People have been telling us that participating in the 60 Summits Project is stretching them and making them grow - as professionals, as leaders, and as change agents. To support this growth, Larry Laufer, President of Applied Human Resource Systems, will be leading a workshop on effective persuasive communications during our 1st Annual Meeting of the 60 Summits Project Alliance (November 16-18 in Las Vegas). His interesting background spans the fields of adult learning, culture change, and interpersonal communications. Larry is so committed to giving a relevant and useful workshop to our community that he is going to be phoning a sample of attendees to see what they would like to hear -- so he can structure the workshop with their actual goals in mind! The title of the workshop is "Becoming a Powerful Paradigm Propagator: Reading People, Finding Common Ground, and Getting to Yes."

The first meeting of the Indiana Summit planning group has been scheduled for July 11. Sandy Fralich, senior account executive with JWF Specialty (and former Executive Secretary of the Indiana Workers’ Compensation Board) and Tim Rankin from the case management firm of PDM have agreed to co-chair the planning group.

A feasibility session was held in Houston Texas in conjunction with the Texas Workers' Compensation Educational Conference. More than enough people signed up to declare that a Summit planning group has been formed for Texas! Comprised of an experienced, influential, and varied set of stakeholders, that group is now getting itself organized.

The 1st Annual Meeting of the 60 Summits Alliance is scheduled for November 16-18 in Las Vegas, just prior to the National Workers' Comp & Disability Conference. See more details.

The Florida Summit was held on June 1 and 2 in Orlando, Florida. A hundred and fifteen people attended from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, and small working teams developed creative and concrete draft workplans for beginning implementation of most recommendations in the ACOEM whitepaper on Preventing Needless Work Disability. The initial meeting of the followup action group is scheduled for August 6th, but many groups have set up interim meetings in order to get started on initial tasks in their implementation plans.

Bob MacBride MD, Vice President and Medical Director of Prudential Group Insurance, passed away suddenly today. Bob was one of the authors of the ACOEM whitepaper that sparked formation of the 60 Summits Project, and was instrumental in Prudential providing a substantial grant that allowed 60 Summits to get off the ground. He was bright, practical, friendly, a hard worker, and a tireless advocate for improving return-to-work outcomes. Bob will be sorely missed. We acknowledge with gratitude the support he provided us, and we extend our sympathies to his family and coworkers.

A meeting to discuss the feasibility of bringing The 60 Summits Project to Texas has been scheduled for Tuesday morning June 10, 2008 from 8:30 to 11:30 at the Marriott Westchase hotel in Houston. See more about Texas.

The final report of the Minnesota Summit that was held January 31 and February 1, 2008 is now available on the 60 Summits Project's Minnesota webpage.

The Arizona Summit was held May 8 in Phoenix with about 100 attendees. The multi-stakeholder group that planned this event produced a flawlessly executed conference with a tightly-managed and stimulating agenda in an excellent facility. One attendee commented: "I have never been to an event that was so well organized, clearly communicated, smooth and well-run. You all did an amazing job!"

The mix of attendees was notable for the breadth of organizations represented, including major employers, labor unions, healthcare organizations, disability and workers' compensation insurers, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, the US Small Business Administration, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Arizona Office for Americans with Disabilities, the Arizona Employment and Disability Partnership, and the Industrial Commission of Arizona, among many others.

Roughly half of the attendees signed up to be part of the newly-formed Arizona Work Disability Prevention Association (AWDPA) in order to carry out the action plans they had made during the Summit. The AWDPA will hold its first meeting on June 11. See more about Arizona.

The final report of the Ohio Summit that was held March 14, 2008 is now available on the 60 Summits Project's Ohio webpage.

Three Montana Summits were held in Bozeman, Great Falls and Missoula on April 20-25. About 70 attendees were at each one. An estimated half of the workforce of Montana will be touched by the people who participated in the Montana Summits, according to Jerry Keck, head of the Montana State Division of Employment Relations whose staff managed the operational planning for the Summits. All of the three events were very highly rated by attendees. Overall, more than 90% agreed that the event was well worth their time and they believe it will bear fruit in the future. More than 70% of all attendees signed up to participate in follow-up activities. The Summit planning committee is now planning next steps, and the final report of the Summits is in preparation. See more about Montana.

