President’s Report: A Challenging, Yet Dynamic Year
I would first like to thank our Members, Donors and Commercial Supporters for their continued support. The 20/21 financial year has been hard for many of our community members, and we are touched by your ongoing commitment to the Foundation.
This year has been such a dynamic year for the ASRF. With myself stepping into the role as Foundation President, and new Directors coming onboard, the learning curve has been significant. We have such a passionate and diverse Board at present, all of whom wish to see the Foundation and the profession grow. We are dedicated to funding and facilitating clinically relevant vertebral subluxation research, as well as providing education for our community and beyond. We continue to be proud of our rigorous two-stage approval process, to ensure that the research we fund is clinically relevant and is performed with scientific merit.
In the 2020-21 financial year, we were able to fund two large studies into how chiropractic care effects the human immune system (for more on that see the Research Highlights). We also embarked on a most ambitious plan, to have our greatest number of studies funded in one year, through our inaugural ‘ASRF Case Report Project’. With this project, we will have 30+ case studies published throughout late 2021 and early 2022. These cases were submitted by chiropractors in our community, and the project was funded by the hugely successful ‘ASRF Spinal Hero Month’, where we raised $25,000, with the help of our Heroes, Donors and Sponsors. These case reports have the capacity to be the building blocks of future clinical studies, and will be a significant addition to our knowledge-base.
We have continued to diversify our income streams. We’ve produced the Case for Chiropractic Vol II, a coffee table resource book for Chiropractors and the lay reader alike. It is an amazing reception room addition, and we’ve heard from Members who are also using both volumes of the book as teaching tools for their teams – very exciting! We have also seen the release of two children’s chiropractic books, written by our very own Dr. Marcus Chacos, with proceeds of the sales going towards subluxation research. Additionally, the team has been working hard throughout the year to create other fundraising educational tools, as well as events like the online Subluxation Summit. We’ve continued to grow our partnerships with a range of individuals, businesses and Commercial Supporters, all of which adds value for our Members and raises funds for the Foundation.
With all the efforts of our staff and volunteer Board, we have secured a small financial profit this year and managed to fund a wealth of research to support you in your practice. We know that the coming year will not be without its difficulties. It is why we are working even harder to secure the future of the Foundation, to help secure the future of ChiropracTIC. Research is the currency of governments, so with your continued support, we are working hard to support your way of life.
Dr Ryan Seaman, President