IN THENEWS

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FEATURE ARTICLE:

Q1 2026 AVMA House of Delegates Report

By Izzy Ramirez | February 11, 2026

By Deb Nickelson, D.V.M., M.B.A, AAIV Delegate to the AVMA HOD

The House of Delegates for the AVMA met during the Veterinary Leadership Symposium Jan. 8-10 in Chicago. The weather was surprisingly nice. Since Dr. Tim Smaha could not attend, Dr. Wendy Weirich joined me for the first HOD session and the Reference Committees. Please send any comments or questions to AAIV at industryvet@gmail.com. As always, thank you for your support. We are here for you.

One of the Veterinary Information Forum topics (near and dear to us) was about HOD Membership Criteria. It was obvious how much value people consider the allied organizations as I have never seen our 6 a.m. Allied Caucus Meeting so crowded, standing room only. On the house floor, I spoke about the value of AAIV being a member of the House of Delegates and the challenges with membership. In the end, there will be a working group established to evaluate criteria for new and existing allied organizations (I volunteered to participate) and there will be a grace period for the Allied Organization to meet the existing criteria during the working group’s task.

The other Veterinary Information Forum topic was about Veterinary Technician Training and Education. There are 217 AVMA CVTEA accredited programs with six additional programs in the works for accreditation. While some people spoke about the lack of career advancement for veterinary technicians, I reminded the House the veterinary technicians have many opportunities in the animal health industry, that we offer programming about such careers at VMX and veterinary technicians are welcome members of AAIV.

Resolutions

There were two resolutions brought forward to the House of Delegates for review.

Resolution 1: Animal Training and Early Exposure got a lot of interesting discussion and I learned quite a bit about camels. The idea for this resolution was to cover all species in all cases and it was just too broad and did not serve any purpose, so it was referred back to the Board of Directors.

Resolution 2: Camelid Castration was approved after some amendments regarding reason for castration and AVMA recommendations for anesthesia and analgesia. I learned even more about camels.

By-Law Amendments

#1: House of Delegate Voting

This amendment passed to clarify that an absentee vote (when an entity does not vote “yes” or “no”) is not counted as a “no” vote; it is not counted at all.

#2: Board of Directors Voting

This amendment passed to clarify that the one non-voting members of the Board of Directors was the treasurer.

#3: Membership Voting

This amendment passed to clarify that the majority of voting members present and voting at a meeting shall be the act of the members.

#4: Definition of a Veterinarian

Changed to “Voting membership may be granted to any individual who has earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M./V.M.D.) degree or substantive equivalent as determined by the Board of Directors or its designee(s) from school or college of veterinary medicine and has met membership qualifications and application requirements.” This passed to accommodate veterinarians from foreign schools.

#5: Clarification of Referral Authority

This amendment passed to clarify how the House of Delegates may refer matters to the Board of Directors.

#6: President duties

This amendment passed to clarify what is already being done in that the AVMA president performs the ceremonial activities and functions throughout the annual convention since the HOD meets before the convention starts.

#7: Board of Directors Qualifications

With a 73% vote, this one was referred back to the Board of Directors because one possible qualification for serving as a District Directors was to have serviced as an officer in a Principal Veterinary Organization or Constituent Allied Veterinary Organization for at least 3 years. Every organization has different ideas of what an officer means, such as president, secretary, Organization Board of Directors etc. and the qualifications needed.

Candidates and Elections

Dr. Robert Knapp is running for AVMA President-Elect
Dr. Elizabeth Boggier is running for AVMA Vice President
Dr. Mahmoud Abouraya was appointed to represent Clinical Pharmacology on the Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents
Dr. Nicole Dickerson as appointed on the Council on Veterinary Service
Unfortunately, no nominations were received for two positions on the Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents, one of which was to represent Clinical Pharmacology. AAIV would be happy to nominate a member who is interested in serving.

House Advisory Committee

There are four positions open on the House Advisory Committee or HAC. The HAC members lead the reference committees, certifies the credentials of candidates for president-elect, vice president and nominees for councils, committees and task forces.

Two of the people who currently serve may run for a second term. One of them will do so and I heard the other one will run for a Board of Directors position. I know of one person who campaigned last summer will campaign again. I officially submitted my application and paperwork in December for the election during the AVMA summer meeting. I have the support of Dr. Sandy Willis, our AAIV liaison and AVMA Board of Directors Chair and I certainly appreciate your support.