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s the holiday season approaches, the National Fieldwork Placement Service has been busy working on its list of student applications – for both the naughty and nice! To help with this, the NFPS Joint Committee is proud to announce several new initiatives that will benefit students and fieldwork coordinators alike. For example, to help students successfully complete the application process, NFPS has developed and distributed recommendations that will increase their chances of being placed. This information has also been made available on the new NFPS website. The recently revised website now includes a map of high demand areas in and around the Greater Toronto Area along with important new policy information. NFPS is especially proud to introduce the new Student Found Placement Policy , which will eliminate any student from unfairly obtaining their own placement through personal connections. Instead, the process will now help ensure that the overall recruitment is conducted fairly and will provide all students with an equal chance at securing an appropriate placement opportunity in their preferred catchment area.

NFPS also developed a new NFPS Joint Committee Issue

Management Process that will help bring issues and concerns to the appropriate authority. If you should have any concerns about the placement process, please visit our website to learn more.

If you should require further information, please do not hesitate to contact our new coordinator, Rebecca Nagrodski, at rebecca@nfps.ca or 1-866-294-5160; she will be more than happy to speak with you.

NFPS JOINT COMMITTEE

To continue the quality improvement process, the NFPS Joint Committee is presently working to finalize a Conflict of Interest policy for students and an accountability procedure for all placement leads provided to the NFPS staff. As well, a chart on how placement procedures differ from catchment to catchment based on varying parameters is also being created and once completed will be posted on the website. This will aid in the clarity of how NFPS has to proceed in different areas when trying to secure student placements. The Joint Committee is pleased to be working together collaboratively to improve the student placement experience and all members are looking forward to updating stakeholders on their process in 2012.

Association Information

Notice of 2012 Meeting Change

All those planning to attend the ACOTUP AGM, Board of Directors and Committee Meetings in Quebec City in 2012, please note that there have been some revisions to the original schedule. The AGM, Board of Directors and CUFE meetings will remain on the same day – Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

The CUFE meeting may be extended to Wednesday depending on the budget and approval by the Board. The Curriculum meeting has been changed from the Monday June 4th to Wednesday June 6th, 2012.

New Executive Director

As many of you know, Donna Klaiman stepped down as excecutive director after six months serving the association to spend more time on her small business endeavours. There were several excellent candidates who applied for the position, and those selected for an interview will be contacted. A decision on the new executive director will be made before year end.

Incorporation

After five years of hard work and much effort by all involved, ACOTUP’s bylaws were finalized and ACOTUP received its incorporation.

Thank you again to all those who invested their time and energies into getting this done…now ACOTUP can focus on moving forward with the association – promoting and developing occupational therapy

education and research with understanding of issues in a global context.

Report Submission

Are you on one of ACOTUP’s committees or its executive? Have you been asked to provide reports back to the ACOTUP Board during regularly scheduled teleconference meetings? Then this request is for you! Due to busy schedules and demanding work commitments, we recognize that it can be difficult to compile these reports. However, it has become quite challenging to collect the required materials on time for the meetings, resulting in Agenda items that can’t be addressed, despite numerous email reminders. Please do your part in ensuring ACOTUP meetings are productive by submitting your reports in a timely manner (see below schedule for report and newsletter submission dates) to bonnie@acotup-acupue.ca.Thank you!

✪ December 20, 2011 - Deadline for newsletter submissions;

✪ February 15, 2012 - Reports are due for the February 29, 2012 Board of Directors Meeting;

✪ March 22, 2012 - Deadline for newsletter submissions;

✪ April 15, 2012 - Reports are due for the June 5, 2012 AGM, Board of Directors and CUFE Meetings.