The PULSE
Osteopathic Emergency Medicine Quarterly VOLUME XXX NO. 1
JANUARY 2005
Presidential Viewpoints
Paula Willoughby DeJesus, D.O., FACOEP We have returned home from San Francisco and have already settled back into our daily routine. We begin to mentally make that transition even before we pack and board the plane. Our thoughts drift home to where we left off. Where we were so quickly trying to tie up the loose ends when we were mentally transitioning to the work of our meetings in San Francisco. We move seamlessly between both paradigms. Just like our home ACOEP is that constant you can come back to no matter how long you have been away. It is that constant that you count on year after year. It is also dynamic. It is alive and responsive to the needs of today. Our challenge and our charge are to hold onto those constants while we pave the road ahead. At home we have a social responsibility to our family and community. From the time we are a child we know we are to say please and thank you. We know we are to help our neighbors. We learn that we will grow up and make the world better by how we live our life. At ACOEP we have that same socio-professional responsibility to our life's work, emergency medicine. We are drawn together as members of this College. We are accountable to one and another not only to uphold the profession but shape it, guide it and yes, hold onto those constants that ground us. We are responsible to advocate for ourselves and our patients to make health care better by how we practice our profession. As mem-
bers and Fellows of this College we build and contribute to the profession each in our own way. Over the next two years I would like us to focus on strengthening our infrastructure to prepare us for the future. The broader the base the taller the tower. The base of this organization is clearly the member. We are the building blocks. Our job as a Board, then is to lead this organization by setting an agenda that focuses on the direction and vision of the members. The members, the building blocks that build the base and hold up the tower. Over the next two years the focus will be on the following: • We will revise the constitution to update its definitions of the offices and relationships. • We will establish specific criteria within the constitution on how new committees, subcommittees and/or sections will be created. • The Office of President-elect will staff all AOA resolutions with the Executive Committee before the House of Delegates and keep College members abreast of those that are pertinent to emergency medicine. • The Office of the Secretary will become directly responsible to oversee all of our liaisons to assure the message of the College to these groups is clearly articulated and the ACOEP members filling these rolls are prepared. • New Board members will have an orientation program and the Board Reference manual will be revised. • The Officers of the Board will develop and conduct a structured program for all Committee Chairs to outline their responsibilities, orient them to ACOEP process and provide them with the tools to make
their Committee more productive and alive between our meetings. • I will increase regular communications with the Board members and the Executive Committee. • Committee Chair and Vice-Chair positions will be filled from the membership. All Committees will continue to have specifically assigned Vice-Chairs, Board member liaisons and an office staff member to better assure their productivity throughout the year. • The Student and Resident Chapters will each have an assigned Committee of member mentors. These Resident and Student Chapter Mentor Committee members will assist the Chapters in learning organizational process and guidance in project development. Their Board liaison will take on a more critical role in preparing them for their leadership responsibility as they assume their positions on the ACOEP Board. • We will bridge alliances that properly position ACOEP in the medical and social community. We will continue to build the firm foundation that has been established by Dr. Scali and his predecessors. I encourage each and every one of you to step forward, be an ACOEP building block. Become involved and engaged in shaping your life's work. I have the privilege of announcing the Committee Chairs for the coming two years. They have distinguished themselves by taking that step and advocating for us through their commitment in leading their Committee's work. They deserve our grateful thanks and congratulations!