President's Perspective
Thoughts from NPA President, Barry Cole
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Starting a new fiscal year Our Nevada Psychiatric Association (NPA) financially operates on a fiscal year, July 1-June 30, as does the government of our state. Our Certified Public Accountant (CPA), specializing in non-profit organizations, has the NPA filing its IRS-990 form and paying taxes due because of our lobbying expenditures based on a calendar year. Should you wish to thoroughly understand the finances of the NPA please know that our 990 forms will be different from our monthly and “annual” financial documents used by the members of the Executive Committee (ExC), Executive Council (EC), and the Finance and Budget Committee (FB) for their day to day deliberations and decision-making during the fiscal year. I have promised you transparency regarding the operation of the NPA. You are entitled to any information you wish, but please keep your requests reasonable, and know that we compensate our bookkeeper and CPA based upon their time. I am proud to say that our financial processes work effectively. After months of analysis, lengthy committee discussions, tough decision-making by many hard-working members, I anticipate adequate cash on hand to meet all financial obligations in FY26 starting on 7/1/25. We will continue to maintain sufficient cash reserves for unplanned, unforeseen circumstances; have a generous “contingency” cushion beyond what would be considered “rainy day” funds; continue to make contributions to our long-term investments so we may one day be self-funded without having our Annual National Psychopharmacology Update (ANPU). While you may hear that Chapters will not be as richly funded this year, that holiday parties may have to be self-funded, travel that is not essential to our core operation has been cancelled, meetings are now only virtual, all to reduce our operating costs, we are not having financial problems, but we are actively and intentionally controlling our operating costs during a time of uncertainty. We continue to explore settlement with GAME/Medscape, not litigation, so we may continue to offer the ANPU without potential legal challenges over the similarity of their conference’s trademarked name to ours, there are other economic considerations that could lower our FY26 income while our production costs for the ANPU continue to rise. If you have specific questions, concerns, please contact our Executive Director (ED), Roberta Again or me. As members, you need to know what we do. The NPA belongs to all of its members.
Advocacy Experience July 1, 2025 the NPA-supported, fourth-year resident advocacy experience will begin for Landon Hester, MD, from UNR. NPA will provide 0.1 FTE funding for this unique opportunity, with the goal of giving Dr. Hester necessary preparation to serve as our State Government Affairs Representative. Dr. Hester will work closely with the NPA’s lobbying team, CartwrightNV, in Carson City to communicate our message, make clear our position. He will participate this coming year in Interim Committee, Regional Board, Licensure Board, various Commission and other meetings. Next year, Dr. Hester will work with our Government Affairs Committee members to identify viable candidates in the primary election, then select those winners best matching our interests for support in the general election. As Dr. Hester will follow Dr. Lesley Dickson, the NPA expects that he will acquire the knowledge she had after twenty years with this accelerated education, and be fully prepared to represent the interests of the NPA’s members in the 84th Legislature (Feb-June 2027). Join me in congratulating Dr. Hester, welcoming him as a member of our extended lobbying group, and wishing him much success as our new State Government Affairs Representative.
We passed the FY26 Budget The Executive Council (EC) passed the Fiscal Year 2026 budget on Thursday night, 6/26/25. We will be operating a lean budget for the coming year, using some of our cash reserves to cover expected deficits, but still have sufficient reserves for other urgencies that may arise. There will be no travel in the planned budget, all meetings of any size will be virtual other than the Annual National Psychopharmacology Update (ANPU), limiting activities from the central office to the chapters, exploring ways to bring more value to membership, and every effort to limit spending. This is a fundamental change for the NPA as we evolve into a functioning non-profit corporation, planning for long-term self-funding, making fewer “one off” decisions, and having the NPA operate consistently and predictably. At our last EC meeting we put our developing Operation Manual (OM) in effect, and over the coming year we will take steps necessary to align our OM with our Constitution and Bylaws (C&B). In the future, NPA will have processes to operate, a governance structure to make decisions, committees that deliberate and recommend, with an EC to decide and implement. The NPA in July 2026 will not be the NPA in July 2025. Please let us know what you think about this evolution. Do you have ideas or suggestions? Will you join one of our 20+ committees? We make this organization better together. Thanks.
