Summer is over. It doesn't matter that it is not September 20th or 21st. It is labour day and time to stop wearing white, etc. The weather had been wonderful in Toronto until this weekend. Not one lousy mile or kilometre did I put on the motorcycle. Just plain lousy weather. Bad enough that I actually went into the office today and took out all my frustrations on ripping up useless copies of printed documents. I am committed to going almost paperless within 18 months. That is just about when the warranty will run out on the scanner.
I now have to put my attention to dealing with the various clientelle issues together with preparing for a number of lectures and presentations.
I have a power point presentation ready for next week and then I have to get ready for another presentation a week later. I also have to get geared up for the opening of the Chiro Convention in November. I guess I have two months to worry about that one.
I finished proof reading a chapter I did for a medical text coming out of Montreal. And I even got in one road trip -- albeit in the sports car -- through New York State into the Atlantic States and up to New Brunswick, through PEI, back to T.O. through Quebec. 5 days - 4000 k. Too short in time and distance.
So now back in the saddle and back to those 1/2 day work days -- ie. 7 in the morning until 7 at night.
Ok. Ok.
So I haven't written anything for a while. It is not as if I am getting paid big bucks for putting non-earth shaking facts on the internet.
I have been way to busy -- and just last week I had to spend time with about 150,000 of my closest friends at Port Dover at the Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. It may not be an event that will change the world -- but it does add some respit from a crazy world.
I will be back soon to putting my trivia on the internet.
be well
So I haven't written anything for a while. It is not as if I am getting paid big bucks for putting non-earth shaking facts on the internet.
I have been way to busy -- and just last week I had to spend time with about 150,000 of my closest friends at Port Dover at the Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. It may not be an event that will change the world -- but it does add some respit from a crazy world.
I will be back soon to putting my trivia on the internet.
be well
Brian Seaman had graduated in 2002. In about 2004 we were chatting about the ill state of professional practices and how graduates just didn't get the "big picture" when it came to setting up an office.
It has always been my belief that a professional school, like chiropractic colleges, should teach students 3 fundamental things. First, how to diagnose a condition. Second, how to deal with a patient health problem. And third, how to create the environment in which those processes will take place. It does not matter how wonderful a diagnostician or practitioner a graduate might be -- if they are unable to create the office envirnment in which to carry out those functions they will be doomed to failure. This can come in many forms: not hiring proper staff; bad accounting methods; inappropriate leasing; over consumption of practice equipment etc. etc etc.
But lecturing has its limitations. Looking at drowsy faces at 8:00 am. on a Wednesday morning, there may have been a few students who were able to survive the two hours of diatribe even if it was mixed with ill humor, sarcasm, wit and words of "worlds ending and impending disasters".
During the conversation with Brian, we stumbled on the idea that the students should be required to "walk the walk" before stepping into the "real" world. This would be based upon the students being put into groups of between 4 to 6 students and being required to create a business plan involving anything from the establishing of an office; associating, purchasing a practice or any variation. The project would require that the students do a demographic study; lease or buy property; create an office design; cost out the leaseholds, equipment and office supplies; do a bank proposal including financial statements; create office policies and marketing; deal with insurance and patient documents. It truly was to be the creation of an office.
The first year of its use would be 1985. I was going to name it the "Seaman Project" but was a little concerned about the maturity of my students. I was then going to use Brian's initials, but I had even more concern about the title "BS Project", so it eventually became the Jurisprudence Project.
It has always been my belief that a professional school, like chiropractic colleges, should teach students 3 fundamental things. First, how to diagnose a condition. Second, how to deal with a patient health problem. And third, how to create the environment in which those processes will take place. It does not matter how wonderful a diagnostician or practitioner a graduate might be -- if they are unable to create the office envirnment in which to carry out those functions they will be doomed to failure. This can come in many forms: not hiring proper staff; bad accounting methods; inappropriate leasing; over consumption of practice equipment etc. etc etc.
