A candid update on how APTA Nebraska is sharpening strategy, growing representation with an extra delegate seat, and preparing for a tough legislative session while building community through events and student engagement. We share clear ways to step in, from elections to testimony to simple member perks that help clinics thrive.
• 2026–2028 strategic plan timeline and focus
• Jingle Bell Run partnership and student rivalry energy
• Added House of Delegates seat and special election
• Mentorship for new delegates and membership growth
• Campus visits and PTA program insights from Northeast Community College
• Legislative outlook amid state budget deficit and access risks
• How member and patient stories move policymakers
• Member benefits with Dell Technologies and UPS
• Holiday schedule pause and return in the new year
Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and join the discussion
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska Podcast, where we dive
into the stories, challenges,and innovations shaping physical
therapy in our state.
We're here to advance, promote,and protect the practice of
physical therapy, optimizing thehealth and quality of life for
all Nebraskans.
Join us as we connect withexperts, share insights, and
(00:22):
build community throughout ourprofession.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Welcome back to the APTA Nebraska Podcast.
I'm Brad Dexter, and I'm joinedby Nick Weber today.
Nick, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
I'm good, Brad.
Good to be back.
How are you?
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Yeah, it's good to see you.
I'm I'm doing well.
Uh made it through the month ofOctober, made it through the
month of uh almost throughNovember, I guess, as uh as
we're recording this.
Um, even though it's not comingout until December, that's okay.
We can talk about November uh onthe podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
How many uh pounds of Halloween candy did you eat?
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
You know, here's what happened.
Um my kids always bring you knowall their candy back, and they
went with their cousins thisyear too.
So they all brought it back toour house.
Their cousins are younger, theysort everything out and they
make their trades with theircandy, right?
My sister-in-law went throughall of her kids' candy and
(01:16):
basically put it into an extrabag that I was like, hey, that's
great.
I'll bring that in, I'll put itin my office, and I'll invite
students to come enjoy the candyand maybe a little bit of
conversation with me too.
The students haven't yet come toget the candy, but I've
definitely been eating thecandy, and so have some of the
(01:39):
other faculty around here.
SPEAKER_03 (01:41):
So you're not doing a very good job of pawning that
off then.
SPEAKER_01 (01:45):
I'm not doing a very good job.
No.
There's there's candy in therethat I haven't, you know, I
haven't seen uh I haven't seensome of that like a pixie stick,
right?
I haven't had a pixie stick in along time.
SPEAKER_02 (01:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:59):
Just pure sugar, right?
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Um my daughter's found a fun dip that night.
SPEAKER_01 (02:06):
That too.
SPEAKER_02 (02:07):
I haven't seen one of those in a while.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
I've got a fun dip in in this uh in this bowl back
here, and yeah, I haven't seenone of those for a long time.
Stick of sugar that you can lickand dip into more sugar.
SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Whenever you need that little extra energy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:23):
Did you dress up for Halloween?
SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
I not to go trick-or-treating with my
daughters, but I uh I did forbaseball Hoween, our event that
we did at Werner Park.
Um that was a fun event.
Uh, we had I forget 60 pounds ofcandy, six 60 pounds of candy.
We got through most of it.
Nice.
Um, I tried those new nerdclusters that everybody's uh
(02:47):
talking about.
I I see I see what you know whatall the talk about.
It's they're pretty good.
SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
Nerds.
Hey, you know, for the longesttime they just stuck with the
hard candy, but they they'vereally, you know, they've upped
their game quite a bit.
The gummy clusters a big deal.
They're onto something, yeah.
Soft sugar wrapped in hardsugar.
It it just brilliant.
(03:15):
What do you know?
Brilliant, yeah.
Um you know what I think of it,it's just remarketing something
they already had because theyhad they had like nerds ropes
that was essentially just thelicorice surrounded by nerds,
and they just chopped it up intosmall pieces.
That's all it is.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
It's like learning from a pharmaceutical company.
I'll just rebrand this.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
So someone truly, someone was like, hey, we're not
selling these nerds ropes thatwell.
What if we chop them up intosmall pieces and stick them in a
bag?
Um with with the with theairtime we're giving to nerds,
they should sponsor us in someway.
SPEAKER_03 (03:57):
I think so.
We need to get, yeah.
We haven't tried them, go outand try them.
We'll pluck.
That should pluck.
SPEAKER_01 (04:05):
Exactly.
Yeah, if you haven't tried them,go out and try them.
Um if you have any way to get ussome kind of a sponsorship deal
with nerds, uh, we'd be happy towelcome uh to welcome that as
well.
I love it.
Hey, Nick, we're not here justto talk about uh nerd's gummy
clusters or what we dressed upin for Halloween.
(04:26):
Um I had a friend by the way whodressed up as a sick seven.
SPEAKER_02 (04:33):
I like that.
You like that?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
Uh-huh.
Um, all the kids today love sixseven.
Uh just a mom who has boys whoare always saying six seven.
And she's like, I'm just gonnaannoy people by dressing up like
this.
So she she rocked it out.
SPEAKER_03 (04:54):
This wasn't one of your kids you're saying.
This was someone else.
