FW: HPS to Radiation Safety Society

["Vernig, Peter G." <Peter.Vernig@med.va.gov>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Vernig, Peter G. 
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 10:06 AM
To: 'radasfe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu'
Subject: RE: HPS to Radiation Safety Society


Group,

A few further thoughts.  I did not as Ron Kathren suggested propose the
change, I proposed discussing the suggestion made by our society president,
Ray Johnson.  BTW Ron and I have had a private exchange over the issue.  He
got that impression since I summarized my initial reaction as somewhat
favorable to the change.  

I am not particularly concerned with the IH power grab.  In my experience
IHs typically are not much more knowledgeable than others in our field and
most of the better ones know it.

One thing the society is doing, is trying to reach out to RSOs that may not
be HPs and may be part time on radiation safety.  In the medical arena, as
Mack pointed out there are a lot.  Many of them are NMTs or Rad Techs. or a
doctor is named RSO and the NMT or Rad Tech does the work under the nominal
supervision of the RSO.  The IHs are trying to attract people like that
also.  I think to be healthy and grow we need to try harder because we are
competing with IH and possibly others.  One thing we have going for us is we
have always had relatively low membership dues.  I do think we need to work
on our application form and process to make it MUCH MORE USER FRIENDLY!

About 10 years ago the Veterans Administration was elevated to cabinet level
and became the Dept. of Veterans Affairs.  Note I give my address as VA
Medical Center.  We are still known to the majority of society as the VA and
most of us refer to it as the VA not the DVA.  This was a change that we had
no input in and was simply for consistency.  I am not sure the reason but
the National Bureau of Standards [NBS] became the National Institute of
Standards and Technology [NIST] and that change took.

I note that our Membership Handbook says, Radiation Safety Professional's
Membership Handbook and Directory at the top and "Health Physics Society,
'Specialists in Radiation Safety'" in the middle below the logo.

Our annual meeting is being called the "American Radiation Safety Conference
and Exposition" this year.

I guess what I am coming to is, I think maybe that type of emphasis in our
communications is more appropriate than changing the name of our
organization.  When we say what we do, we can say, "I'm a Radiation Safety
Specialist" or "Radiation Safety Officer", that's what I have on my business
cards.  We can say or describe ourselves anyway we choose.

I guess I think we would lose some tradition and history and I am not
convinced we would gain much if anything by changing the name.

Regards to all.

Any opinions expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily represent those
of the Denver VA Medical Center, The Department of Veterans Affairs, or the
U.S. Government.

Peter G. Vernig                
Radiation Safety Officer, VA Medical Center, 1055 Clermont St. Denver, CO
80220, ATTN; RSO MS 115
303-399-8020 ext. 2447, peter.vernig@med.va.gov [alternate
vernig.peter@forum.va.gov] Fax 303-393-5026 [8 - 4:30 MT service] Alternate
Fax 303-377-5686

"...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is found to be
excellent or praiseworthy, let your mind dwell on these things."    Paul

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