Nita Maddox's Opening Speech from Membership Development Conference
Vision, Voice and Value in 2006 and 2007
2006 AMA Alliance Membership Development Conference
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Nita A. Maddox
President, AMA Alliance
Good morning.
And welcome not only to the 2006 Membership Development Conference –
But also – welcome to a brave new world for the AMA Alliance that you are helping to build.
Some of you were here back in June at our convention when I presented four principles that I consider critical to the future of the Alliance and the work that we do.
First, A, the absolute Necessity for reform. Although we have had a strong, proud history, our strength and effectiveness have been in decline for the past 10 years or more.
Folks, it is Time to change so we will change the results we’re getting – or we risk being forgotten or dismissed. You can see Alliances around the country being dismissed by their medical societies and associations in reduced financial and program support.
Second – the need for Innovation.— antidote to stagnation and decline.
Remember, Innovation, like change, can be hazardous to your comfort zone – but it can introduce new ideas in a way that meets current interests and needs. It creates a NEW comfort zone.
Third - we are a Team. Each of us is smart but not one of us is smarter than all of us together. Together, we can accomplish what none of us as individuals can undertake or achieve. As Peter Drucker, marketing guru, pointed out years ago:
Successful organizations are simply successful teams.
And fourth – We have to have Action. Innovation and ideas are bound by action to meet the necessity for change, not only for survival but beyond that to success. And I’m talking about the roll-up-your-sleeves kind of action that is directed and goal-oriented. Action that proves our worth! Action that produces positive change.
Just in cast you were not here in June, the four principles which will help us advance the work of the Alliances are Necessity for change, Innovation, Teamwork and Action.
What does it spell N – I – T – A?
Corny? You better believe. But easy to remember.
So, how are we doing?
What’s happened since June when I came on board as your President?
First – the facts about membership reside in the numbers. And let me tell you we have hope!
In June, we had 24,956 members.
Today we count 25 thousand and ONE. That may be only 45 members to some. But to me—it’s the equivalent of a whole new county organization. And you know what? It is a sign that we are reversing the steadily declining numbers from the past 10 years overall. Ten years ago, we had 47,108 members in this organization. We’ve experienced a 47 percent decline! Can you believe that? That’s unacceptable for this organization. We have too much to offer and so much to gain by increasing our membership in every state and county.
Therefore, even though it’s only 45 more members right NOW, whatever you leaders are doing to energize your states and counties, keep doing it, because clearly it is beginning to take hold and produce fruit.
This organization and its good mission deserves a much larger membership which will allow us to produce more and better services – and results - in support of the family of medicine.
One of the new services we’re introducing is a new Alliance Web site. We listened to your comments and feedback, and with the help of the Integrated Marketing Communications Committee, next week we will launch an exciting, new Web site.
The new site will provide enhanced navigation features and will help us position ourselves for growth.
Creating a new site gives us creative flexibility and control of our programs, content and images. I’m so excited to share with you some of the features of the new site .
With this new site, visitors will be able to easily locate information about the Alliance and its programs and events. On each page of the site you will notice nine tabs located across the top, right beneath the Alliance logo. These tabs will take you to different areas of the site including the Online Shop and the Leadership Login, where Alliance leaders will be able to log in and view leader-only information.
Circled in yellow along the left hand side is a navigation bar that contains links to additional information on that subject matter. Another new feature, called breadcrumbs, is located beneath the main navigation tabs. Breadcrumbs are strings of pages the visitor can click through while in a certain subject area. By clicking one of the headings in that string, the visitor can jump directly back to any of the previously visited pages in that section.
That was only a sneak peak of this wonderful new site. I hope you will all visit www.amaalliance.org next week and encourage your members to do the same. The new Web site is one of the many new services we plan to roll-out in the future.
Strategic Direction
In June we completed our strategic direction and unveiled a three-year plan we developed based on input and surveys from you, our members.
Today we have strategies and the real potential for states and counties to join together all moving toward some common nationwide goals and objectives, in addition to those that meet unique local interests.
And it makes good common sense.
Doesn’t it?
That we can exert a greater impact nationwide working together, acting together, acting in concert with each other?
During this conference you will have opportunities to consider some specific nationwide strategies and resources in tandem with your local needs and interests and adopt an action plan that you tailor for your Alliance. When you get to these sessions, please give them your focused attention and participation.
We are asking you to participate one thousand percent.
Take advantage of the resources around you, your colleagues from around the country who are leaders of an Alliance just as your are.
