Title: Chair's Report, May 2004
Author:
Section/SPIG: Health Administration
Issue Date:
May, 2004
Message from the Chair: The “public” in APHA
In the last newsletter, I addressed the issue of membership in HAS and what it means for all of us. I suggested each of us think about how membership can be strengthened in terms of three “Cs”: commitment, collaboration and collective wisdom.
When we think of our involvement in APHA, we should be reminded of the “public” in APHA. The dictionary defines public as “pertaining to or affecting a population or a community as a whole.” In the context of APHA, this term has dual meaning: serving the public in the best way we can and serving one another in the collective body known as HAS. Our day-to-day efforts associated with our professional employment are directed toward improving the public’s health, whether it is by identifying needs and planning programs, managing programs, developing new services, directing initiatives to educate individuals and promote health, or educating future health professionals. Our focus is on the external community. We are serving the community, however large or small we define it, and in whatever other ways we use to characterize it. In addition to serving the external community, our HAS section efforts serve our internal community—you who are members of our section who give of your time, energy and talents to make the section strong. You do this by sharing your experience, knowledge and skills by working with others to benefit HAS and make our internal community strong. The examples are many:
- contributing to the development and implementation of the HAS program at APHA Annual meeting
- identifying and honoring exemplary efforts with awards
- preparing communication vehicles such as HAS newsletter and web site updates
- reviewing policy matters and initiatives that impact the section
- determining appropriate and needed linkages between our section and other sections
- identifying ways to share our expertise, and be a resource to others
- identifying ways to build membership and mentor others –including current members with new interests, new members and students
These activities serve our internal public and reflect those steps that build community within the section. All of your efforts in the above illustrations and others are to be applauded. I urge you to think of ways to continue to build the internal public within HAS.
For those of you members who are not involved, or if you are a new member, or if you are an APHA member who are is considering HAS, please consider how you can put the public into perspective through your involvement in HAS. Please let us know how you would like to get involved. This is your section—together let’s embrace ways to benefit both the internal and external public within APHA in the best ways that we can.