Baa's and Bleat's - The AASRP Podcast
Baa's and Bleat's - The AASRP Podcast
Bonus Episode: AASRP Annual Conference Preview and other CE offerings - Dr. Michael Pesato
Get a sneak peek of the AASRP annual conference as well as other conferences where our organization provides continuing education opportunities for veterinarian! President-elect Mike Pesato sits down with us to discuss all of the exciting programming coming up for AASRP members. If you are a veterinarian and curious about getting access to these resources and many more, please reach out via email at office@aasrp.org for more information or stop by and say hi at our booths if you are attending AABP, AAEP, VMX, or AVMA. We would love to meet you!
There is still time to register for the AABP/AASRP annual conference September 12-14 in Columbus, OH:
https://www.aasrp.org/Main/Main/Conference/Overview-and-Registration.aspx?hkey=850e339f-dfa8-42dd-a75f-e35ece8f1555
Hello everybody and welcome to a bonus episode of Boz and Bleeds. So today, as a little bonus, we're just going to give you a little insight to all the things we offer to our members. I know a lot of you that listen aren't necessarily our members, so maybe this isn't for you today. But so we just want to give a little rundown of what, especially there's a lot of new stuff, what CE we offer, where that CE is, some of it's online, some of it's in person, some of the different things that we do to raise money for our different activities that we're trying to work towards. So today I'm sitting down and talking to Dr. Mike Posado, my buddy, who's on the board with me. Dr. Posado is our president-elect, so he is the next upcoming president, and he is currently a private practitioner in Delaware in a mobile practice called the Fourth State Veterinary Services. Mike spent most of his early career, correct me if I'm wrong, in academia. So this is kind of new to him. And it's really, thanks to me, I brought him over into the world of being a boots in the field doctor, not really. But anyway, Mike, thanks so much.
Michael:Yeah, Sarah, thank you for having me for this little bonus episode. Uh, she's not wrong. I mean, I definitely have been inspired to uh do what I'm doing by Sarah. So um, you're not wrong either that I was in academia for the first eight years of my career. So this is a new endeavor as of last November, and I'm loving it. It is pretty fantastic to be a private practitioner. So I'm excited to talk with you today about what we have to offer.
Sarah:All right. So for those of you who don't know, the main role of the president-elect is to kind of organize and get our speakers for the meeting. So as of right now, AASRP does not offer their own in-person meetings. So usually we will just put on two half days, something like that, sometimes two full days of small ruminant meetings at other meetings. And so currently we are providing content at VMX and AVMA. Um, those have already passed this year. So today we are gonna primarily focus on a BP, which is the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, because it's coming up in a month, about. And so just to kind of let you guys know, if you wanted to come out to BP in Columbus, Ohio, which strangely is the last place I saw Mike, and um we will just you'll have an idea of what's gonna be on the on the agenda there. So go ahead, Mike. What are what are you got planned for us?
Michael:Yeah, awesome. So really great shout out to VMX and ABMA. Um those meetings are awesome because there's not always a ton of large animal activity and large animal topics. So SRP having a uh role in that is pretty fantastic because we're able to bring directed small reminisc um education to uh all of our colleagues that are not maybe doing that on a normal basis. So if you're a veterinarian who doesn't always do our species, then those are great places to get some experience, some experience learning about our species while also maybe attending some of your small animal lectures. But as most of you know, that are members of AASRP, you're probably also members of AAB. And it is, to me, one of the best large animal focused, maybe one of the only large animal focused national meetings that we have concerning food animal species. So AASRP has been involved for a very long time in AABP's conference because classically we've been a smaller organization that don't necessarily have the financial means nor maybe the membership to have a standalone major national conference. And we have been able to add value to the American Association of Bow Mine Practitioners annual meeting every year. In fact, a lot of people commented last year that SRP was one of the big reasons that they attended, on top of, of course, the bovine education that they got. They loved the fact that they could also get some small rumina education. So I thought that was pretty cool when I was reading some of the comments from last year's AA SRP sessions. So this year we've got a lot of cool stuff going on. We are doing a Thursday Friday. That's typically how we work. So Thursday kicks off our talks, and our Thursday talks are shorter. So we start off with a morning session, a basically just a two-talk morning session. Um we're focusing on pain management and euthanasia technique for the first day. And then Friday is gonna be an all-day deal. So that's like if you if you're coming to AABP and you want to get good small room in education, make sure you're there on Thursday and Friday. Uh that's really when we're kicking it into high gear. And um Friday we've got a ton of different topics that we're covering. I'm doing a couple parasite talks myself because, in my personal opinion, I think parasitism should be talked about at every conference, just because it's always kind of changing in how we manage parasites. We also have a survey talk, which is pretty cool. Um we've got a talk about abortion from Dr. Clark Skelly, our current president. Um, and then we're gonna go into the last kind of sessions we have, which is pretty neat, talking a bit about small room minute practice. Um, so we have three talks. One is talking about utilizing technology in small room minute practice, one is talking about retaining and attracting and retaining small room minute clientele. And then the last talk uh put on by our practitioner of the year, Dr. John Higgins, is utilizing social media in small room minute practice. And if anyone knows John Higgins, you know that he is an expert at social media. So I'm really excited about his talk and just trying to glean some information off of him in terms of that. And then, of course, our research summaries round it off. So, as Sarah mentioned, we have a lot of initiatives going on right now, just in general, and one of the big ones is our push for research. Research in small ruminant practice is really key, and we don't always see a lot of it happening. So, our research committee selects two projects every other year to fund and allow us to put out more small ruminant research. And I believe that some of our abstracts this year are actually gonna be some of the projects we funded, which is really, really cool. And we have a merch shop little plug here that you can purchase A SRP merch, and much of the proceeds from that are gonna go to our research committee and help fund these research projects. That, as many of you know who are doing small ruminant practice, or if you're a producer, having more information about these species is pivotal for quality practice and quality medicine.
