News

CRANE Meeting Food Drive and Sock Drive

We will continue on with the yearly tradition of holding a food drive at the annual CRANE meeting to benefit a local food pantry.  This year we are working with Westbay CAP Marketplace food pantry in Warwick RI.  Below is a listing of the items this organization has on their “Wish List”. This has been such a success over the past couple of years, and we hope to continue doing well for this good cause.

Last year we had some requests to offer something for cancer patients as well, that being a Sock Drive.  Those interested in this as well are welcome to bring in socks such as the nonslip soft and cuddly kind that can be given to patients while in the hospital for their treatments.  We are looking into offering these socks to one of the Cancer Centers at one of the RI hospitals.  Details on that are forthcoming.

Either option would be an excellent cause to contribute to and of course both, even better!  The choice is yours and we hope that you consider at least one of these important causes.

Wish List for the food pantry (or something of your own choice of course):

  • Beef Stew
  • Corned Beef Hash
  • Chili Beans
  • Tuna Fish
  • Box Cereal
  • Chicken/Chicken Noodle Soups (14 oz)
  • Peanut Butter
  • Hardy Soups (14 oz-20 oz jars)
  • Canned Fruit (any kind – 14 oz)
  • Grape or Strawberry Jelly (14 oz)
  •  Gluten free foods – items marked “gluten free” such as soups, peanut butter, macaroni (corn, etc.) quinoa, canned green vegetables, other items
  • Diabetic friendly foods such as whole wheat flour, wheat germ, cornmeal, beans or canned vegetables and other items that do not contain corn syrup or have high fructose sugar content.

Thank you to all who consider one or both of these great causes!

CRANE Proposal for Bylaw Changes

Proposed Bylaw Changes

There has been a request for revision of bylaw: Term of Office

Current Bylaw

Each officer except the Treasurer, shall hold office for one year or until his successor has been elected and qualified.  The term of office shall coincide with the calendar year of the organization, from January 1 to December 31.  The term of office shall begin January 1 “yyyy”.

Proposed Change

Each officer, except the President-Elect and Immediate Past President, shall hold office for two years or until his successor has been elected and qualified. The term of office shall coincide with the calendar year of the organization from January 1 to December 31.  The term of office for the increased term of two (2) years shall begin January 1, 2021.

Rationale

To increase the term of office to the Executive Board for an additional one year.  This will provide continuity and streamline the election process. If this is passed, the relevant Section V. Term of Office will be changed to reflect the term of office to two (2) years.

The justification for these changes will be officially presented to the membership as outlined in Article X of the bylaws, Amendment of Bylaws:

  • These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the voting members present and voting at any business meeting of CRANE, provided that the amendment has been proposed by the Executive Board, Standing Committee, or by an active member in good standing. All proposed amendments will be submitted to the Bylaws Committee for review. The Bylaws Committee will be responsible that a copy of the proposed amendment has been submitted in writing to every member one month prior to the business meeting at which it will be voted upon.

Please watch for correspondence from the CRANE Executive Board and Bylaws Committee with information regarding proposed changes.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan V. O’Hara,CTR
CRANE President, Bylaws Chair

CRANE Spring Newsletter

Dear CRANE Members,

Please enjoy the attached CRANE Spring Newsletter.

If you decide to print this newsletter you may want to select the black and white option due to the number of colored pictures attached. 

CRANE Board

Click here to view the Newsletter

CRANE Board Change & Save The Date

SAVE THE DATE

 

For the 44th Annual CRANE meeting

September 16-17, 2019

Change to 2019 CRANE
Board of Directors

Effective April 24, 2019 Georgette Santilli CTR has resigned as the CRANE President. Ms. Santilli informed the board of this decision, reason that she has other commitments that have become too great, and feels it would be in the best interest to allow someone that can devote more time and energy to the position.

The CRANE Board accepted the resignation. Thanking Georgette for making the decision that she thought was best for CRANE. We also acknowledged the past work that was done in 2017, when the Vice President of CRANE was Georgette Santilli. She did wonderful work putting together the 2017 CRANE Annual Meeting in Mystic, CT.

According to the CRANE Bylaws the Vice-President, Susan O’Hara will complete the term of president. Below is from page 3 of the bylaws. The bylaws are available to all for review and can be found on the website.

Section VI. Vacancies

A. All vacancies, except the office of the President and the President-Elect, may be filled for the unexpired term by appointment by the President with the approval of the Executive Board.

B. In the case of a vacancy in the office of the President, the Vice-President shall complete the unexpired term of the President.

C. In the case of a vacancy in the office of the President-elect, this office shall be filled by majority vote of the members present and voting at the next regular, special or annual business meeting.

