 Oct. 17, 2002 |
| ASSEMBLY EDITION • SAN DIEGO |
As a result of the Academy's recently completed budget prioritization process, the AAFP Board of Directors had set a date -- July 31, 2003 -- for the Academy's Tar Wars® tobacco-free education initiative to secure full external funding for its activities. After that time, the Board had said, AAFP would no longer provide total funding.
The Congress of Delegates on Tuesday 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 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 a town hall meeting here Sunday night about the budget priority exercise. Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., took first crack at laying out the particulars of the budget process and the rationale that drove it.
For a look at the budget exercise, which led to many 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 up in favor of continued AAFP support of the Tar Wars program during Sunday's meeting and in reference committee testimony Monday. He urged 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, also spoke up for 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.
For the Board, said Roberts, it wasn't so much a matter of disagreement as a matter of degree. "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 at Sunday's town hall event, reporting that the AAFP's share of the program's annual operating costs runs between $250,000 and $300,000. He anticipates that amount will be reduced through internal program cuts but still expects a shortfall of between $125,000 and $150,000 a year, he said.
The word has already gone out, Henley added, and the cavalry is cresting the hill. Schering lost no time stepping up to the plate, announcing at the AAFP Foundation dinner Tuesday its pledge of $75,000 to the program and challenging other foundation supporters to do the same.
So in the end, said Jones, the message has been delivered: "We have to do this to protect the future health of our youth.
"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."
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