Sarah:So let me just interrupt you, Michael. Yeah, yeah, please get a little bit more about the merch shop. So it's not an actual store at AABP, it's online, correct. It's on the AASRP website. There's a link. You can pick what you want. There's a bunch of stuff on there. I think a lot of the stuff is L Bean, but I could be wrong. At least the shirts and stuff that I have are. So just to give a little, it's not like an actual store. Unfortunately.
Michael:Yeah, no, thank you. No, no, thank you for clarifying because that would have been, you know, we don't have a pop-up shop at uh AABP. As cool as that would be. We do have a booth, so please check us out at the booth at AABP. We'll be in the convention center with all the other vendors and all the other booths, um, basically the entire conference. So pop by, check us out, get some information, come chat with us. I know Sarah and I both sit at the booth while we're there and love to meet and chat with people, uh, especially if you're not a member and you're interested in becoming a member. Come check us out and chat with us about the benefits.
Sarah:Yeah, the booth is great. So to break your heart, I know you guys all wanted to come get my autograph. I'm actually not gonna be there.
Michael:Oh, that breaks my heart.
Sarah:I know it breaks my heart too, but I had a non-changeable previous commitment. So I am very upset. So that leads me into my next favorite topic that's the saddest thing. I mean, besides missing you and John and Claire talking, is the open mic night. So one of the other things that this will be the third time that ASRP has done this, it's a fundraiser for the Sam Gus Fund. If you don't know what that is, it is the money that helps all of our fourth-year students go on small room and externships. So I'm I don't know if Mike has started taking students or not. John and I see a lot of students for sure, and lots of other people do. And if they're coming, you know, if they have to fly or even drive or, you know, covering other, they can apply for money through ASRP to help with the small room and internship or externship or whatever they're doing. And so the CMGS is like, I mean, students are such a huge priority for ASRP, as they are for BP and a lot of the other organizations for sure. And so the open mic night last year was just absolutely a scream. The stories are so great. It's so great, just you know, being an environment where everybody is on the same page and nobody's like, I can't believe you're telling those gross stories because we love your gross stories. And I'm very sad because I was halfway through. I like to think I'm a poet writing a poem about blocked goats. So it's just gonna have to wait until the next time I'm at VB for you to give me my poem about blocked goats.
Michael:But now my heart is broken because that would have been a great addition. Yeah. So open mic night, you know, last year it was my first time going to the open mic night, and I didn't know what to expect necessarily. I knew we had some good speakers lined up, we had Meredith Jones lined up to give a talk, which was really great, and we had, you know, people just basically from the audience standing up and offering up stories. And it Sarah gave us a story, we had some students give stories, which was really fun. It's an awesome, fun camaraderie event. And we we actually had people come and buy tickets because they heard us laughing hysterically in the room, which is, you know, I mean, you're at a an educational conference, but this is a great time to kind of unwind, share some good stories with each other about, you know, practice and the stuff we go through in practice. And, you know, it it's right now the the event is scheduled for Friday, September 13th at 8 30 p.m. You can find it on our website, asrp.org. It's in our top banner. And their tickets are available for sale of $35 for a ticket. If you're not going to AABP, what's really nice is that you can actually purchase a ticket that is going to then be going to a student. So if you'd like to purchase a ticket and fund a student attending the event, we highly encourage it. Uh, even if you know you're not going to be at AABP this year. I know I'll be buying some student tickets just because I love students. I actually did have my first extern, so that was wonderful. They and so, hey, bug for four state veterinary services if anybody out there student-wise wants to do an extern ship. But yeah, please, please consider purchasing a ticket. All funds, as Sarah said, go to the Saint August fund. So you're not, you know, missing out, you're not just throwing your money into a uh pail. It's actually going somewhere. Um, we would love for you to sponsor a student who's at the conference who would like to join and maybe doesn't have that $35 to join us. So it is, but it is a hoot. It is so much fun, and I I highly recommend joining us there.
Sarah:So I also want to point out just if you've never been to BP, there's just so like it's a really, really well put on meeting. You know, if you only care about small ruminants, there's so many, like even non-bovine talks that you can attend. I love the run that they do every Saturday morning. They do a 5K, which is really fun. It's called the Stampede. And they give sweet shirts, and that's one of my favorite things in BP. They always have a great main speaker. What's the word I'm looking for? Keynote speaker. Keynote. And so, yeah, the food's always good, the convention center is huge. So BP's great.
