Welcome to the June-July Qi-Unity Report!

We invite you to take a moment from your busy day to read about the conference events – from the perspectives of our practitioner community, students, exhibitors, the 25th Anniversary Celebration, and the Sites of Portland.

Event Overview: We are pleased to announce that this year’s conference features 37 workshops and events, 43 speakers, for a total of 47 CEUs (pending) over a 5-day span. The conference opens on Thursday, October 18, 2006, with an 8-hour panel: The Medical Nomenclature Debates, and closes with one full-day Post-Conference workshop, on Monday, October 22, 2007, Beauty, Health and Well-Being...a Dynamic Business Model.

Friday morning’s General Session is a must attend for one and all. As a celebratory event, the general session will convene to address myriads of topics that comprise our profession from the perspectives of the journey, the present, and the future. We shall explore the topics of multi-cultural efforts and collaborations, scope of practice, access to herbs, integrative medicine, insurance, educational standards, and much more! The General Session panelists are being selected to represent a panorama of perspectives, history, and vision.

As a Friday evening, October 19, 2007 kick-off event, we’re planning “Charting the Future of OM” Join us for this exciting and interactive event, to be followed by a full weekend of activities, to help chart the future of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine into the 21st century. This is a critical step in the strategic planning process our profession. Allow your voice to be heard in facilitating the direction of the profession. The process involves the use hand held devices that allow input to be anonymously reflected overhead to facilitate interaction, communication, and discussion among the diverse range of practitioners and partners to the profession. A summary report will be published that will guide AAAOM strategy and policy decisions and will serve as a foundation for collaborative work together and with others. Trained facilitators and futurists will facilitate this workshop.

Annual Meeting: AAAOM Annual Meeting and Election of Directors will be on Saturday, October 20, 2007, from 8 AM to 10 AM. The is free to Members Only. We suggest AAAOM members place this on their calendar now as it is the first scheduled annual meeting post-reunification! The annual meeting will be followed by five simultaneously scheduled 2-hour workshops. Our Saturday afternoon features five 4-hour workshops.

On Sunday, October 22, 2007 we will feature an eight-hour workshop on Integrative Medicine. Come join this panel of licensed acupuncturists who are practicing integrative medicine successfully in a Western medical setting. Attendees will discuss transforming the walls of resistance in the Western community and communicating effectively with hospital administrators. Four additional 4-hour workshops are scheduled in the AM, followed by three 4-hour workshops in the afternoon. For the first time ever, AAAOM is sponsoring a Public-Track (reference below) for the patient community and the public-at-large. This Track runs on Sunday and consists of two AM and two PM workshops. All speakers are from outside the area, so local practitioners are encouraged to invite patients and their families to attend at a rate of only $50 for the full day of workshops or $25 for a half-day.

The conference concludes with a full day of post-conference workshops on Monday, October 22, 2006, starting at 8:00 AM and ending at 5:00 PM.

Featured Workshop:
Infertility and Women’s Hormonal Journey
Miki Shima, OMD, LAc
Friday – October 19, 2007 – 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Abstract: This short essay is descriptive of how the author conducts an infertility clinic with Western reproductive endocrinologists, achieving demonstrated national success in 2004. The author urges all infertility patients (male and female) to get Western medical examination before embarking on TCM infertility treatment. Described herein is the author’s Kidney Return Treatment, Eighth Extraordinary Vessel Treatment, and herbal treatment protocols. More. (PDF)

On behalf of the AAAOM and the new national student organization, the AAAOM-SO, we'd like to invite you to join us at the AAAOM '07 International Portland Conference & Expo, focusing on Strength through Unification, October 19-21, 2007. We're encouraging all students across the country to 'help choose the direction of your future' by personally attending this outstanding event. ATTEND FRIDAY-SUNDAY AT THE SPECIAL STUDENT RATE OF $75 ($125 after Early Bird), BECOME A WORK-STUDY VOLUNTEER, OR A COMBINATION OF BOTH!

Link to Student letter
Student Volunteer Sign-up
Link to Slide Presentation (PowerPoint)

EXHIBITORS: Attendees will find the Hilton Grand Ballroom, the Pavilion Exhibit Area and the surrounding hallways featuring 87 of our profession’s foremost exhibitors, offering a myriad of state-of-the-art OM products and services. For those of you who attended Expo 2005 and 2006, based on popular demand, exhibitor coupon books will again be featured. Many attendees found our coupon books so valuable, they followed exhibitors down the elevator to assure they were first in line! ATTENDEE LUNCHES WILL BE LOCATED IN THE GRAND BALLROOM.

Peak Exhibitor Hours – Attendee Refreshment Breaks – Hilton Grand Ballroom and Pavilion Exhibit Area
(Changes in this schedule will be noted in the Conference Binder)
Morning Break: 9:30–10:30 • Lunch: 12:00–2:00 • Afternoon Break: 3:30–4:30

We are approaching the 25-year anniversary of the AAAOM. It does not signify simply the inception of a professional organization. More accurately it reflects the zenith of professional, political, and personal forces having conspired together and birthed Traditional Oriental Medicine in the United States.

It is no small feat historically that TOM survived in an often hostile world of medicines. To honor this occasion and our rich history, we are creating an evening to pay homage to the venerated masters of our medicine. From our teachers, we first cultivate our knowledge base, hewn our skills as well as struggle with our weaknesses. The translation of the word sensei means one who has gone before. The achievement of ‘going through’ is in and of itself remarkable. Yet each of our masters has gone beyond even that for the purpose of teaching and sharing. Ultimately, through us, our masters’ hands touch our patients as often as do we. It is their kindness, wisdom and expertise which continues to ripple through our daily practices continually adding to richness our medicine.

Join us! Meet and honor our many teachers, share a sumptuous 5-course meal and enjoy an evening with live music. This will be the rare opportunity to witness glimpses of personal and professional histories, as well as honor their invaluable contributions to our medicine. Free-standing historical exhibits will be on-site also.

Each of us is a library of pivotal moments when a teacher influenced our perception, expanded our view and changed who are. We invite you to contact us with nominations of those invaluable masters. Please contact Karen Reynolds at kreynolds@aaaomonline.org.

Greetings: The AAAOM Conference Committee is pleased to announce a new member benefit that premiers with Expo 2007 – an all-day Public Track on Sunday, October 22, 2007. The four 2-hour workshops are affordably priced. We felt offering such workshops provides beneficial community service, and will expand awareness of our profession far beyond the local contingencies attending. If successful, we plan to offer a public track each year. We are careful to select speakers from outside the area so that education can be provided without creating competition. As such, these workshops offer a wonderful opportunity for persons unfamiliar with Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine as well as patients that want to share our medicine with family and friends! Public Workshop Brochure (PDF)

Most sincerely,

The AAAOM 2007 Conference Committee
Deborah Lincoln RN, MSN, RAc, NCCAOM, Conference Chair
Travis Buckmaster LAc, PC, Conference Co-Chair

 

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