Where we are ... where we're going

delivered by Terry A. Rondberg, D.C., WCA President, at the Parker Seminar, Las Vegas

Three years into the new millennium and chiropractic has experienced so much that is new and different. We've seen adjusting tables set up at ground zero and in third world jungles. We've spread information about subluxations to members of Congress, and children in school classrooms.

We've won victories in the courts and in the press, and come closer to our vision of making subluxation-based lifetime family wellness care available to all people.

Over the last decade and a half, the World Chiropractic Alliance has grown from a small band of dedicated doctors to a powerful and progressive organization that has helped bring about major changes in our profession.

We're a pro-active organization, fighting hard to safeguard the future of subluxation-based chiropractic. Since we aren't weighed down by layers of bureaucratic process, we can take action quickly and decisively. We speak out boldly when defending chiropractic, and never compromise our principles to appease those who attack our profession.

Our members represent chiropractic at every level. One of our board members, Dr. Chris Kent, was elected Treasurer of the NGO Health Committee, which collaborates with United Nations departments and agencies to promote improved health and well being of all people. The only chiropractor to serve on a White House Presidential Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine was WCA Board member Dr. Veronica Gutierrez.

One of our Board of Governors members, Dr. Leona Marie Fischer, was chosen to serve on the Veterans Affairs Chiropractic Advisory Committee. Another, Dr. Kristina M. Collins, was picked for the prestigious National Advisory Council on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Other members and board members are serving in important posts around the globe.

In Washington, D.C., the WCA is a powerful force, with close ties to several influential legislators and agency officials. With the help of our lobbyist, who serves as the president of the American League of Lobbyists, we were instrumental in getting the V.A. bill passed with specific reference to subluxation correction.

Thanks to our work, senators and representatives are beginning to understand that chiropractic has a unique role in the American health care system and will help us achieve complete parity with other health care disciplines.

On the global scale, we were the first chiropractic organization to sponsor a chiropractic presentation to world health care leaders at the NGO Conference in Seoul, Korea, and a workshop on women's health held at the United Nations in New York. We've traveled to Geneva to work with leaders of the World Health Organization, and are helping develop model chiropractic licensing laws for all nations.

The World Chiropractic Alliance has used its resources to help subluxation-based doctors fight board harassment and unjustified litigation and is working to secure academic freedom for students on all college campuses. WCA promotes the advancement of chiropractic science by supporting the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research -- the only peer-reviewed journal specifically geared to studying the devastating effects of subluxation, and the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

On a more personal level, we're concerned with the financial well being of chiropractors as well, and have produced patient education books that have greatly increased patient volume for many doctors. Many of you have already met Paul Vaden, a former boxing champ who has publicly announced that he couldn't have won the championship without chiropractic care and whose celebrity endorsement will bring in massive amounts of new patients.

The WCA is also blazing the trail to a new era of chiropractic cooperation. As a founding member of the Chiropractic Coalition, we are working closely with the ICA, FSCO and other chiropractic organizations to monitor and prevent abuse by certain chiropractic regulatory agencies.

We welcome the opportunity to work with any chiropractic group that shares our desire to protect and strengthen the unique character of chiropractic and is willing to put aside political differences for the good of the profession.

As President Bush said in his State of the Union address, "Some might call this a good record. I call it a good start."

While we've accomplished a great deal, there is so much more to achieve. We need to make chiropractic part of the health care programs in schools, government, hospitals, the public health services and private industry. We must work toward the time when a person's family doctor will be a chiropractor. Our purpose is to promote a vertebral subluxation free world with a vision of worldwide wellness.

The WCA promotes a positive view of chiropractic rooted in the historical foundation of subluxation correction, and looks forward to new opportunities while respecting our history and heritage. I invite you to join us, work with us, and thrive with us.