Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to invite you and your membership to the Region 8 Conference, Sigma Theta Tau International, to be held in Birmingham, October 16-18. The enclosed program details the outstanding panels and sessions planned for this meeting. Half of the meeting is dedicated to chapter development. The keynote speaker is Karen Morin, President-Elect of STTI, who was originally inducted while a member of Region 8's Nu Chapter. Karen will speak on leadership in our honor society and what that means to each of us as ambassadors for nursing internationally. There will be sessions for strategic planning for chapters, a panel of chapter leaders who were successful in establishing a new chapter of STTI in their institution, and the inauguration of a new initiative, a Junior Board at the Regional level. The networking opportunities among our regional chapter leaders will be rich and will begin a new chapter in strengthening the leadership in the region. I invite you to attend. I encourage you to support a junior member from your chapter. I look forward to meeting you in Birmingham.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need more information. The Conference brochure is attached and registration information and lodging are available on the conference website at www.NuChapterSTTI.org. This can also be accessed from the Region 8 STTI website at http://www.nursingsociety.org/Chapters/Regions/Pages/region8.aspx .
The Region 8 Conference qualifies as one program meeting for your chapter for the year. There will be CEU's for the meeting. The benefits to participation go far beyond these tangible ones, however, and the end result will be closer and more productive chapters and region for the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. I have tentative interest from chapters in Mississippi and Tennessee for hosting the conference in their respective states in 2009 and 2010. Our goal is to strengthen leadership in the Region-for STTI and nursing!! Please join us for this endeavor!
Please consider this favorably! I hope to see you in October!!!
Sincerely,
Ellen Buckner, DSN, RN
Region 8 Coordinator and Conference Chair
Professor and Coordinator of Honors in Nursing
University of Alabama School of Nursing
University of Alabama at Birmingham
1530 3rd Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-1210
(205) 934-6799
bucknere@uab.edu