It is indeed an honor to serve as President of the California Association of Nurse Anesthetists. I hope to provide the CRNAs of California with the leadership that they deserve. This is a daunting task, but I am greatly helped by an experienced, talented and dedicated CANA Board of Directors: Tim Wolf, Chris Stein, Jim Carey, Dick Jaco, Ellen Roth, Erica Zima, Karyn Karp, and Patty Manning. I am grateful for the continued support of an enormously talented Immediate Past-President Jennifer Woolley. I am also very grateful for the advice and advocacy of Sharon Hensley, Region 5 Director. The AANA Board of Directors and Executive Staff have been enormously supportive of our issues in the past, and I fully expect their continued advice and support in our future challenges.

Why did I run for President of CANA? I feel a great debt to those who were willing to give generously of their time and treasure for the past 75 years to serve as leaders in this great organization. If these dedicated CRNAs before us had not been willing to work so hard to protect our profession, our practice would be much different than it is today. Through their efforts our profession continues to offer our patients excellent, accessible anesthesia care. So this is my time to pay back to my profession. It is also time for YOU to pay back to your profession. We all have individual talents that are best suited for different ways to contribute, so let us know what you can do.

We are planning a couple of great meetings this year. The Spring meeting will be held in Palm Springs at the Hotel Zoso Resort April 28-30, 2006. The Palm Springs meetings are always a lot of fun, and we hope to have the usual large turnout. The attendees at the Fall 2005 business meeting chose Lake Tahoe for the Fall 2006 meeting, and we are researching venues at this time. We hope to have specific meeting dates posted soon so you can plan your schedules.

Please let us know if you have any questions. I encourage you to discuss these issues with your CRNA colleagues and the importance of supporting the AANA and CANA. Thank you for your support in the past and in advance for all the support you will give CANA in the future to help protect our profession and our patients’ access to excellent anesthesia care.

Thanks again,

Frederick M. Cardinal
President, California Association of Nurse Anesthetists