Secretary's Update, January 2016
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| Victor J. Bernet, MD Secretary/Chief Operating Officer |
Dear ATA Colleagues,
Happy New Year wishes to all our ATA family from me, the ATA Leadership and ATA Headquarters' Staff. In this month of January, typically a time of resolutions and refocusing our efforts and attention, we recall a year ago the ATA strategic conference which was held to identify ways in which the ATA could look to the future with initiatives to improve thyroid awareness and treatment, grow our influence, and thereby increase our ability to serve patients. The strategic conference attendees, representing a diverse group of ATA members, spent the weekend defining goals for the ATA to pursue. At the end of the process, the group settled on four areas on which to concentrate efforts over the next 2-3 years or longer as needed. These goals are:
- To establish the ATA as the patient-preferred resource for education and information pertaining to thyroid disease.
- Promote the visibility of the ATA as the global leader in thyroid health.
- Establish an integrative process that catalyzes innovative, meaningful and fundable thyroid research.
- Increase financial resources to support and expand ATA programs.
The members at the strategic conference came to the conclusion that these four goals are relevant to the ATA's stated vision and mission and represent key areas in which the ATA needs to grow. Since that time your Board of Directors has been giving much thought and consideration on how to proceed in successfully achieving each one of these ambitious goals. The Patient Affairs and Education Committee was reconstituted as an independent committee and provided with a board level committee chair, Regina Castro, to oversee this important endeavor. We all realize the great importance of the ATA effectively supporting patients with thyroid disease. To that aim, the committee will have direct patient input through patient members which we have included on the committee. Subcommittees of the Board of Directors have been working on ideas in regards to the three additional goals as well. However, we realize that membership involvement is essential to long term success in this process. Therefore, at the beginning of this year, each committee chair was tasked to review the four strategic goals with their committee members and hold idea generating sessions as to think of new and innovative ways on how to achieve our goals. Once this input has been received, we intend to update the membership on our progress.
In the desire keep your ATA leadership informed and as effective as possible, Bobbi Smith and I spent two days at the Symposium for Chief Elected and Chief Executive Officers sponsored by the American Society for Association Executives. The meeting included interactive work groups and a chance to hear about what other societies are doing. We came away from the meeting feeling that ATA is a mature association with many strong practices. The involvement and dedication of ATA members is a key element of ATA's success. As to be expected, we identified some areas for potential improvement as well. Related to the topic of leadership, this is a reminder that we are in the process of identifying a Treasurer-elect to be affirmed in the Fall election cycle. Please be aware that there is still time to nominate someone for consideration for this most important leadership position and specific details are included in the member section of the ATA website.
We wish all our members a healthy and successful 2016 to include meeting the needs of our wonderful patients.
Victor J. Bernet, MD
Secretary/Chief Operating Officer