Indiana now has a Summit planning group getting itself organized! The feasibility meeting in Carmel on April 18 was hosted by PDM, a case management firm, and attended by 20 people from a wide array of stakeholder groups. Despite the fact that workers' compensation in Indiana is not thought to be a problem, the group decided that the stay-at-work and return-to-work process needs improvement there, and most of those in attendance signed up to be part of a Summit planning group. A hand surgeon explained that he had decided to come because he thinks the future of healthcare is collaborative, and he wants to help create how that future will look. Several employers said they want to participate because they see the impact of lost workdays due to personal health conditions as a bigger problem than workdays lost because of work-related injuries. Several people agreed that being associated with the 60 Summits initiative in Indiana may become a "signal of quality."

The Ohio Chapter of the 60 Summits Project held its first major event -- Preventing Needless Work Disability Among Ohioans: A Stay-at-Work & Return-to-Work Leadership Summit -- on March 14 in Columbus. The largest 60 Summits event to date, more than 135 people participated, and 28 organizations were sponsors. Experimenting with a new agenda design, this event included same-stakeholder small group work sessions as well as the mixed stakeholder groups that have characterized previous events. Attendee evaluations overwhelmingly rated the event a worthwhile success. 42% of all who attended signed up to be part of the follow-on action group which will hold its first meeting on May 1, 2008.

Wisconsin now has a Summit planning group getting underway! The feasibility session in Wisconsin was remarkably well-attended given the 18 inches of snow that fell the night before! Seventeen out of the 20 attendees agreed to serve on a Summit planning committee. The new volunteer co-chairs of this Wisconsin group exemplify the multi-stakeholder approach. They are a safety manager for a multi-state marine contractor headquartered in LaCrosse and an occupational physician who is a regional medical director for Concentra Health Systems in Milwaukee.

The Minnesota Summit was held in Minneapolis on 1/31 and 2/1 and was a wonderful event. Approximately 90 people participated; an almost equal distribution of stakeholders from 7 groups assured that each small group had input from many perspectives. The focus was on absence from work and work disabiltiy due to all causes. The high energy and positive collaborative spirit in the room was remarkable. The small groups came up with wonderfully specific projects they plan to undertake starting immediately to improve the "system" in Minnesota. A high point of the panel presentation occurred when a local labor union representative commented how he had become interested in the ACOEM work disability guideline after reading it and had warmed to the idea of the Summit approach by listening to others' perspectives in the multi-stakeholder discussion. The report of the Minnesota Summit is expected to be available in March.

A group in British Columbia decided to hold a Summit in November, 2008! People from several BC organizations held their own feasibility meeting to decide whether it made sense to bring the 60 Summits Project idea there. The meeting was apparently a great success. There was strong multistakeholder support for the content of the ACOEM work disability prevention guideline and a wish to be associated with the 60 Summits Project. They agreed to aim at an initial summit in November 2008.

The Montana Labor Management Advisory Council on Workers Compensation (LMAC) decided today that Montana will hold three Summits in April 2008 in conjunction with The 60 Summits Project. The LMAC will be the lead sponsor, along with the State of Montana, the Montana State Fund, the Montana Building Contractors Association and the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth Health System and others. Three members of the Labor-Management Advisory Council are on the Summit Planning Committee. Montana has been looking for a new model to adopt in the return to work arena, and will be engaging the whole state in a conversation about implementing the new work disability prevention paradigm.

The Chair of the California Consortium to Promote Stay at Work, Dr. Mel Belsky, has just put his Summary Report of the Northern California Summit (held 6/21/2007) on the Consortium's website. They have not yet posted the appendix that lists the detailed recommendations made by participants in the breakout groups during the Summit.

The inaugural meetings of the Michigan and Massachusetts Summit planning groups are being held January 17 and 18, respectively. This is a great time for you to get involved on the ground floor!

Sondra Seay has joined The 60 Summits Project's national staff as manager of sponsor relations. She will head our sponsor program and build our roster of national, regional, and special sponsors. Sondra has also agreed to lead the planning of our first national conference, currently anticipated for the late autumn of this year. Sondra has become familiar with The 60 Summits Project while serving as a member of the Florida Summit planning group, and is heading up their local sponsor program. Learn more about Sondra Seay.