SPEAKER_01 (04:58):
This was someone else.
No, this was someone else.
SPEAKER_03 (05:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:01):
Yeah.
Um, all right.
What we're really talking about,you're giving us your
presidential update, right?
It's been a couple months here.
Uh give us give us an update.
What's going on behind thecurtains of APTA Nebraska?
SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Yeah, I think uh first thing that comes to mind,
you know, we're kind of turningthe page a little bit here at
26.
And uh what that means is uhwe're putting together our new
strategic plan uh for 26 through28.
So um our executive team has metand kind of got our initial
(05:39):
draft put together, um, andwe'll continue to formulate that
and hopefully have it ready togo um in time for the conference
this year.
So April time, uh we'll get thatout and um make sure it's
agreeable to everyone and andacceptable and then use that to
guide our next three years.
(06:00):
Additionally, um, you know,we're we got a lot of events
going.
It seems like this year we'vehad so many events going on.
Uh, we like we just talked aboutbase Balloween and and many
other things.
Uh our partnership with NebraskaArthritis Foundations uh through
the for the Jingle Bell run iscoming up here in December.
Uh so I will be putting out acall for runners and hope we'll
(06:22):
get a good turnout for that.
Uh it's always a fun event.
And I've had a request to put myuh elf costume back on for the
5k again this year.
So we'll see how that goes.
We get a decent weather day.
That's a possibility.
SPEAKER_01 (06:38):
What's the date on that, Nick?
SPEAKER_02 (06:40):
It's that first Saturday in December.
I think it's the 6th.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
We'll put a link in the show notes.
SPEAKER_02 (06:47):
It's it seems to be a common like uh finals weekend
for a lot of students.
So I always say, you know, comeout, get your run-in for the
morning, and then go ahead andgrind the rest of the weekend
and get that study in ready.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
There you go.
SPEAKER_02 (07:01):
So yeah, we hope we'll have a good eternal.
And in fact, I think there'sbeen a PT student that's won the
event the last two for sure,maybe the last three years, if
my memory serves me, right.
So we've got a good little uhtheme going here.
We need to keep that running.
SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
I mean, I don't I don't know if any PT students
could do it this year.
I I don't know if hopefully thatgets the competitive juices
flowing for any that arelistening to it, right?
SPEAKER_02 (07:29):
Yeah, and I would really hate to like, you know,
put a Creighton student upagainst a UNMC student or
something of that nature.
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
Yeah, you know, I don't wanna put any titles to
this, but yeah, UNMC studentwould definitely win that.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
Um you think so?
SPEAKER_01 (07:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:45):
Create might have something to say about that, but
yeah.
We only know if they show up.
SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
So show up, sign up, show up.
Let's do it.
Uh so strategic plan that'scoming out in April.
We've had a lot of events goingon.
Um uh tell me about you you'resaying we got an extra House of
Delegates seat.
SPEAKER_02 (08:07):
That's right.
So uh we have to have a specthat is a big deal.
Uh we've been kind of this isprobably not something everyone
else is watching, something Iwatch on a on a regular basis.
Uh, I'm always watching ourmembership numbers, and part of
one of the many reasons that wewant our membership numbers to
grow is our parliamentary bodyin the summer um for House of
(08:30):
Delegates, the number ofrepresentatives you get is based
on the size of your membershippool compared to the national
data.
And while we have been kind ofsteadily growing, um, not by
leaps and bounds by any means,but other states have you know
been losing members,unfortunately.
So uh with the with the reportout for 2026, we gained another
(08:51):
seat for House of Delegates.
So we're gonna have a specialelection in April, and uh we
hope to get that seat filledwith someone that's passionate
about it and interested, andthen they will uh represent us
for two years uh starting thesummer already.
So uh excited to to get thatmessage out and speak to those
that are interested about therole.
(09:12):
Uh it is, I mean, I don't wantto sugarcoat it.
It's you know, it's not likenerd clusters, it it's got some
work to it.
Uh, but it's a it's a reallyrewarding job, I think.
I've done it a couple times anduh it's an opportunity to be to
be informed and to have a voiceuh and represent our our
association.
So I'm hoping we'll get a a lotof applicants for it and nominee
(09:34):
nominations and then see how theelection falls.
SPEAKER_01 (09:38):
That's great.
Um it's always it's nice to havea voice in House of Delegates.
Certainly the more delegates youhave, larger voice too, correct?
SPEAKER_02 (09:50):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just uh uh we've got somefo you know, our chief delegate
has been in in his role for along time.
So people that are very familiarwith with just the parliamentary
process and how it goes.
And so we've got good mentorsfor this role, um, and uh and an
opportunity to, like I said,kind of have a strong voice as a
(10:13):
state with just and hopefullythis continues to happen.
You know, continue to work ongaining seats by growing our
membership.
SPEAKER_01 (10:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, listeners, if you want tolearn more about the House of
Delegates, um uh we actually dida podcast with our chief
delegate uh this summer.
So go back uh to one of thoseearlier episodes and you can
kind of get a behind-the-sceneslook at what happens in House of
Delegates um from Bobby and fromIan uh in that podcast.
