ISMA’s 168th Annual Convention, Sept. 16-17 at the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel at Keystone Crossing, promises to be a busy two days. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to mingle with colleagues and elected officials and discuss policies affecting ISMA governance and medicine in Indiana.

This is the second year that convention will last two days instead of three, in a nod to efficiency and members’ busy schedules. The complete convention schedule is online.

In addition, several important changes will take effect this year:

Declaration of candidacy for office (Now through House of Delegates meeting):
At its Aug. 2 meeting, the ISMA Executive Committee approved the following policy, effective immediately, to help staff identify announced ISMA and AMA delegation candidates for publication:

All members of ISMA who choose to run for an elected office of ISMA or the Indiana AMA delegation, and who wish for ISMA to help announce their candidacy, must first complete and submit to ISMA a Declaration of Candidacy form. Candidates who have not submitted the form to ISMA will not be announced or administratively supported in any way by ISMA (e.g., listed on the website, help with mailings/e-mailings, etc.).

The Declaration of Candidacy form is available on the ISMA website here. Candidates may declare their intent to run for office any time before elections are held at the ISMA convention.

Candidacies of those who submit forms before convention weekend will be listed on ISMA’s website as their forms are received.

IMPAC Social (Friday):
An IMPAC Social will be held the evening before convention starts at The District Tap, 3720 E. 82nd St., Indianapolis. This event, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., takes the place of the traditional IMPAC Lunch. As always, it’s a wonderful opportunity to support advocacy for physicians, chat with colleagues and talk with elected officials about health care policy in Indiana. Click here for more information.

Working lunch (Saturday):
This year, reference committees 1-4 will meet consecutively in the same room instead of concurrently in different rooms, giving attendees a chance to hear discussion on all proposed resolutions. A lunch buffet will be served in the House of Delegates meeting room while discussions continue.

Electronic voting (Sunday):
Electronic voting will replace previous methods of voting at the House of Delegates this year.