We would like to thank Susan for accepting the role of President. We are fortunate that Susan in her role of Vice President has already begun and made a sizeable dent in the work of organizing the 2019 CRANE Annual Meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

CRANE Executive Board

CRANE Winter Newsletter

Dear CRANE Members,

Please enjoy the attached CRANE Winter Newsletter.

If you decide to print this newsletter you may want to select the black and white option due to the number of colored pictures attached. 

CRANE Board

Click here to view the Newsletter

 

Food Drive

2nd Annual Food Drive

To benefit People Helping People, Burlington Mass

We are proud to once again do a food drive for the area that is hosting the CRANE Annual Meeting!

The pantry is available to any Burlington residents who meet certain financial qualifications to be eligible for assistance. The pantry is set up to provide a grocery store experience. Clients are paired with a volunteer to bring them through the pantry and assist them in selecting food, with a certain number of items allowed per category.

Currently, the pantry serves between 120 to 130 Burlington families per month, or around 350 people, according to recent data. While the majority of those served are adults, 35 percent are children and 11 percent are seniors.

Please only donate: NON-PERISHABLE items that are not expired or opened
CURRENT NEEDS ARE:

Liquid Dish Soap
Bars of Soap
Toilet Paper (individually-wrapped rolls)/Tissue boxes
Toothbrushes/Toothpaste
Shampoo
Vegetable Oil
Cans of Ready-to-Serve Soups
Pasta Sauce, Spaghetti / Pasta
Peanut butter & jelly
Canned Tomatoes (crushed, diced, whole, pureed)
Granola Bars, Trail Mix, Popcorn, Cookies
Mayo / Ketchup / Mustard / Salad Dressing
Pancake Syrup
Coffee & Hot Chocolate
100% Juice (no glass containers please

Collection box will be available. Thanks!

Let’s meet or beat last year’s total of 1,000 pounds!

CRANE Proposal for Bylaw Changes

Proposed Bylaw Changes

There has been a request for revisions of two bylaw changes: Nominating Committee and CRANE Treasurer.

Nominating Committee – Annually we reach out to the members to nominate CRANE members to hold positions on the Executive Board. During our Annual Meeting members are selected to form the
Nominating Committee. Bylaws, Article VII, Committees, Section II, Nominating Committee, states:

  • The Nominating Committee shall consist of five (5) members to be elected at the annual meeting. This committee shall be responsible for conducting and implementing all elections of CRANE. The elected committee shall meet at the close of the annual meeting to elect the chairman.

CRANE recently moved to electronic voting and members of the Nominating Committee and the CRANE Executive Board suggested reducing the number of Nominating Committee members from five (5) to three (3). The work volume for the committee was reduced when CRANE moved from manual/paper to electronic voting and this justifies having fewer members on the Committee.

CRANE Treasurer – The term of office for the CRANE Treasurer. Section V, Term of Office in the bylaws currently states:

  • The term of office shall be from January 1 to December 31. The term of office shall begin January 1 “yyyy”.

Treasurer: The Treasurer shall be responsible for the receipt and disbursement of all funds of CRANE. The Treasurer shall Chair the Finance Committee. The Treasurer shall submit a report at each of the Executive Board meetings and any general Business meeting. The Treasurer shall submit a report for the fiscal year at the annual meeting. The Treasurer shall be responsible for filing all required paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service and/or other regulatory agencies. The Treasurer shall be bonded, the bonding fee paid for by the association.

The board suggests the term of office for the position of CRANE Treasurer be changed. The proposed bylaw change would read:

  • Each officer, except the Treasurer, shall hold office for one year or until his successor has been elected and qualified. The Treasurer shall hold office for a two-year term or until his/her successor has been elected and qualified. The term of office shall coincide with the calendar year of the organization, from January 1 to December 31. The term of office shall begin January 1 “yyyy”.

This proposal was brought forth by a past Treasurer, who felt that with all the required learning the position would be better served as two-year term. The position requires overseeing the financial management, reporting CRANE’s finances as well IRS reporting. Another drawback to a one-year term is the constant changing of bank information, meaning who has access to the accounts (President and Treasurer), where the banking statements are mailed, etc.

The justification for these changes will be officially presented to the membership as outlined in Article X of the bylaws, Amendment of Bylaws:

  • These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the voting members present and voting at any business meeting of CRANE, provided that the amendment has been proposed by the Executive Board, Standing Committee, or by an active member in good standing. All proposed amendments will be submitted to the Bylaws Committee for review. The Bylaws Committee will be responsible that a copy of the proposed amendment has been submitted in writing to every member one month prior to the business meeting at which it will be voted upon.

