ASA is pleased to announce that significant changes have recently been made to the membership structure of ASA, allowing any AST member who is a surgical assistant to become a member of the ASA group free of charge with no additional dues payment. This change is intended to foster new growth and participation from the surgical assisting community in the many activities and efforts sponsored by ASA.

If you would like to join ASA, please call 800-637- 7433, and choose option “3” at the prompt. You will be connected with an AST representative who can enroll you as a member in AST, or who can sign you up as a member of ASA, a free benefit to AST members.

Along with our practitioner-focused newsletter, ASA members receive access to www.surgical assistant.org, an informative and soon-to-be- redesigned web site that includes an online discussion, important legislative alerts, and opportunities for surgical assistants to participate in a vibrant and growing community of surgical assistants nationwide.

ASA will be implementing a new member card system. New members will be able to immediately print a temporary card from our web site at www.surgical assistant.org while their membership is activated. Each member will subsequently receive a more permanent ASA membership card. This system will be up and running in the very near future, so stay tuned.  If you are already a member, you will receive your card soon.

These changes have been initiated to encourage greater participation in ASA. Everyone has something to offer, such as writing talents (we need newsletter authors); communication skills for grass-roots campaigning for our many legislative efforts; or just a commitment to participate in one of our annual national meetings. Every bit helps, and every person counts! Our goal is to provide the highest quality patient care by growing our profession and supporting the highest standards in education and certification for surgical assistants in our country. But, we can’t do it without you.