ORIGINAL: Red Scholefield
At the present time there is nearly a 4:1 disparity in the number of members in a given district. VPs have an equal vote, yet some represent more than 25,000 members while others represent only a little more than 6000. Do you have any thoughts in reapportioning districts to balance out the representation?
Red S.
AMA 951
Leader Member District V
Hi Red,
This has been mentioned by the Council, in a cursory way, more than once in the four years I've been here. I'm not sure if the primary concern is the disparity of the vote representation as much as it is the concern that some districts are getting so large it's difficult for one VP to do it justice. My district is relatively small, member wise and area wise. Compare District 2 to either District 5 or District 10 and it's obvious that the VPs there have a more difficult job interfacing with the members in their district than I do. I can drive to most anyplace in my district in 7 1/2 hours (I know what you're thinking. Not including Europe). Compare that to 5 and 10 with twice the number of members and twice (or more) the area to cover and you can see the challenge they have.
From looking at the year to year numbers my district continues to shrink slightly. Most likely because the average age of our members continues to rise and along with age comes the desire to move away from the colder climates. I think, regardless of who is AMA President the issue of redistricting will have to be addressed sometime in the future. Congress does it what, once every 10 years?
Dave