I often say to myself, my friends and family, colleagues, and the parents of my patients: "All we can do is make the best decision we can at the time with the information we have." In this, my fourth and final "Message from the President," I would like to share with you the best decisions made at the time of our 2014 American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association (APSNA) Fall Board Meeting.
I am extremely grateful for the privilege to have served as the leader of this wonderful organization formed over 20 years ago with the mission "to promote excellence in pediatric surgical nursing practice through educational offerings, nursing research, professional collaboration, and peer support" (APSNA, 2014). I have learned a great deal this past year but, in many ways, am unable to learn from my own mistakes. Several past APSNA presidents have commented that 1 year feels too short to serve as President-you just about figure it out, and then your term is up. I admit that I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. Partly to address this collective experience and to better meet the needs of an evolving membership, APSNA has spent the past 2 years evaluating our current board structure.
There is a book entitled The Race for Relevance (Coerver & Byers, 2011) that has been making its way around the boards of various organizations. This book guides volunteer leaders in associations such as ours to look critically at who we serve (our members), what we serve them (our member benefits), and how we serve them (a board that is able to participate in thoughtful, effective and timely decision making). The book provides excellent, data-driven counsel to nonprofit organizations that seek to meet the needs of existing members while attracting new members. Ellen O'Donnell (APSNA President 2012-2013) and Neil Ead (APSNA President 2013-2014) initiated the conversation on this topic at the 2013 Fall Board Meeting. As a Board, we compiled some recommendations, reconsidered them, and then formed an Ad Hoc Board Restructuring Committee to carefully study this issue. The Ad Hoc Committee (whose membership included Neil Ead, Muggs Helin, Raj Koppolu, Ellen O'Donnell, and Raquel Pasaron) met five times from May through August 2014; on behalf of the APSNA Board of Directors (BOD), I would officially like to thank them for their commitment, time, and efforts. The committee reviewed the literature and best practices for nonprofit organizations. They submitted their report to the BOD before our 2014 Fall Board Meeting. At that meeting, we reviewed and discussed the recommendations and voted to bring several recommendations forth to the membership as proposed bylaws changes. Many of our peer organizations have initiated this process as well. To support these changes, we also are committed to continuing to identify ways to limit the administrative duties of the BOD, to allow the BOD to focus more time on "nursing" and "patient" issues, as my husband, a nonnurse but a huge fan of nurses, often says.
So, here we go, the recommendations from the 2014 Fall Board Meeting:
1) With the goal of transitioning to a BOD of nine members (from a current BOD of 13 members), the BOD recommends the following changes:
a. Rightsizing (or elimination) of the Leadership Chair position, with the President-Elect or Immediate Past President taking the lead on the nominations process in alternate years
b. Rightsizing (or elimination) of the Membership Chair position, with the President-Elect or Immediate Past-President assuming membership recruitment/retention efforts
c. Rightsizing (or elimination) of the Publication Chair position, with the hiring of an Editor-in-Chief and the Director at Large assuming the role of liaison to the Journal of Pediatric Surgical Nursing
d. Rightsizing (or elimination) of the Information Systems Chair position, with the Secretary serving as liaison to the Web administrator
Our recommendation is for the Membership and Leadership positions to be rightsized (eliminated) in 2016 (no nominations/elections for these positions in 2015) and for the Information Systems and Publications Chair positions to be rightsized (eliminated) in 2017 (no nominations/elections for these positions in 2016). Thus, by 2017, we will have made the transition from a 13-member BOD to a nine-member BOD.
2) With the goal of providing the President with the opportunity to serve for 2 years, the BOD recommends the following changes:
a. The 2015 President-Elect (taking office in 2016) will serve 1 year as President-Elect, 1 year as President, and 2 years as Immediate Past President.
b. The 2016 President-Elect (and subsequent Presidents) will serve 1 year as President-Elect, 2 years as President, and 1 year as Immediate Past President.
c. Thus, the first year of her or his term of office, the President will serve with the Immediate Past President; the second year, the President will serve with the President-Elect.
We are hopeful these changes, if approved by the membership, will
[white circle] provide a board structure that will enhance the leadership capabilities of the BOD by supporting BOD cohesion, functioning, communication, and decision making;
[white circle] consolidate and equitably distribute board position responsibilities;
[white circle] provide for funding support for board members to attend Fall Board Meeting; and
[white circle] provide leadership continuity.
Many of you reading this are past APSNA BOD members and have intimate working knowledge of the Board. Others have a varying level of understanding and experience with what I have been describing. In any case, the BOD recognizes that these are significant changes, and we take the making of these recommendations to the membership very seriously.
The entire membership will have the opportunity to review and comment on the recommended changes 30 days before conference. We will then vote on the proposed bylaws changes at the annual business meeting. We have planned some time at the 24th Annual Conference for you to meet with the BOD and the Ad Hoc Committee before the Annual Business Meeting to discuss these proposed changes and their implications for the BOD and APSNA. This meeting is scheduled for 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28. In addition, I welcome your emails (mailto:[email protected]), texts (412-605-8184), and telephone calls (412-692-6503) to discuss any questions, ideas, or concerns you may have regarding the aforementioned proposal. Although I may not be the best person to answer them (I defer to the expertise of the Ad Hoc Committee), I would like to make the first attempt and refer on as necessary.
As I reflect on the development of the American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association since my attendance at the first half-day conference in 1992, much has changed: for example, we now have a 2.5-day educational conference, a professionally published journal, and an in-person Fall Board Meeting, What has not changed is the commitment of our organization and our members to pediatric surgical nursing and the patients and families for whom we provide care. Again, I thank you for the privilege to have served as your 22nd President. I thank my fellow board members for their outstanding contributions to the work of APSNA. I hope to see you at our upcoming 24th Annual Scientific Conference, where I will be sharing some of my lessons learned in 30 years of pediatric surgical and trauma nursing and 1 year of APSNA Presidency. Between now and then, or in person at the meeting, I hope to hear from you some of your stories and the lessons you have learned.
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