From the Executive Director

Penny Shelton, PharmD, CGP, FASCP

Executive Director Update: Spring 2017 Penny Shelton

The last day of this month will mark the end of my first year as your Executive Director. To commemorate what has perhaps been one of the fastest years of my life, I thought I would use this column to provide an update on what has been going on within the Association. First, you should know that your Board of Directors has set forth a strong strategic plan for our organization, and they have been meeting monthly to provide appropriate oversight and guidance. The committees that we launched in January are working diligently on their charges and beginning to make a significant impact.

The Membership Committee and the Board of Directors have a number of membership recruitment and retention initiatives in progress now. The Practice Forums have challenged each other to a membership drive. I have been making rounds to visit with health systems and local pharmacy associations to seek input, feedback and to encourage NCAP membership at the local or regional level. We have launched a project team to explore how to make membership more attractive to pharmacy technicians. We have spent time planning for how to retain student pharmacists during their final year of school and after graduation. We are close to launching new messaging that is packaged with specific resources to capture pharmacists reciprocating to our State. Finally, we have created a project team to work on reactivating a North Carolina pharmacy leadership council. The more we can engage and serve the leadership in our profession, the more we will be able to demonstrate meaningful value, which attracts membership.

The Resource Development Committee is working on completing a review and comparison of our website. In addition, the Committee has identified and prioritized ten resources, tools and services for NCAP to provide for members. In their work they have identified a need for NCAP to develop a more visually appealing, user-friendly and interactive website for the Association. In addition, they have outlined improvements in areas that include things like: a) find a member directory, b) infographics on how members can get involved, c) interactive networks which allow members with similar interests to connect, d) improvements in the number and diversity of job listings in the career center, and e) new resources such as leadership and mentoring programs. Since the Committee has completed some of their prioritizing task, NCAP staff has begun looking at recommended website changes, including exploring potential new vendors. The “find a member” directory has been developed, and we are working on some new infographics for new and existing members. In the area of new resources, the Association has recently partnered with Dr. Geoff Mospan, who teaches pharmacy law at Wingate University, to create an NCAP study guide for the NC MPJE as an offering for new graduates and pharmacists from other states seeking licensure in North Carolina.

The Education Committee, using several special project teams, has made significant strides in moving NCAP toward developing a repository of on-demand webinar programs. They are working on the development of several new webinars, and as Executive Director I have been exploring new partnerships to help the Committee build what will be an NCAP on-demand library of continuing education offerings. The Education Committee is also working on major programming changes to our annual convention to be held September 22-24 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem.

In this issue you will find an article by Dr. Cody Clifton, a member of our Policy and Advocacy Committee. Cody shares a sum-

mary and his impressions of our Pharmacy Legislative Day held in March. The Policy and Advocacy Committee was instrumental in handling many of the logistics for that event, plus they have been continuing to meet regularly to help with our communications and grassroots initiatives around both federal and state pharmacy legislative issues. If you have been following the information provided in our electronic newsletters, then you know we have been actively supporting federal bills on PBM transparency and provider status. We have also been supporting NC bills filed this session around the opioid epidemic, criminal background checks prior to pharmacist licensure, and consumer protections outlined in the Pharmacy Patient Fair Practices Act. Finally, we have been working quite hard to garner support around the expansion of collaborative practice in our state. As we continue our work on collaborative practice authority to prepare for the short session in 2018, this summer and fall you will be hearing much more, and I hope that you will respond to our calls to action. Finally regarding our advocacy work, NCAP has invested in a new platform called “Muster.” This technology makes it super simple for the Association to push a “please write your legislator” call to action to you along with a pre-typed message. In order for us to optimally benefit from having this technology, we need help in procuring your essential information such as an accurate cell phone number and email address, as well as your home address, so we can match members with their correct legislators. In the coming days, we will be asking members and others in our database to provide this essential information, we hope that you will respond quickly so that we can use “Muster” to help with provider status, PBM, collaborative practice and other important profession issues.

As we get closer to my one-year anniversary, I want you to know how much I have enjoyed this first year making new connections and working with amazing NCAP members who are helping bring new energy, enthusiasm and meaningful change and value to our Association and our profession statewide.

As always, “Pharmacy Proud,”

Penny