Vickie Baselski, Chair of the Committee on Professional Affairs, attended the Coordinating Committee for the Clinical Laboratory Workforce (CCCLW) Meeting on 14 December in Chicago, Ill.  CCCLW workgroups met to discuss recruitment and retention issues for the clinical laboratory workforce and to develop a solid business case for promoting the clinical laboratory profession. Baselski attended the workgroup "Improving the Professional Profile," charged with promoting the clinical laboratory profession. The workgroup is planning to create a list of leadership training efforts from member organizations and is also going to create a Web page to highlight laboratorians who have achieved positions of leadership and have contributed to the clinical laboratory profession.

The Health Professions Network (HPN), a network of over 70 allied health member organizations, presented information to the CCCLW regarding current activities. HPN is in the process of identifying funding for a public relations campaign to educate the public about allied health professions. The HPN maintains a workforce information repository that includes health care-related workforce reports, white papers, and other public documents produced by leading health professions associations, accrediting agencies, educational institutions, federal and state workforce analysts, and licensing and certification bodies. The repository is available at http://www.healthpronet.org/repository/index.html. HPN hosted a webinar on 27 January, "The Coming Decade in Health Professions Workforce Development," that focused on the new workforce trends and needs for the next 10 years. In addition, HPN is planning a conference on allied health workforce issues. For more information on the webinar and conference, go to http://www.healthpronet.org/meetings_events/index.html.

The CCCLW is a coalition of laboratory organizations working together to ensure a high quality workforce. The mission of the coalition is to increase the number of qualified clinical laboratory professionals; increase health care and public awareness of the value in achieving positive patient outcomes; and enhance the image of clinical laboratory professionals.