Volume 38 Number 4 | August 2024
Claude Rector, MA, MLS(ASCP), ASCLS President, 2023-2024
As my year serving as the president of ASCLS draws to an end, I thought about the old adage, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” My number one goal for the year as your president was to make sure that fun was not forgotten. Last year when I completed my acceptance speech in front of the ASCLS House of Delegates, I exclaimed, “Let’s go!” And go is exactly what ASCLS has done this year.
If you know me well, you know I love baseball. My love for baseball began in the backyard learning to hit, catch, and throw the baseball with my dad. My dad always believed if you wanted to be good at something, you had to practice. My baseball career began when I joined a pee-wee team at the age of seven. For the last 50 years, I have either played, coached, or watched the game of baseball. The one constant that I have always loved about baseball is that the team is the most important part of the game. Whether I was part of the team, building the team, or coaching the team, the team determines if you win or lose the game of baseball.
When I addressed the ASCLS Board of Directors at the fall meeting, I went into coach mode. I felt it was my job to fire up the team. The work everyone had put into the preparation for the ASCLS calendar of events I considered our practice. The games of the season were upon us, and we needed to be ready. The Laboratory Legislative Symposium was our first at-bat, and I think we hit our first homerun of the season. I loved seeing our members attack Capitol Hill with the issues concerning the medical laboratory profession. Score one for advocacy.
Next up was a double header featuring our Emerging Laboratory Managers Collaborative Conference (ELMC2) and PRISM: Pride · Respect · Inclusion · Support · Momentum events. ASCLS comes through with our second homerun of the season. Score one each for knowledge and community.
The biggest matchup of the season was next on the schedule. An away game with the Clinical Laboratory Educators Conference (CLEC) in Las Vegas would make or break our season. We brought in everyone from Barry Manilow to Elvis—a grand slam if I say so myself. ASCLS with another big win for knowledge and community.
As we moved into the final stretch of the season, our state constituent societies checked in to carry us to the final game. ASCLS continued to build our lead with more runs for knowledge and community. When you are reading this article, the final game of the season will have been played in Pittsburgh. I hope all of you are smiling knowing that ASCLS won the final game. I love baseball, and I love ASCLS.
It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve as your president. I hope you see how important you are to the team. I hope you see how important the team is to ASCLS. And finally, I hope that I will always be remembered as the ole ball coach that once served as ASCLS president.
Claude Rector is the Director of Laboratory and Respiratory Services at St. Bernards CrossRidge Community Hospital in Wynne, Arkansas.