Hello Friends:

As the Annual Meeting approaches, the Section has been wrapping up this year’s activities and looking ahead.  We have accomplished wonderful things this year, and I am very proud of our membership for all the hard work that has been done.

Two goals I set for my tenure as chair were to:
1) increase our section’s advocacy efforts on important Public Health issues. 
2) recognize the contributions of our members in the field of Health Administration.

I believe our section has risen to meet these challenges as evidenced below:

• The Policy Committee developed an outstanding policy paper, Securing the Long-Term Sustainability of State and Local Health Departments. I recommend that all Section members read it. You can find it at the following APHA website link: http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/2010newproposedpolicies.htm You will need your membership number and password to get to this site. Kudos to Marcia Rosenstein for coordinating the work of an outstanding group of Section members and national experts who researched and developed this substantive paper. Their efforts resulted in a high quality paper on this critical public health issue. We look forward to advancing this paper through the policy review forum process in Denver.
• The Awards Committee crafted some new categories to add to our Section awards and will be honoring some of our sections best and brightest at the HA Section social event. I hope you will make an effort to get to the social while in Denver as there will be fabulous food, door prizes, award presentations and of course all of your section friends to network with!
• The Communications Committee brought our section into the social media age through the development of a Section Facebook page, and LinkedIn. Section members Raed Mansour and Rajiv Ramdeo spearheaded this effort and have energized the Section Council with new and innovative ways to communicate with our membership. Rajiv will be presenting a session on Social Meeting at the Section’s afternoon business meeting on Sunday, Nov. 7 in Denver to help us all become more competent in this technology.

The APHA year flies by, and soon it will be time to pass the baton to the new chair. Mark Bittle is ready to rock as your new chair and has lots of ideas and expertise to continue the momentum started in the past few years. As Ed McMahon would say, Hereeeeee’s Mark!

Warm Regards,
 
Gretchen Sampson, RN, MPH

Thank you, thank you very much!! First I would like to thank Gretchen for all her hard work this year. I am sure our members would agree with me, she has done a wonderful job keeping the Section moving forward, and filling her shoes will be no easy task. However, we can, with Gretchen’s continued support, as soon to be past-chair, continue to chart a course to a sustainable future for the Health Administration Section.

As we prepare for this year’s Annual Meeting, so much has been put into place to ensure its success. Those accomplishments, some of which are described above, result from the thoughtful and generous participation by our membership. It is very exciting for me to work with such a dedicated group of public health professionals. For our section to remain viable and attractive, together we should strive to involve more members in various leadership roles within the section. Over the past month, I received a number of e-mails from eager volunteers. Over the next several weeks, I will be compiling a list of those individuals who have already committed to hold positions and where we still need help. In addition, I have reached out to the chair-elect of the Student Assembly to ask for his support of our section by offering enhanced opportunities for his membership to be part of our group. This will give selected members of the Student Assembly an opportunity to learn more about our section and work with use to advance our agenda.

Speaking of our agenda for the coming year, I hope to see as many of you as possible attend our business meetings. This is the perfect opportunity for you to participate in and guide the development of our goals and objectives for the year, and more!

More to come and much more to do, so stay tuned….
Mark J. Bittle, DrPH, MBA