Talk to each other and to Alliance officers and directors, committee chairs and committee members.
We’re here to help support and partner with you, not supervise you.
Take good notes.
We built this conference for networking and work, learning and building something that works for your Alliance locally –
And something that adds your Alliance to a nationwide bandwagon of support for addressing the greatest health issues common to us all.
Again, take good notes.
Because only you will know what is meaningful to you and your Alliance from your leadership position and perspective. We have purposefully cut down on the number of handouts you will receive at this conference so you can concentrate on the points you want to take away with you.
And following this conference, after we all go back home, we will deliver a leadership CD, loaded with material from each session as appropriate, tips and resources that you can use immediately in the implementation of your plan throughout the year . This CD will refresh your memories and help you focus. We understand the busy lives that you all live in your hometowns and hope that our help will be of value to you.
This afternoon you will have a hands-on opportunity to map your Alliance year in sessions with your peers, facilitated by our officers and directors.
Take advantage of the sessions to brainstorm across the table, ask questions and find out about the resources that are available to you. Everyone, put your shy self away, relax, know that you are with family and we want to hear what you have to say.
And this evening at the reception and dinner, take the opportunity to network and listen to our AMA President, Dr. Bill Plested and AMA’s senior vice president of the Advocacy Group–Rich Deem.
Tomorrow morning’s program roundtables hosted by the national committees will Give you new knowledge and help you hone your skills in membership marketing, advocacy, integrated marketing communication, health promotion and fundraising.
You’ll have your Alliance map from the previous day. Take the opportunity to enhance it with action and information from these breakouts.
In the afternoon, you’ll rotate through 10 educational briefings, four per person as you have selected.
You have an itinerary in your registration packet.
Take this with you to each session and make sure that when you leave each of your selected sessions, you receive a blue lapel sticker to mark completion of your session.
Place the sticker on your itinerary. Then at the end of the conference, you’ll turn these in. There will be a place for you to drop them at the close of the conference.
Tomorrow in the late afternoon, during Advocacy 101 on your itinerary, AMA President Dr. Plested will give us inside information on the AMA’s advocacy direction and white paper strategy for the future of organized medicine and plans to secure it for all of us and for generations to come.
Advocacy 101 – has two purposes:
One, to give you the motivation and the inclination to be a major league advocate on the behalf of the AMA and the Alliance. Our members have indicated that advocacy is now their number one interest. We must respond. We want to light your fire!
Two, to create a hunger in you for more – so that you will join us on February 12th-14th in Washington, DC, for the AMA and AMA Alliance Leadership Development and National Advocacy Conference.
If you decide to attend, and I encourage you to do so, please bring your physician spouse and encourage other from your home Alliance to come too. You’ll be part of the AMA’s renowned National Advocacy Conference, where you will hear first-hand and up-close-and-personal from political and Administration decision-makers and thought-leaders.
You won’t be disappointed by what you learn in Advocacy 101 tomorrow, I assure you.
There’s much, much more on the agenda and I can’t cover it all.
But I do want to draw special attention to the Alliance launch of an emphasis program with enormous potential for each county and state in America.
Screen Out
You and I are going to work together to begin a massive, nationwide effort to attack the Number One cause of preventable death in America.
No small challenge. But the facts are clear.
Are you aware that Tobacco kills 435 thousand people a year [JAMA 2004; 291:1238-1245]
Worse, half of all teen smokers – some 390 thousand a year – trace their smoking to exposure to on-screen smoking.
More than 160 new American movies are released in theaters each year. [Variety, Dec. 29, 2005]
Three out of four rated PG-13 include tobacco.
On-screen smoking is among the most acute threats to their lives that kids 10 and over will encounter.
And we propose to do something about it.
I won’t go into all the details, other than to promise you that Tuesday’s launch of the Smoking Prevention Project will be the most motivating and exciting campaign launch you can imagine.
We will be joining hands together, teaming you and me and the Alliance with the American Heart Association, the State of New York Department of Health and the American Legacy Foundation – cosponsors, if you will, in a drive to save our children’s lives.
Literally.
I also promise you that the campaign has been packaged and prepared with you in mind.
It’s made up of modules that you can mix and match to your local needs and resources.
No more of this one-size-fits-all stuff for us.
We’re giving you the basics, the needles, thread and fabric.
You are the tailors. We understand you’re all unique and different just like our children are each individuals.