But lecturing has its limitations. Looking at drowsy faces at 8:00 am. on a Wednesday morning, there may have been a few students who were able to survive the two hours of diatribe even if it was mixed with ill humor, sarcasm, wit and words of "worlds ending and impending disasters".
During the conversation with Brian, we stumbled on the idea that the students should be required to "walk the walk" before stepping into the "real" world. This would be based upon the students being put into groups of between 4 to 6 students and being required to create a business plan involving anything from the establishing of an office; associating, purchasing a practice or any variation. The project would require that the students do a demographic study; lease or buy property; create an office design; cost out the leaseholds, equipment and office supplies; do a bank proposal including financial statements; create office policies and marketing; deal with insurance and patient documents. It truly was to be the creation of an office.
The first year of its use would be 1985. I was going to name it the "Seaman Project" but was a little concerned about the maturity of my students. I was then going to use Brian's initials, but I had even more concern about the title "BS Project", so it eventually became the Jurisprudence Project.
It just doesn't quiet down. When I thought I would get some time to do some more writing, I end up with a few more urgent issues. I just finished dealing with a judicial review application but more will be said of that when the decision is released in late August. The results were as expected and quite satisfactory, even though a little sad for the individual on the other side of the application.
Anyway, by the time I had taught my risk management course for a few years -- consideration was given to increasing the information that was to be taught to graduating students in the area of practice management. The course was being taught by a chiropractor, but was a little off the mark for what was necessary to establish a professional practice. This was not unusual since I knew of no professional school in Canada that was preparing professionals for anything other than their specific discipline. I graduated from law school with almost no knowledge relating to matters relating to practice. It was a matter of "trial by error".
In about 1980 or so, I was asked to co-teach a course in practice management and by 1982 I was left to start teaching both risk management and practice management. At its "height", I was teaching a third year course preparing the students for risk management issues in practice and a fourth year course in practice management. While it would have been easier just to provide the information myself, it was not a "legitimate" method of presenting information to the students.
As such, I cajoled, dragged in, begged, pleaded and coerced individuals to assist in the teaching of the course through guest lectures. From about 1982 until the completion of my teaching, the students had the privilege of having lectures given by the following individuals: Ernie Wolkin, Paul Carey, Greg Dunn, Jo-Ann Willson, Sil Mior, Jean Moss, Chris Paliare, Linda Rothstein, Ian Roland, Maureen McCandless, Doug Brown, Nick Tantalo, Harry James, Len Goodman, Don Nixdorf, and a further group of architects, accountants, bankers, and chiropractors.
These individuals who gave of their time and expertise to provide the students with invaluable information that very few people could afford to obtain on an hourly basis. I was never quite sure that the students understood or appreciated what they were receiving, but occassionaly years after graduation I would meet a student who would actually express appreciation for the depth of information that was being provided to them by these experts.
The information being given to the student through the lectures should have been enough. But a chance discussion with Dr. Brian Seaman, a 1982 graduate, of Halifax, Nova Scotia and a member of the Board of Governors of CMCC led to a new dimension in chiropractic education. An innovation that I have been proud of ever since.
Anyway, by the time I had taught my risk management course for a few years -- consideration was given to increasing the information that was to be taught to graduating students in the area of practice management. The course was being taught by a chiropractor, but was a little off the mark for what was necessary to establish a professional practice. This was not unusual since I knew of no professional school in Canada that was preparing professionals for anything other than their specific discipline. I graduated from law school with almost no knowledge relating to matters relating to practice. It was a matter of "trial by error".
In about 1980 or so, I was asked to co-teach a course in practice management and by 1982 I was left to start teaching both risk management and practice management. At its "height", I was teaching a third year course preparing the students for risk management issues in practice and a fourth year course in practice management. While it would have been easier just to provide the information myself, it was not a "legitimate" method of presenting information to the students.
