The Maternal and Child Health Section had a productive and energetic year in 2007.  The Section embraced a strategic planning process at their expanded mid-year meeting in March.  The group also focused on four primary goals:

1)     Increase membership.

2)     Improve communication within leadership and with membership.

3)  Involve members in policy development and advocacy.

4)     Continue interaction with the Student Assembly and students in general.

The new leadership group, Barbara Levin as chair, Jane Pearson as secretary, JoAnne Fischer as chair-elect, and Karen VanLandingham as secretary-elect, took on their new roles in November of 2006.  The secretary-elect role has always been designated as the individual to work with students in the Section and develop the student fellows program.  The group decided to expand the role of the chair-elect to oversee membership efforts; JoAnne Fischer agreed to this increased responsibility. 

During the first two months, a conference call system was established to involve Section councilors in monthly Section meetings.  On these calls a decision was made to extend the mid-year meeting and invite a facilitator to develop a Section work plan.  Dee Jeffers of the Chiles Center at the University of South Florida agreed to take the role of facilitator.  The meeting was successful, and an action plan was adopted.

Membership:  Jessie Richardson Hood is chair of this committee and works with JoAnne Fischer.  This was determined to be the first priority for the Section as the membership had dropped significantly.  This loss affected the number of Governing Councilors allotted to the Section.  A membership survey and marketing plan were developed with the help of Jessica Murray, student intern in the APHA Section Affairs office.  Both current and lapsed members were surveyed.   Letters went out to all non-renewed members.  There was a 10 percent increase in membership during this period.

A new booth with a new design was also planned by JoAnne Fischer.  The membership of the Section donated the funds for this project.  The booth won second place honors at the recent APHA Annual Meeting.  It will be used for recruiting at the AMCHP meeting. Efforts have been made to develop joint membership with certain related organizations, such as ACNM and AMCHP.  Discussions are in an early phase.

Elections and Nominations:  The Section had an active leadership development program this year and elicited personal response from members to fill positions throughout the larger APHA organization.

Nominations Chair Mary Rose Tully worked closely with the Executive Committee to develop a slate for this year’s elections.  Only Governing Councilor and Section Councilor positions were open.  Candidates from diverse backgrounds and experience were sought.

Unfortunately, only 20 percent of the membership chose to be involved in the election.  A goal for the next year is to improve communication regarding leadership roles and opportunities for membership to be involved.  The nomination process also needs to be improved.  These issues were discussed at the Annual Meeting.  One option is to change the by-laws to have a slate nominated by the Nominations Committee and then voted on without elections.  At present, an election is required.

Two additional members, Joan Kennelly and Margie Sable, will join Mary Rose Tully in preparing both the slate and the process changes for the Section.  Better communication regarding the election is planned.

Leadership Development:  The Section chair and chair-elect have worked closely over the first year of their term.  The monthly conference calls have increased participation of the broader Section leadership in Section activity.  The strategic plan, which was developed at the mid-year meeting, deals with areas of leadership development.   In particular, the need to improve communication and follow through was discussed.

The committee structure and role of the Section Councilor is one that has been discussed within the MCH group in the past.  There continue to be committees that are very active and others that exist only to produce Annual Meeting presentations.  This difference has not been seen as negative, but does need clarification within the Section. 

Communication:  The Section has put a lot of work into this effort, not all of which has come to fruition.  Claire Feinson is newsletter chair and has been very successful in getting three informative newsletters organized and distributed both in print and online. She has continued to work in this capacity with a new co-chair, Caprice Knapp.

Jane Pearson as secretary has worked with Laura Kavanaugh and Shalini Tendulkar to recreate the Web site and become part of the APHA e-communities effort. This has been a bit tedious and has not been entirely successful.  The Section continues to use an old listserv that was developed through Emory University. 

Annual Meeting:  This year’s presentations by the MCH Section at the Annual Meeting were well attended and received position response.  Carol Nelson as program chair did an excellent job, even though she was not able to attend the meeting herself. The Section redesigned their leadership and membership meetings to improve communication and use of time of members at the Annual Meeting.  While these changes had a good response from the membership, there were some conflicts in scheduling with the Governing Council group. 

The Section worked with the Council on Affiliates (COA) and held a special session for representatives of states to meet and discuss issues of access to prenatal health care. The group met with Dr. Charles Mahan of the Chiles Center, with representatives from about 22 states in attendance at the session.  Follow-up is planned with the COA to develop a group of active MCH supporters in each state to advocate for issues, such as SCHIP, etc.

The Section chair is responsible for the Martha May Eliot (MME) forum, which focused on the future of maternity care in the United States.  Four previous MME winners met and discussed the strengths and the weaknesses of the present system.   The session was well received and was recorded for future use. 

The awards chair for the Section is Jan Weingrad Smith.  She and her committee met and selected Tyan Parker Dominguez as the Young Professional for the Year.  Greg Alexander was presented with the Martha May Eliot award posthumously.  At the same time the Section decided to rename the Student Papers Session in honor of Dr. Alexander.

The Section had four business meetings, three socials and numerous scientific sessions at the recent Washington meeting.  Debbie Klein Walker, past president of APHA, had served as MCH chair previously and invited the Section to a special reception at the President’s Suite, which was attended and enjoyed by many of the members.

Policy Development:  The MCH Section is active in the policy arena. This year the Breastfeeding Committee authored a resolution on breastfeeding, which was passed by the Governing Council.   In addition, Holly Grason represents the Section on the Action Board.  Working with the student liaisons, she has reviewed many of the older MCH policies in the APHA policy structure.  At present, a complete review of child health policies is ongoing.

Joseph Telfair is the Governing Council Whip and has worked closely with the other Governing Councilors to review proposed resolutions.  The GC group was well prepared for their responsibilities.  Telfair also planned and carried out a candidate’s review session before the elections in Washington.  

Student Involvement:  This is an area of great strength for the section.  MCH has had student fellows, who receive paid stipends to come to the Annual Meeting, for the past several years.  The program was supported initially by the Kellogg Foundation and more recently by the Colgate grant.   Karen VanLandingham has worked with an active committee to select the 10 fellows and to involve them in a mentoring program with Section members.   Laura Chiyu, a student at UCLA, served as senior student fellow in her second year of involvement with the Section.  Students have also been involved in the development of the new Web site and the review of the policies for the Action Board.  

Tom Vallin and his committee put out a call for student papers, which were reviewed, and monetary awards given for the best submissions.  This session has been held by the Section for the past several years.  In the future it will be named for Dr. Greg Alexander.  This program is supported by AMCHIP as well.

Conclusion:  The MCH Section is preparing for its 2008 mid-year meeting with plans to follow up on the issues described above, including membership, nominations, leadership development, and the policy process.   Continuing to improve communication is key in all these efforts.