Please watch for correspondence from the CRANE Executive Board and Bylaws Committee with information regarding proposed changes.

Respectfully submitted,

Deb Perriello CTR

2018 Dues Increase

Now, I imagine that headline strikes fear in the hearts of many of our members – BUT, we haven’t had a dues increase since CRANE started in 1974!!!!! If you google the value of 15 dollars in to days economy, it would be the equivalent of $94 dollars! But, your CRANE Board is very cognizant of its’ members and would never make that increase, just something to help put this into perspective.

Per the by-laws and the standing rules of CRANE, the Board has the right to make an assessment of the dues yearly, and this year, the Board decided to increase the dues to $35.00.

I did a random sample of other state registry organizations, and $35.00 is equal to or lower than all the organizations I surveyed. So, still an incredible bargain when it comes to the high level of education available through your membership.

The discussion of the dues increase was discussed at the annual business meeting at this year’s conference. Members had a chance to voice their concerns, but at the end of the discussion, the general consensus in the room was the dues increase was a necessary one.

We are also looking into having a management company work with us, as the high quality of our conference increases every year. This should also increase the number of members agreeing to serve on the board of CRANE, if they felt that the tasks required of the Board Position would be supported by a team of management professionals. In the next newsletter, I will be submitting giving the rationale in detail for this proposal. The possibility of working with a management company was also a factor in the Board’s decision to increase the dues.

Any questions, please feel free to contact anyone on the board.

Changing Breast Cancer Staging and Early Case Capture

Hi All,

If you were unable to attend the live presentation of the below webinar it is now available in a recorded format. The webinar has been approved for 1 CE Hour including .75 Class A CEUs

Brown will be sending the RICR a list of remote attendees and we will forward the certificate.

David

Archived Webinar – Changing Breast Cancer Staging and Early Case Capture

Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone is doing well! Just reaching out with some details regarding a recently archived Chronic Disease Management Webinar. This webinar describes changes the American Joint Committee on Cancer has made to their cancer staging system, to go into effect in January of 2018. CMEs are available to Physicians and Nurses. More details and a link to access the archived webinar are below.

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is in the process of making significant changes in the staging of cancer. When they take effect, these changes may affect as many as 40% of breast cancer patients. To illustrate how the new staging system will work, Dr. David Edmonson, a breast surgeon, and Dr. Kamaljeet Singh, a pathologist will demonstrate how breast cancer diagnoses will be affected. Then, David Rousseau will demonstrate how early pediatric case capture can be replicated in adults, and will open pathways to earlier enrollment of patients in clinical trials.

Learn More and Register

Remembering Diana Hughes

Dear CRANE Members,

Our colleague and friend Diana Hughes passed away on Friday, April 21, 2017 after a gallant battle with cancer.

Diana was well known and respected in the Cancer Registry field, having started her registry career at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and then later worked for many years at St. Anne’s Hospital. She also worked at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the state Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program.

Diana was a longtime member of CRANE and NCRA and she leaves behind her family and many friends in the healthcare field who will dearly miss her. Her obituary can be found in the link below.

Obituary for Diana Hughes

Sincerely,

CRANE Board

New ‘Category A’ information for CE’s

Hello all! We just wanted to make sure we are all aware of the new required NCRA education criteria. NCRA is now requiring at least 4 of the required 20 CE hours fall within specific topics under ‘Category A’ (directly assigned stage and/or site specific coding principles). This goes into effect with CTRs whose cycle ends 12/31/2017. We will make every effort to include some speakers at the annual CRANE meeting to cover these new requirements.

Please visit the NCRA website for more information. Attached below is the document that can be found under the ‘Certification’ tab on the NCRA website.

Thank you!
CRANE Board

Category A Requirement for CTR Continuing Education

TRANE/CRANE Memorabilia

Hello All,

We are looking for any TRANE or CRANE memorabilia that we can put on display during the 40th Meeting Celebration. If you have anything, would you please bring it with you? We would love to see what items might still be around!

We look forward to seeing everyone and reminiscing of all the changes during these past 40 years.

Thank you!

Federal Non Profit Status

CRANE Membership,

We have received a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service and I’m happy to announce that CRANE’s non profit tax status has been reinstated. As you know this has been one of the lingering affects of the embezzlement of CRANE funds. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Veronica Cormier for her work as well as Sue Trout for her continued service after leaving office. Since CRANE is incorporated in Massachusetts we now have to go through a similar process with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue but from what we’ve been told this should go fairly simply.

David Rousseau, President
Cancer Registrar’s Association of New England