And America’s children will be the winner as a result.
So, there you have it.
We’ve identified the need, used our imaginations, recruited the teams and begun the action steps –
Are you listening?
N – I – T – A.
We’ve put together a strategy without platitudes and empty phrases – a strategy with muscle and gumption, action and strength..
We’ve applied those ideas to the design of this conference, itself.
With the training and idea-exchange that lead to real growth today and continued growth through your new relationships.
We have an exciting opportunity to radically expand our advocacy efforts and empower you as individuals and as a member of the greater good, the Alliance.
We are tackling the Number One cause of death in America.
And we’re doing it all not for selfish reasons – not for ego gratification.
We’re doing it for the physicians of America.
For the patients of America.
For the children of America.
For America, itself.
What possibly could be more exciting and energizing than that?
Those of you who know me, know that my emotions run deep. I have the potential to pour tears like a mid-summer thunderstorm in Kansas.
And I do so at the drop of a hat.
So please, don’t let anyone drop a hat.
But I am personally so excited – so thrilled at what we have done so far – so grateful for each of you – members who made this conference a priority in your lives and so convinced we’re on the right track.
Well, you get the point.
Our potential for greatness is so reachable.
If you are willing to attend this meeting, will you also commit to join us and take this opportunity to learn and develop your voices to be heard throughout our nation singing the same song together.
This is big stuff, ladies and gentlemen.
And you are big women and men.
Big in brains.
Big in hearts.
Big in ideas.
And big in the results I just KNOW are just around the corner.
Thank you all and God bless you.
And God bless, our great nation America.
Thank you!
Time now to start the process.
So, take out a note pad or piece of paper, something to write on.
And write down two immediate challenges I have for you.
Ready?
Okay – here’s number one.
First, I challenge each of you to clear your schedules and make plans to attend the February 12th through 14th AMA and AMA Alliance National Advocacy and Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C.
The AMA’s leadership has invited you. You will be receiving a registration packet in the next couple of weeks.
I’m inviting you. I am asking you to hold the date, ask the medical society to sponsor you or make sure you have set aside a small budget to allow you and your legislation chair to attend.
I guarantee you and your state and county advocacy efforts will benefit from hands-on participation in the nation’s capitol, surrounded by the advocacy expertise, contacts and resources that cluster there.
Second, I challenge you to spread the word among your members and the non-members you personally know when you get back home. Get them on board as members and get them to this conference.
The AMA’s invitation is not just for a select group of individuals in this room.
It includes all of our members. We want a show of force in Washington in February. Health advocacy is who we are and our number one priority right now.
It is so important not only that you demonstrate a commitment and that your members follow your lead, but that your spouse understands this commitment and how it affects the medical practice in your family and all of the practices in your community. Your spouse also needs to exercise a right and an obligation to speak out and to be represented by attending this conference with you, if possible.
Please make certain everyone knows of this opportunity to make a difference.
Third – I challenge you to make our new Alliance Web site a value proposition in your recruitment message to potential members and in your retention message to your members. If they don’t see the value that the national Alliance brings to them for their $40 a year, take them to the Web site and get them plugged into the national network of support and resources they paid for.
In fact, let me show you what you can tell them.
At the beginning of this session, I showed you the Web site and why and how it will serve your interests as Alliance leaders. Now, let’s look at it through a member’s eyes, a member who is NOT a leader and doesn’t want to be right now, a member who is struggling to keep up with the hectic schedule of a typical medical family, a member who has a need for quick feedback and doesn’t want to call or write, a younger member who is so familiar with Web activity, they prefer it as their point of contact.
Here’s what you can show them and how you can get their attention:
In the Programs section of the Web site, visitors will find detailed information about the various programs the Alliance is involved in, as well as information on how to get active.
The News and Publications section shows the Alliance’s connectivity to the world by providing current news articles featuring the Alliance as well as U.S. and World Health news.
In the Online Shop, both members of the Alliance and the general public can purchase the various publications and materials that the Alliance sells and promotes.
The Web site goes live next week. Make sure we have your correct Web site so we can link our visitors directly to you and please let us know if you experience a boost in your Web activity or if you need help with your Web construction or refinement. We’ll link this national site loaded with resources to your site.
Spread the word about the new Alliance Web site and get us the correct link to yours.
You’ve heard enough from me for awhile.
It’s time to break for lunch in the Gold Coast Room.
We have a great program lined up for you.
See you back in this room at 1:45.
Have a great lunch.