Congress of Delegates to Convene Sept. 23-25 in Philadelphia

Check Out Candidates' Website

July 15, 2019 04:00 pm News Staff – What better place for family physicians from across the country to gather with one another for conversation and camaraderie than the City of Brotherly Love? This year's AAFP Congress of Delegates will meet Sept. 23-25 in Grand Ballroom E-L of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. The COD will convene in conjunction with the 2019 AAFP Family Medicine Experience, which is scheduled for Sept. 24-28.

During the COD's reference committee hearings on Sept. 23, AAFP members will have a chance to share their views on resolutions up for consideration and, thus, help shape new Academy policies. Delegates will vote on those resolutions during subsequent business sessions. On Sept. 25, the delegates will elect AAFP officers and members of the Board of Directors from the 10 candidates vying for office.

But before then, members can review each candidate's personal statement and find out more about them -- what they've accomplished and what they consider important -- by exploring the 2019 AAFP Candidates webpage.

From there, you can link to each candidate's individual page, where you can access that candidate's

contact information,
personal campaign statement,
biography and
curriculum vitae.

Be sure to have your member ID information handy; you'll need it to access these pages.

If you find you share common ground with certain candidates on issues that are important to you, your practice and your patients, consider asking your chapter delegates to the COD to vote for those candidates.

In addition, although the AAFP's Candidate Campaign Activities and Rules document(401 KB PDF) states that candidates for Academy offices may not use official AAFP social media channels (e.g., AAFP Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+) for campaigning purposes, candidates are welcome to use the official COD event hashtag -- #aafpcod -- in any messages sent from their personal Twitter accounts, including campaign messages. Academy members with Twitter accounts can use that COD hashtag to follow campaign activities and other events leading up to the election.

Further information about this year's COD is available online, including links to a tentative schedule of official activities, information on housing(registration.experientevent.com) and registration, and a listing of resolutions submitted to date -- including measures on

reexamining the recently introduced Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment alternative to the 10-year certification exam,
engaging AARP on its Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action and its stated goal of "building a healthier America through nursing," and
expanding the anti-vaping and e-cigarette information included in the Tar Wars program to prevent vaping from erasing years of progress in preventing youth smoking and nicotine use.

More information about AAFP FMX is available online. Watch the video below for a rundown of what you can expect from this year's FMX.