As such, I cajoled, dragged in, begged, pleaded and coerced individuals to assist in the teaching of the course through guest lectures. From about 1982 until the completion of my teaching, the students had the privilege of having lectures given by the following individuals: Ernie Wolkin, Paul Carey, Greg Dunn, Jo-Ann Willson, Sil Mior, Jean Moss, Chris Paliare, Linda Rothstein, Ian Roland, Maureen McCandless, Doug Brown, Nick Tantalo, Harry James, Len Goodman, Don Nixdorf, and a further group of architects, accountants, bankers, and chiropractors.
These individuals who gave of their time and expertise to provide the students with invaluable information that very few people could afford to obtain on an hourly basis. I was never quite sure that the students understood or appreciated what they were receiving, but occassionaly years after graduation I would meet a student who would actually express appreciation for the depth of information that was being provided to them by these experts.
The information being given to the student through the lectures should have been enough. But a chance discussion with Dr. Brian Seaman, a 1982 graduate, of Halifax, Nova Scotia and a member of the Board of Governors of CMCC led to a new dimension in chiropractic education. An innovation that I have been proud of ever since.
It has been a couple of wild weeks which have involved dealing with Human Rights Complaints; privacy issues; judicial review applications and the usual amount of aggravation.
But back to history.
By the middle of start if the 80's I was teaching 2 hours a week for the entire school year. It was actually quite enjoyable because the students were deeply interested in knowing and being prepared for what was going on in the real world. The third year course prepared the students for clinic and the fourth year course was to provide information on the establishment and operation of a health care clinic.
The issues in chiropractic in my first ten years of being involved in the profession were interesting, entertaining and adventurous. I took great pleasure in fighting some of the battles which continued with respect to the attitude of hospitals, governments and other health care workers. I didn't appreciate chiropractors being referred to as "mr" and I appreciated even less the attitude of a hospital or medical doctor who thought that patient information was not going to be provided to a chiropractor, even with the consent of a patient. Pro Bono work dealing with such nonsense was rewarding.
I recall one incident in the late 70's; early 80's where a west end Toronto newspaper writer decided he would do an expose on chiropractic. It was worse than junk science with no factual information -- just basic nonsense about the educational background and training of chiropractors at CMCC. It was a two part series. I recalled the writer's name and so I did a little research. It turned out the writer had been a pharmacist who had run afoul of his licensing body and had his license revoked for fraud. My letter to the publisher gave a polite request for the writer to refrain from any further such reports or he could deal with the fallout of the lack of integrity of the writer. My language was a little bit more colourful, but in any event he must have gotten the message. We never heard from the writer on the issue again. As I said, those were interesting times.
But back to history.
By the middle of start if the 80's I was teaching 2 hours a week for the entire school year. It was actually quite enjoyable because the students were deeply interested in knowing and being prepared for what was going on in the real world. The third year course prepared the students for clinic and the fourth year course was to provide information on the establishment and operation of a health care clinic.
The issues in chiropractic in my first ten years of being involved in the profession were interesting, entertaining and adventurous. I took great pleasure in fighting some of the battles which continued with respect to the attitude of hospitals, governments and other health care workers. I didn't appreciate chiropractors being referred to as "mr" and I appreciated even less the attitude of a hospital or medical doctor who thought that patient information was not going to be provided to a chiropractor, even with the consent of a patient. Pro Bono work dealing with such nonsense was rewarding.
I recall one incident in the late 70's; early 80's where a west end Toronto newspaper writer decided he would do an expose on chiropractic. It was worse than junk science with no factual information -- just basic nonsense about the educational background and training of chiropractors at CMCC. It was a two part series. I recalled the writer's name and so I did a little research. It turned out the writer had been a pharmacist who had run afoul of his licensing body and had his license revoked for fraud. My letter to the publisher gave a polite request for the writer to refrain from any further such reports or he could deal with the fallout of the lack of integrity of the writer. My language was a little bit more colourful, but in any event he must have gotten the message. We never heard from the writer on the issue again. As I said, those were interesting times.
Sometime in the last century, probably near the end of the 70's I was asked by Dr. Terry Watkins to participate on the Publication Committee of the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. At the time Dr. Michael Wiles and Dr. Janice Wiles were the editors of the Journal.
