Greetings to all Nebraska Nurses!
Membership Assembly-Washington, D.C.-June 26-28, 2025
As I write this article, we are preparing to attend Membership Assembly (MA). I will be accompanied by President Elect Blake Smith, Omaha and Membership Representative Todd Hovey, McCook. Thursday, June 26th is Hill Day when hundreds of nurses descend on our nation’s capital to advocate for nurses with our representatives. Depending upon their schedule, we meet with staff or sometimes with our representative. Typically, we discuss issues such as safe staffing and violence in the workplace. ANA provides talking points to guide our discussion. Above all, our representatives are seeing nurses advocate for our profession and our nursing colleagues.
On Friday, June 27th, part of the day will be devoted to ANA Bylaws Hearings. Bylaws are reviewed and revised every-other-year. This year, there are MANY proposed bylaw changes. ANA has scheduled discussions over the past 3 weeks with one more scheduled for June 2nd to allow for questions to be answered and feedback provided before meeting at MA. One proposal of interest is to allow LPN/LVNs to become members of ANA. Currently, some states allow these nurses to become members of their state association but not members of ANA. If passed, this bylaws change would allow LPN/LVNs to join ANA as well as their state association. Part of the discussion has centered around the question, “If we say we represent nurses, shouldn’t we represent ALL nurses?” Some of the proposed bylaw changes are necessary to be sure that ANA is in compliance with the non-profit organization statues of Washington, D.C.
New member contact
Over the past year, the NNA Board of Directors have worked to contact new members of NNA to personally welcome them, to answer any questions, and to invite them to NNA events. Typically, we try a phone call first and then follow up with an email. Finding the time to do this can be challenging for our board members as they are volunteers in their positions and typically work full time in nursing. If you are a new member and have not received this contact, please email me your phone number and I would be honored to call you. I have had many wonderful conversations with our new members and I love talking to my fellow nurses!
Save the Date: NNA Annual Convention, Kearney, NE—October 1-evening—October 3-early afternoon
The Convention Planning Committee is hard at work planning a fabulous meeting! The evening of Wednesday, October 1, the NNA Political Action Committee (PAC) will hold a fundraiser at Cunningham’s on the Lake. This was a great event last year. Thank you to chair Dr. Kari Wade and her PAC members for doing this important work! Tentative schedule over Thursday, October 2 and Friday morning, October 3rd includes general sessions, breakout sessions, poster session, NNA Awards Dinner, 40 under 40 Awards Breakfast, and exhibitors. We are planning a special Red Carpet event—watch for more information on that coming soon! I look forward to seeing many of you in Kearney in October. Let’s make this the biggest event since pre-Covid times. As always, I welcome your comments/insights/questions. nnapresident@nebraskanurses.org.
Linda Hardy, PhD, RN, CNE-R, CTN-A
President, Nebraska Nurses Association
