Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I’m proud to say I will bend over to pick up a lucky penny off the sidewalk. There’s value there and the exercise won’t hurt me, either. CHPPD’s leadership has been looking at how we provide value – and added value – to its members this past year. While we’re not entirely there yet, we've made some progress during the past year.
But allow me to back up a moment. Value is relative and probably best pegged to some sort of scale – and related to vision/mission. A group of CHPPD members gathered together on a November 2007 Sunday morning and began an open discussion of what CHPPD’s vision and mission should be as we move forward. This discussion will be concluded during a March 2008 conference call. Based on the consensus reached during this second meeting, Section committees will craft work plans and objectives that are needed to reach the Section’s vision, mission and goals. I can give you a sneak peek based on the work of the group last November by telling you that the vision is of a Section that proactively and effectively influences public health policy.
Now, shift gears. Three bucks and change. That’s the amount of money from each member’s dues that goes to the primary section of that person. Just like that lucky penny, three bucks are three bucks, and we want to make sure that the money is used for the benefit of most if not all of our members. That’s why we will likely not fully subsidize the member social at the Annual Meeting social hour; only 50-60 people out of 2100 attend this event. Instead, we’ll direct these funds to activities that benefit more people.
That’s also why we're trying out ways of connecting with one another in between Annual Meetings. Essentially, we're working to shift both the focal point (i.e., from the Annual Meeting to ongoing relationships) and the fulcrum (i.e., from individual/small groups to collective power) of how we as a section operate.
You’ve heard about the upcoming Planning and Policy Dialogue sessions we are planning on Health as a Civil Right. More details will come shortly. I think you’ll be quite excited to see our program plan for this series.
Also, I want to encourage members to take advantage of opportunities to do what many of you have asked about or told us about in the annual member survey – get together on a regional basis to network in between Annual Meetings.
One example: If a local health department is sponsoring a “town hall” meeting in response to the upcoming PBS/NACCHO Disparities Series, consider planning the presence of a CHPPD contingent to support our NACCHO colleagues.
Another: If there is a state public health association (affiliate) conference coming up that you can attend, consider organizing a gathering of CHPPD members. We want to support our friends at the affiliate level, too.
CHPPD has some nice ribbons we use to let folks know we belong to CHPPD when we're out and about at the APHA Annual Meeting. Maybe we need to start thinking about wearing our ribbons when we're at the state affiliate meetings or special functions like the PBS-local health department town hall meetings. It's really up to you all to push for this.
If you're interested, here’s one of the first things you can do: Join the membership committee. It won’t take much time, and you can help build new traditions that will serve CHPPD members long into the future. Write to ERodriguez@marchofdimes.com, our membership chair, and she’ll hook you into the action.
We enter the New Year with reasons for optimism and plans for action, so be a part of it. You’ll get your three bucks worth, I promise.
Yours in service,
Sue Myers
Chair