(10:42):
So uh go listen to it.
It's it really is great.
I learned a ton from them.
Um, and then have you beentraveling?
I know fall is kind of like yourget across the state time,
unless you are are teaching,right?
Um have you been able to get outand about, visit any programs,
(11:02):
clinics, communities?
SPEAKER_02 (11:05):
For sure.
Yeah, I did.
I got out and did my uh roadshow, August maybe that was, and
um I think we've chatted aboutthat a little bit, but then also
um got an invite from uh the PTAprogram at Northeast Community
College and got the opportunityto go spend some time with them
in November.
Uh loved the opportunity, got tospeak with both classes, and uh
(11:26):
it's just always kind ofreinvigorating to see the next
generation of providers come upand um you know be able to
answer their questions and gotto speak a lot about the
association and just keep theminformed as to what's going on,
but also kind of what we'reabout and you know where I think
we're headed uh and whatopportunities they have to be
(11:49):
leaders and kind of steer usgoing forward as well.
So uh just fun just to see theinterest and um and also to kind
of get away from Omaha andLincoln and see a different part
of the state and just continueto see uh kind of the need for
our profession.
Uh and see big classes.
I was I was very impressed withthe size of of the the numbers
(12:12):
of those classes.
So uh good to see that there's acontinued interest in our
profession.
SPEAKER_01 (12:17):
I love it.
Well, anything else on the topof your mind today?
SPEAKER_02 (12:20):
Uh I guess you know, we always got to talk
legislation when I come on here,don't we?
SPEAKER_01 (12:24):
We do, yes.
SPEAKER_02 (12:25):
Yeah.
Uh so I guess the update on thatfront is just that um, you know,
the the 26th session starts thatfirst week in January.
Um, we're having discussionswith our lobbyist and our
legislative committee as well asum other associations to see,
you know, where opportunitiesare.
(12:46):
I think everyone's very aware ofthe budget deficit that Nebraska
faces.
And so, you know, we hope not tolose any services and be able to
maintain current access.
Uh, but I think we got to beready to adapt and to speak up.
And so um while I don't know ifwe'll have any major initiatives
(13:08):
ourselves that will that will beon the forefront, we have to be
ready to speak up um and andmake sure our voice is not lost
as things come about, because uhwith the size of this deficit,
you just never know what umproposals will be out there to
try to erase it.
And while it might sound like agood idea to others, it might
(13:29):
lead to lack of access to ourprofession, and that's
absolutely not what we want.
So we're gonna keep a close eyeon it.
And then you know, as always, ifwe put a call out, um whatever
the need is, you know, we hopethat we'll get good responses
and that people will offer tocome, share their voice and
share how certain legislationmight impact their job, their
(13:52):
patience, their access, allthose things.
SPEAKER_01 (13:54):
I know you've talked about this previously, but those
individual stories really matterin that context.
And um just to reinforce that,having the ability to show up,
if you can do that, if you canshare a story when when called
upon, uh, it's invaluable.
And um just a sense of beingtied to a collective group,
right?
(14:14):
Um community of PTs, being ableto support one another uh
through doing something likethat.
So yeah, that's a it's a goodreminder, Nick.
SPEAKER_02 (14:24):
And also I would add to that, Brad, just you know, if
there's a if there's a certainpatient you're working with that
who's being directly impacted bysome decision, um, if if they
would be willing to come sharetheir personal story, we would
be happy to help facilitate thatin any way that we can help.
So uh there's a lot of advocatesout there for us.
We just need to get connectedand get them to the right place
(14:46):
at the right time.
SPEAKER_01 (14:47):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, thank you.
I have a couple um member vetbenefits for the month.
Um, so if you are an APTAmember, I hope you are if you're
listening.
Uh, you can always go throughthe APTA member benefits to see
all of the benefits that areprovided to us through the APTA.
But a couple just to highlightuh this month, since we're
(15:09):
coming up upon the holidays, umuh Dell Technologies, you can
save even more on Dell's alreadydiscounted prices with the APTA
membership member benefitsprogram.
There's special pricing onlaptops, accessories, and more
through Dell Technologies.
(15:31):
And another one that'sappropriate for the holiday
season, UPS.
If you're running a clinic ormanaging personal shipments,
your APTA membership benefitscan help you save with UPS.
You can get up to 65% off ondomestic next day and deferred
services and 42% off groundcommercial and residential
shipping.
(15:51):
And there's even more uh holidaysavings to go along with that.
So again, if you don't do itusually, um check it out now.
After you've heard this, gocheck out the APTA member
benefits and check outeverything that is provided
there.
Well, Nick, uh, as always,thanks for the conversation.
Uh listeners, thanks forlistening in and appreciate you
(16:13):
supporting the podcast.
And um we're gonna take a littlebit of time off for the holidays
coming up here, so it may beanother month before you hear
from us, but we will be backafter the new year.
So I hope you tune in again.
SPEAKER_00 (16:27):
Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast.
Stay connected with us for moreconversations that elevate our
profession and improve the livesof Nebraskans.
Don't forget to subscribe,share, and join the discussion.
Because together, we're drivingthe future of physical therapy
forward.
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