My apologies for the delay, and thanks so much for reading, Emily!

There was somewhat of a different get-together at NAVC in January (http://atwork.avma.org/2015/02/01/coe-update-transcript-from-navc-listening-session-is-available/), and there is another like that one scheduled for Western on February 15 at 3:30 (http://atwork.avma.org/2015/02/03/connect-with-coe-at-wvc/).

Some of the high points of the NAVC session can be found by searching #AVMAListeningTour on Twitter. A transcript can be found at: http://atwork.avma.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/NAVC-Listening-Session-Transcript.pdf. I’ll be at the Western event and can provide a first-hand account afterward.

It remains to be seen what will come of these sessions, and how NACIQI will interpret these moves by the AVMA’s COE as gaining wide acceptance (USDE Criteria for Recognition 602.13). Stay tuned.

Reading Carl’s comments was akin to discovering that another person has seen my thoughts. Very surreal, yet encouraging. So it’s hard for me to add to what he’s said, the issues he’s raised, and the challenges he’s issued, but I would like to suggest to Dr. Dicks, since you’ve raised the idea in another venue of accumulating thinking veterinarians in such a way as to pool their brains and come up with solutions to the problems faced by today’s veterinary profession, that Carl Darby be included in such a collection.

We all know where to go to find suggestions for more studies, more politically correct rhetoric, and more of the same. A desire to to find ideas that challenge the current system has not been demonstrated by the movers and shakers, as the real-world experiencers, as opposed to the ivory tower thinkers, have been fragmented, dismissed, shunned and/or ignored. Some voices, though, are beginning to rise to the surface with the use social media.

I’m all for collecting sound data, as Eden and I have forcefully argued in our “Good Intentions, Bad Data, Unintended Consequences” series. However, the time for the AVMA to make bold stands for the sound use of what data we have, incomplete as it may be or have been, has come and gone. As Carl indicated, we are dealing now with the effects of past passive representation and leadership. Following this up with more passive leadership is certainly not the answer. Soliciting the ideas of the Carl Darbys, the Eden Myerses and the Jeffrey Pecks of the world and seeking the answers to the questions that they, as veterinarians existing in the real world of veterinary practice, are asking is highly encouraged by this general practitioner.