual travel expenses. It is
our hope that participants, their deans and/or SCAVMA chapters will be
able to defray the cost of individual travel to this unique experience.
As soon as your nominees have agreed to attend the VLE, please direct
them to read vital pertinent information about the VLE at
www.vetmed.wsu.edu/orgvle and register promptly
using the on-line registration materials. It is important that attendees
read all the materials prior to completing the registration process on
the website. Please note, it is important that as soon as travel
arrangements are made, registrants enter them on the VLE site, using the
participant’s selected logon and password. It is critical that this
information be received by May 1, as it will be used to plan for and
provide ground transportation to and from the VLE site.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Susan Seaman, VLE Coordinator,
sjseaman@vetmed.wsu.edu.
Program updates will be posted on the VLE site prior to the event.
As part of the selection process, it is critical for participants to
understand that completion of VLE pre-and post-event assessments will be
a means of “paying back” and “paying forward” as leaders. The data we
collect allows us to assess the impact of the program and adjust the
curriculum to meet the perceived needs of tomorrow’s professionals.
Participants will receive an e-mail in early May, providing them with
links to complete an array of pre-VLE assessment instruments on-line.
Administration of the assessments should take approximately two hours.
Post assessments will be distributed by email periodically over the next
three years.
Last year’s AVMA-VLE was attended by representatives from each of the 34
U.S., Canadian and off-shore colleges of veterinary medicine as well as
students and faculty from Australia and Europe. Feedback we have
received suggests that opportunities for personal growth abound at Ross
Point. We hope you will agree and once again send a contingent of
participants to this year’s event.
This life-changing, experiential leadership workshop would not be
possible without the encouragement and generous financial support of the
founding sponsor, Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc, as well as an array of
animal health industry sponsor/advocates and the sponsorship and
endorsement of the American Veterinary Medical Association. We are very
appreciative of their confidence, investment and encouragement.
Thank you for your support of past student and faculty attendees and for
your efforts to recommend and facilitate the attendance of additional
representatives to the 2008 program.
Yours for Veterinary Medicine,
Richard M. DeBowes, DVM MS Dipl ACVS
Associate Dean for Veterinary Development and External Relations
Professor of Surgery and Director of Leadership Programs
Last Edited: Jan 16, 2008 2:23 PM
