Chapter Meeting Minutes
Friday, September 12, 2003
Quality Inn South
Madison, WI

 1.  Meeting called to order by President Sharon Winter.  Welcome and Introductions were made.

 2.      NASW UPDATE: Marc Herstand identified three bills that the  Legislative/ Social Policy Committee has been actively involved with.  He encouraged members to contact their representatives and Governor Doyle regarding these bills.

A.   Senate Bill 233/ Assembly Bill 457:  This bill would explicitly state that marriage is a civil contract between one man and one woman and only marriage between one man and one woman would be recognized as valid in Wisconsin, regardless of the laws in another state or jurisdiction.  NASW has a long history of supporting Gay Rights and is opposed to the passage of this bill.

B.    Senate Bill 214/Assembly Bill 444: This  bill would legalize the carrying of concealed weapons in Wisconsin.  NASW is against this bill for a number of reasons, including the correlation of concealed weapons with domestic violence, safety issues and an escalation in acts of violence.  At this point most law enforcement people are against the bill.  Groups that are supporting the bill include National Rifle Association, WI Capitol Watch and WI Wildlife Federation.  NASW opposes the passage of this bill.

C.   Assembly Bill 383/Senate Bill 186: This bill would prohibit young women 15-17 from participating in Wisconsin’s Family Planning Waiver program and obtaining health care services such as breast and cervical concern testing, treatment for sexual transmitted infection and birth control.  By prohibiting young women from receiving these services under the waiver, the state would be out of compliance with its commitment to the federal government to prevent teen pregnancies.  The entire program’s continuation could be put in jeopardy.  NASW opposes the passage of this bill.

D. Senate Bill 207/Assembly Bill 428: The Clergy Sexual Abuse Bill would make clergy mandated reporters but NASW feels there are “still too many exceptions, especially those surrounding information shared in a confidential manner or confessional setting”.  NASW has recommended changes in the bill.

 Other areas of NASW involvement include:

E. The Mental Health Parity Bill.  This increases the amount of coverage for mental health services that insurance companies would be required to provide. At this point, the bill will probably be passed in the Senate, but will have difficulty getting enough votes to pass the Assembly.

F.    Discussion continues about the required supervision guidelines for a psychologist or psychiatrist who is supervising clinical social workers at outpatient mental health clinics.

G.   Ongoing efforts are being made to try to resolves the major disputes between clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and professional counselors and the Wisconsin Certification Board who want only those with CADC certification to provide AODA counseling.  A task force continues to meet.

H.   Bill 2457 is looking at alternative ways that Social Work students could meet their clinical requirements other than needing to have a graduate school concentration and field placement in a clinical setting and doing 3000 hours of post-graduate supervised clinical work.

I.       An Any Willing Provider Bill has been introduced that would allow consumers who were seeing a mental health provider and experienced an insurance change would still be able to continue with that provider even if they were not listed as a provider in the new insurance coverage.

v    The Wisconsin NASW Annual Conference will may May 19-21, 2004 in Brookfield.

v    They will be starting a regular Ethics Column in the NASW News in the coming months to address ethical questions and concerns.

v    NASW is looking for volunteers to help others through the complaint process.  If anyone is interested they can contact Marc at NASW (608) 257-6334.

3.     Amy Passow, Treasurer provided the Treasurer’s Report.  The checkbook balance as of 9/11/03 is $5,647.17.

4.     Web-site Update:Members were encouraged to visit the web-site if they hadn’t yet.  Meeting reminders, registrations and more communication will be done through the web-site in 2004.  Amy reported that about 50% of today’s participants had registered via the web-site.

5.     No Liaison Reports on WHA or COP: Mike St. John and Pat Anderson were not present.

6.     ACMA Report: Mary Jo Walsh is in contact with a case management group to discuss the possibility of presenting a program at an upcoming chapter meeting.

7.     Nominations/By-Laws Discussion: Sharon identified that we still needed to fill the vacancy for president-elect.  She discussed requirements for filling this position from the by-laws.  The Board is working on this and will keep the membership updated about an upcoming election.

8.      Networking amongst members ensued.

9.     NEXT MEETING WILL BE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2003.

10.             Education program from 1:00-3:00:Cultural Competency in Working with Minority Groups in a Healthcare Setting.  Presenter:JoAnn Lomax.

Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Rasmussen LCSW,QCSW
Chapter Secretary