A House divided: AVMA leader calls for unity

Seattle

– "We are not working as a team," says AVMA Executive Board Chair Dr. David L. McCrystle to a packed House of Delegates meeting Friday.

McCrystle challenged hundreds of members of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) House of Delegates by calling for unity. As a result, he received a standing ovation from some in the room.

"I'd like to talk to you about the growing disunion between the delegates and the Executive Board. It seems the House of Delegates and the Executive Board are in a tug of war over policy. We are not working as a team. History has shown what happens with government structures that can't function in an appropriate manner. We don’t need to experience this for ourselves. It's counterproductive. We need to turn this around. We need to move our association forward."

To do it, the AVMA needs to quickly adapt, McCrystle says, to meet the changing expectations of its members. As such, the Executive Board needed to pull away from the day-to-day details of running an association and "focus on the purpose, mission and strategic plan which drives the organizational activities…"

Over the two-day House of Delegates meeting, veterinarians debated a number of resolutions and actions targeting AVMA policies including tail docking and ear cropping, judicious use of antimicrobials and others.

For more comprehensive reports on the HOD actions, stay connected to dvm360.com.