NPA members, Where’s the NPA going? There are about 275 of us in the NPA. One-third are in greater Reno, and two-thirds are in metro Las Vegas. We keep a lobbying team on retainer, and track the activities of Legislature when in session, and then monitor interim committees, commissions, and news stories the rest of the year. What do you believe matters for us as Psychiatrists practicing in NV? What should we speak about? Is it just access to us specifically? Is it access to any mental health care? What about insurance payments? Absence of prior authorization? Social issues that impact our patients and us equally? Opportunity for more necessary licensure-related education, perhaps having a quarterly state-wide grand rounds, in addition to our Annual National Psychopharmacology Update? Please let our Executive Director, Roberta Again, know what’s important for you. We are trying to make the NPA more member-responsive. Your voice matters. B
At the May Executive Council (EC) meeting the Operation Manual (OM) was approved. After 47 years, the Nevada Psychiatric Association (NPA) put an OM into place. It’s still a work in progress, and needs your help to make it better, align it with our Constitution and Bylaws (C&B). Many parts of the OM cannot happen until we revise the C&B. We are soon posting the OM on the NPA’s website and ask that all members read it, tell us what’s good, bad and ugly. Do you see "unintended consequences” happening? The OM covers: governance structure, component structure, appointments to components, finances, membership, meetings, publishing, affiliates and other entities, central office administration, amendments, with many appendices for supplemental detail. The C&B is intended to be “rigid” and “absolute” while the OM should give us organizational consistency, provide ongoing direction. Over the coming year you will see changes, and we on the EC hope you like these developments. The OM subcommittee has worked for 2 years, and needs your valuable input to make this a “living” document. Thank you!
Have you wanted to be part of a Nevada Psychiatric Association component, but did not know what might be interesting? The NPA has many components, committees and subcommittees, and all of them need more active members. Most are open to all NPA members from residents to life, only a few require that you be a General Member (finished with training). Here are the current components: Annual National Psychopharmacology Update Planning (ANPUPc)-dealing with all activities and matters pertaining to our psychopharmacology update Audit (AUDc)-addressing “audits” should we need one Awards (AWc)-developing new awards and identifying people to receive them Disaster Preparedness (DPc)-getting ready for the “big one” and preparing briefing papers to help us continue practice despite whatever may come Education (EDc)-expanding our statewide education from more than one annual meeting to several educational offerings through the year; launching a statewide Grand Rounds meeting Elections (ELc)-overseeing the annual election we have each February Finance and Budget (F&Bc)-managing the finances, budget and investments of the NPA (the money committee) Conflict of Interest (CoIsc)-identifying conflicts of interest and educating all of us about means to avoid them Constitution and Bylaws (C&Bc)-maintains the NPA’s constitution and bylaws to allow for us to operate the organization Operation Manual (OMsc)-maintains the NPA’s operation manual and makes necessary updates to keep it in conformance with the Constitution and Bylaws Contract (CONTsc)-reviewing all NPA contracts, helping to evaluate opportunities Government Affairs (GAc)-addressing all local, state and federal government activities for which we want to have some voice Federal Government Affairs (FGAsc)-a specific subcommittee only addressing federal government activities State Government Affairs (SGAsc)-a specific subcommittee only addressing local and state government activities Membership (MEMc)-improving the member experience for NPA members, helping to recruit and retain members Distinguished Fellowship (DFsc)-identifying qualified members for Distinguished Fellowship status, and helping those members be recognized and awarded by the APA Fellowship (Fsc)-identifying qualified members for Fellowship status, and helping those members be recognized and award by the APA Nominating (NOMc)-Encouraging NPA members to run for offices, overseeing the development of our slate of officers Outreach (OUTc)-providing support in our communities through other non-profit groups, supporting one-off community efforts, addressing impacts on physician wellness Social Media (SMsc)-positioning the NPA for visibility, enhanced membership communication, and letting prospective members see who we are Membership Engagement (MEsc)-doing more to recruit more to join the NPA, stay in the NPA, and find more value from their membership Public Affairs (PAc)-acting as the spokesperson for the NPA and working directly with the Public Affairs Representative Communications (COMMsc)-assisting Public Affairs with effective communications about NPA’s positions, sponsored activities, and helping with our lobbying with GAC Tellers (TELc)-the group counting ballots when we have elections, and “certifying” the results of our elections While joining a committee may not seem like much, it is very important, so much so, if you attend 50% of any committee’s meetings each year you will be awarded a complimentary registration for the Annual National Psychopharmacology Updated, valued at $990. Please get involved, and discover what is going on at the NPA. By the way, do you have a “long-range” view? We have a couple of planning components addressing 5-10-20 years into the future. Ready to be a “trend forecaster?”