Greetings fellow ISCA members!!! It is my distinct pleasure to inform you of upcoming changes/offerings the Indiana State Chiropractic Association will provide in the future. My name is Richard Mason, and I serve on the ISCA board in District Five as an alternate director, and also serve on the PR and membership committees.

I have served on the ISCA board for several years now and have had the opportunity to work with prior and new leadership teams. Both groups have advocated tirelessly to strengthen and protect our right to practice. This job is not an easy one, and involves individuals from executive leadership, committee members, and general ISCA members who give feedback to the association on issues that arise.

There are approximately 1000 practicing chiropractors in our state, but only approximately 300 members of the ISCA. We have discussed this issue many times in board meetings and have to come to a consensus that adding value to being a member is the best way to retain current members and attract non-members to join the association. The future vision of the ISCA is to increase quality to our members and strengthen our state association not only for experienced practitioners but with an expanded focus on doctors who are earlier on in their practice.

Starting this year, the State Board of examiners now allows the entirety of Continuing education credits to be attained virtually. To take of advantage of this change, the ISCA has entered into a partnership with the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut to offer higher quality online CE’s for our members at an affordable rate. This future arrangement gives our members access to (3) complimentary hours of continuing education through their online Neuromuscular Medicine program.

Additionally, we are also working on updating the current ISCA website to be more user friendly, and a place that doctors in Indiana are regularly visiting for information about legislative, insurance, or continuing education matters.

In the near future the ISCA is proposing the creation of a mentorship program that will be overseen by the district/alternate directors of each district. Our goal is to reach out to newer doctors who practice in Indiana within 5-10 years of graduation and provide them with more direction in their practice.

It is time for the ISCA to lead the effort to help Chiropractors in the early years of practice. The bottom line is experience can be a harsh teacher at times. Think about it for a minute yourself, who was there for you to help you along the way make it in practice? The time-honored practice of throwing new doctors to the wolves needs to end, especially since our newer graduates are finishing school with 100-200k in student loan debt.

Personally, I have been helped by several individuals that I will call “mentors” that practice near me. Without the input of these practitioners, I would not be where I am professionally.

In closing, it is important to express that in order for the ISCA to do our jobs at a high level we need to hear from our members. When issues arise moving forward it is our aim to have the district/alternate directors at the local level field the questions/issues that arise and keep connected with local doctors to have their queries answered in a timely fashion.

Here is to 2021 being the start of a new direction for the ISCA, and for chiropractic to keep growing and serving more Hoosiers.

Sincerely,

Richard Mason, D.C.M.S.