November 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 11 |
 The Tar Wars race truck, on display in the exposition hall, proves irresistible to Chris Doehring, age 3, of Augusta, Ga. |
BY CINDY McCANSE
July 31, 2003. That was the date originally set by the AAFP Board of Directors for the Academy's Tar Wars® tobacco-free education initiative to secure full external funding for its activities. After that time, said Board members, AAFP would no longer provide total program funding. The Board's action resulted from the Academy's recently completed budget prioritization process.
Then, on Oct. 15, the Congress of Delegates voted to have the Academy continue its support until external funding could be secured. It also directed the AAFP to "commit to seeking funding partners to continue the growth of the Tar Wars program on a national level" and to "retain overall ownership of Tar Wars with or without such sponsorship now and in the future."
"What the Congress did was direct the Board to make Tar Wars part of our major emphasis," said (then) AAFP President Warren Jones, M.D., of Ridgeland, Miss. "This is a program in which one out of six of our members participates and that reaches 450,000 children each year."
The discussion began at an Oct. 13 town hall meeting about the budget priority exercise. (Then) Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., laid out the particulars of the budget process.
For a look at the budget exercise, which led to numerous cost cuts and proposed revenue enhancements, go to http://www.aafp.org/fpr/20021000/11.html.
Ben Oteyza, M.D., of Bel Air, Md., president of the Maryland AFP, was one of many who spoke in favor of continued AAFP support of Tar Wars, urging stakeholders to look closely at the program and the strong anti-smoking message it sends.
Jeffrey Cain, M.D., of Denver, who co-founded the program in 1988, also advocated continuing Academy support of the program. "Two years ago we sold Tar Wars to the American Academy of Family Physicians for a dollar because we thought this was the right home for it," said Cain.
The Board, said Roberts, agrees. "There's not a Board member who doesn't appreciate the tremendous value that Tar Wars has represented for individual members, for our state chapters and for the national Academy," he said. "That's not the issue. The issue is: Do you want a dues-paying organization sustaining that kind of a program, which has the potential to get even bigger and more expensive? Or are there other structures that would better and more securely fund this in the future?"
Academy EVP Douglas Henley, M.D., broke down the numbers during the town hall event, reporting that the AAFP's share of the program's annual operating costs run between $250,000 and $300,000. He anticipates that amount will be reduced through internal program cuts but still expects a shortfall of from $125,000 to $150,000 a year, he said.
The word has already gone out, Henley added, and the response has been heartening. Schering announced at the AAFP Foundation dinner Oct. 15 its pledge of $75,000 to the program and challenged other foundation supporters to follow suit.
Continuing to deliver the anti-tobacco message is critical, Jones asserted. "We have to do this to protect the future health of our youth," he said. "This is to stop teens from walking around with that tobacco tin mark on their back pockets, to stop them from chewing gum to hide the smell of tobacco on their breath."
FP Report is published by the
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.