All ASA members are invited, in fact urged, to attend the reference committee hearings and both sessions of the ASA House of Delegates. All meetings of the House of Delegates and reference committees will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel, San Francisco, California, from Sunday through Wednesday, October 12-15, 2003. Times and locations of these meetings will be listed on the hotel bulletin board.

How Does the ASA Legislative Process Work?
The voting members of the ASA House of Delegates represent constituencies that include the entire ASA membership. Each of the state components elects a director, and the component and specialty societies elect delegates. There is one voting member for every 100 ASA members. The legislative process permits these members of the House to hear the facts, give proper consideration to every item before the House, and debate and vote on these items in an open and democratic deliberative assembly.

Materials are sent to delegates and alternates in a Handbook for Delegates in advance of the meeting. These materials constitute the agenda for the House of Delegates. The sources of these business items include reports from the officers, directors and committee chairs and resolutions from individual delegates. The Speaker of the House of Delegates refers each item to a reference committee.

When participating in these deliberations, lack of familiarity with the Handbook for Delegates is probably the biggest obstacle to a member who is not familiar with the operations of the House. ASA officers, particularly the Speaker and Vice-Speaker and ASA staff are eager to explain to any member how to use the handbook to find the issues in which the member is interested. The House of Delegates Office, which will be located at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel during the 2003 Annual Meeting, is the best location to obtain such assistance.

The first session of the House of Delegates will convene at 9 a.m. on Sunday, October 12. ASA President James E. Cottrell, M.D., and President-Elect Roger W. Litwiller, M.D., will present their remarks and comments regarding the past and coming year at this first session. Officers will be nominated at this meeting, and candidates for office will address the entire House. Adjournment usually occurs by 11 a.m.

Sunday afternoon will provide the best opportunity for individual members to comment on any issue coming before the House. Again, officers and staff in the House of Delegates Office will assist members who wish to find out where discussion on the issues in which they are interested will take place.

Four concurrent reference committee hearings will be held on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m., with issues being divided among these four committees. Reference committees are composed of seven members who are appointed by the President with consideration to geographical distribution as well as experience with the issues and processes of the House.

At these open hearings, when an issue of interest is discussed, any member may step to the microphone and comment. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend and participate. Discussion is rarely curtailed. The Chair will impose limits only when discussion is repetitive or if the extent of the committee’s agenda demands it.

Open hearings will continue until 3 p.m. or until testimony has concluded, whichever is later. Hearings must adjourn or recess no later than 5 p.m., and will reconvene at 8 a.m. the next morning, if necessary. Then the reference committees go into closed (executive) session, at which time they will decide recommended action on each item of business that was assigned to the committee. The written reports of the reference committees’ recommendations are usually available by 5 p.m. Tuesday in the House of Delegates Office.

The second session of the House of Delegates will convene at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, October 15. Its adjournment time cannot, of course, be anticipated. Elections will be conducted; then the House will proceed to other business. Usually little debate occurs at this time because the reference committees will have provided ample opportunity for discussion and will have responded with appropriate and broadly acceptable recommendations for action based on all available information.

Should members differ with the recommendations, however, debate is heard, limited only by order of the House itself. Motions are received and considered for amendment, referral to committees or such other action as the House may desire to take. Because of the size of the House of Delegates (more than 300 voting members this year), formal parliamentary procedure guides the actions under the direction of the Speaker and Vice-Speaker, who chair these sessions.

Those who have never participated in such an assembly and who wish to do so might find value in the new delegates’ briefing that will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday. The Speaker and Vice-Speaker conduct this briefing for new members of the House, and it is open to any other interested member. The hour consists of an introduction to the Handbook for Delegates, ASA Annual Meeting processes and a brief introduction to parliamentary procedure as used by the House of Delegates.

Just as in public legislative bodies, much of the work of the House of Delegates is done outside of the formal process, but these sessions are not secret; they consist of the meetings of the caucuses. Five geographical areas have merged into unofficial but well-organized caucuses that usually meet on Saturday and Tuesday afternoons at the Annual Meeting. At these caucuses, issues and candidates are discussed in free and open forums (sometimes more open than in the House because of the smaller size and more informal atmosphere). Your director or delegates can be of great assistance in helping you to participate in caucuses. The meeting locations will be posted in the House of Delegates Office.

Attendance at the caucuses and sessions of the reference committees and the House of Delegates is open to all members of ASA. Numerous opportunities exist for all Society members, including those who are not elected officials, to actively participate in the affairs of ASA. Your Speaker strongly urges you to do so.

Candace E. Keller, M.D., is an anesthesiologist at New Mexico Anesthesia Consultants and St. Vincent’s Hospital, Santa Fe, New Mexico.