My first article in the Journal was entitled "Privilege". Interestingly, the principles set out in the article in 1977 are pretty much still applicable today. I have had the pleasure of writing further articles for the Journal over the decades dealing with matters involving risk management and business law. Dr. Watkin's leadership as the head of the Publications Committee was more than commendable and his dedication was paramount for the development of the publication to a worldwide respected journal under the subsequent leadership of Dr. Allan Gotlib.
It is my not so humble opinion that the profession of chiropractic in Canada owes its reputation to a few very well established and credentialed entities: the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic; the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association; the Chiropractic Research Foundation and the Canadian Chiropractic Examining Board. There may be disagreement among readers but I find that the four groups have something in common -- actually something they lack -- an overwhelming desire to not pigeon hole chiropractic care and a philosophy based upon public protection.
Anyway, in addition to being published in the JCCA, my diatribes have also appeared in the Canadian Chiropractic Magazine and Dynamic Chiropractic. The articles speak for themselves. I hope that they have had some impact on profession.
So now back to the late 70's. I did a short two year sojurn of teaching at Senecca College in a Business Course. Again, fun and a distraction at the time, but alas you can only juggle so many tasks at one time. Actually not true, but when the task is not fun -- my favourite thing in life is being able to say hausta la vista!
My first article in the Journal was entitled "Privilege". Interestingly, the principles set out in the article in 1977 are pretty much still applicable today. I have had the pleasure of writing further articles for the Journal over the decades dealing with matters involving risk management and business law. Dr. Watkin's leadership as the head of the Publications Committee was more than commendable and his dedication was paramount for the development of the publication to a worldwide respected journal under the subsequent leadership of Dr. Allan Gotlib.
It is my not so humble opinion that the profession of chiropractic in Canada owes its reputation to a few very well established and credentialed entities: the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic; the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association; the Chiropractic Research Foundation and the Canadian Chiropractic Examining Board. There may be disagreement among readers but I find that the four groups have something in common -- actually something they lack -- an overwhelming desire to not pigeon hole chiropractic care and a philosophy based upon public protection.
Anyway, in addition to being published in the JCCA, my diatribes have also appeared in the Canadian Chiropractic Magazine and Dynamic Chiropractic. The articles speak for themselves. I hope that they have had some impact on profession.
So now back to the late 70's. I did a short two year sojurn of teaching at Senecca College in a Business Course. Again, fun and a distraction at the time, but alas you can only juggle so many tasks at one time. Actually not true, but when the task is not fun -- my favourite thing in life is being able to say hausta la vista!
1982 was a pretty good year. Ian Coulter had become President of CMCC, Doug Brown nominated me as the first Honorary Member of CMCC which was given to me by Richard Luck at the CMCC Homecoming Gala and some time around that time I was invited to speak at the Alberta Chiropractic Convention. It was a wild event which must remain between myself, Dr. Luck and all those that spent the Saturday evening telling stories until 2:00 am (Dr. Carter, Dr. Gushaty, Dr. Ball, Dr. Ladell, spouses, Dr. Luck and maybe more). It was during this time that I learned that Dr. Luck has tried to walk on water. I also met Dr. Tom Amalo (but that is another story.)
It was also the year that I became the only Canadian (foreign) member of the National Association of Chiropractic Attorneys. I was given a warm welcome in Denver at their annual meeting. I quickly learned that anything that happens in the USA will reach the Canadian border within 5 years.
During the early '80s I travelled with respect to the chiropractic profession to Kansas City, Denver, Detroit, Lake Geneva (Wisconsin), Banff, and Vancouver. Interesting times.
It was also the year that I became the only Canadian (foreign) member of the National Association of Chiropractic Attorneys. I was given a warm welcome in Denver at their annual meeting. I quickly learned that anything that happens in the USA will reach the Canadian border within 5 years.
During the early '80s I travelled with respect to the chiropractic profession to Kansas City, Denver, Detroit, Lake Geneva (Wisconsin), Banff, and Vancouver. Interesting times.
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