Michael:Yeah. And and and undoubtedly you're gonna run into somebody you know. So it's it's you know, you you're always gonna run into a colleague from some stage of life because, like you said, it's it's really the the best food animal centric conference that's that in my opinion out there. Um and and so a lot of people go every year, and it's it's a great event. So, and now you can get even more involved with AASRP. So that's that's even better. I have a value.
Sarah:That's right. So let's just want to touch base on the student offerings. This stuff has already passed, but we're about to start a new school year. So Mike three years ago started this.
Michael:Four or four years ago, no, I think.
Sarah:Started a virtual student symposium, and they are fabulous. And he's actually passed the reins to some new members of the college liaison committee that did a great job last year. Do you want to give us any more details?
Michael:Yeah, no, I mean that's that's you said it in a nutshell. Students out there, pay attention to your emails from your student representatives and your faculty liaisons. Um, it happens in the spring. We do have it every single spring, and it includes educational sessions that are strictly dedicated to students because um ASRP is is really dedicated to student learning. Uh so it's all virtual, you can attend, and it is recorded sessions that we do post on the website. But uh we do encourage you to be present so that you can mingle with your fellow small ruminant people and with uh practitioners.
Sarah:The other thing I wanted to make sure we touch on is the online CE that ASRP is offering. You organize these too, right? Yes, they're uh monthly webinars, and so you can either do them in real time or as I do, go back and watch them later. And literally, some of them I have watched three times, so or listened to and watched. So, yeah, what's your two cents on those, Mike?
Michael:Yeah, so these are every month and they are race approved, so you actually get CE credit for them. It's a really big reason to be a member of ASRP if you're not already. Um, and they're extremely, extremely applicable. So I know Sarah has even taken a technique she learned from that webinar and actually put it into play doing the per tube systemy in the field. So I, you know, it they're really, really, really valuable, practical, applicable webinars that are gonna help you be a better small ruminant practitioner. Even if you only do a little bit of small roommate practice, there's a lot of different topics in there. And we try to be very broad. So we try to incorporate camelid, surveyed, we had a camel talk recently, and of course, sheep have tons of sheep and goat stuff. And honestly, it's it's great to have new content every single month that is going on there. And I also, like Sarah, am normally watching it on the recording because it happens in the middle of the day, and it's sometimes hard when you're on the road in the middle of the day to be able to watch a webinar. So don't worry if you have to watch it later on.
Sarah:Did you have anything else that you wanted to plug or talk about?
Michael:Yeah, I I think you know, we we've really presented a lot of different things, and I I think it just demonstrates how well-rounded the American Association of Small Romant Practitioners is. Come to AABP. If you can't come to AABP, please buy a ticket for the open mic night so we can, you know, give it to a student and again support our students. Um and if you come to AAABP, come find me and say, hey, I really love chatting with practitioners, uh, students, and really anybody. And I love AASRP. So if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or hysteria, you can always find me and uh I can kind of help you navigate uh any of those things. And I'm really thankful, Sarah, that you reached out to me to be on the podcast because this podcast is a freaking hit. So uh I really love I don't do a lot of research, so it's really cool that I get to be like, you know, a special edition here. So thank you so much.
Sarah:Yeah, awesome. One other thing I was just thinking since after the talk today, I one thing that I don't think people realize is how we also have represent representation on so many AVMA committees. So ASRP has somebody who represents us on the welfare committee, multiple drug committees. What else, Mike? So I mean, obviously the general AVMA, what do you call it? I want to say Congress, but that's not right.
Michael:Yeah, we do we have well, AVMA, yeah. It's pretty much like the uh group of specialties that we have our own representative for the voting members, basically. Right, correct. I mean, we just it's literally we have a representative of a hand in the pie of of like essentially every committee that would match a small room of practitioners. And it's it's very cool to have our people able to represent us and our species, and that way we you know we stay relevant to hearing back from what AVMA is kind of putting out there into the world. So it's it's pretty awesome.
Sarah:Yeah. So I mean, you know, if you are worried about something like reach out to your district or your region, region manager, region director. I'm region one. So if you live on the east coast, it would be me. It's really easy on the website to figure out who your district representative is if you don't know. There's only four of us, so it's not a lot. It's Dr. Mangeny on the West Coast.
Michael:Evelyn Mackay. Evelyn Mackay covers uh pretty much the south, a lot of the southeast. Um and then you on the east coast, and then yeah, Alan Kennedy, who is on the kind of he's the other part of the south, with I guess Texas to the Midwest is uh Dr. Mackay, and then Dr. Kennedy is essentially the uh Southeast part of the United States, which is pretty cool.
Sarah:Okay, and we reach up into Canada too, so we do, yeah.
Michael:So Canadians, we love you. You're you are part of this organization too. Please do not forget that.
Sarah:Yeah, so I just want to make sure you guys like understood as much as possible about what we're doing and what we're paying attention to and have our fingers in. So thanks again, Mike.
Michael:No problem, Sarah. Thank you so much for having me.
