Volume 9, No. 1, Spring 2007
Volume 9, No. 1, Spring 2007
Regular Features
From
the Presidents Book Reviews: The Girl’s Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch)
Notable- The New SELAM Mission Statement QuotableDue date
for inclusion in next newsletter: July 31st, 2007
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FROM THE PRESIDENTS-------------------------- Greetings! This year SELAM celebrates its 10th anniversary. As we approach that landmark and reflect on the first decade, we bask in the reflection of the increased numbers of women in executive positions. Tremendous strides have been made in the numbers of women at the top and in the development of women who will lead in the future. In order to protect these achievements and make further progress, SELAM needs to develop services to sustain women in these positions and assist as they make additional transitions. In order to prosper in the next decade and serve the changing needs of its members, SELAM needs to change and grow. To that end, the SELAM Board of Directors has taken on a number of major initiatives. Two-day retreats in July and October 2006 allowed us to make substantial progress on these goals. Change in structure of the SELAM Board of Directors: In order to sustain growth in the organization, changes have been adopted that will enhance continuity of planning for programs that enhance their quality.
Documents are being completed that describe these changes in detail. They will be included in future communications. By-laws revision: A change in the structure of the Board of Directors requires a revision to the by-laws. These changes that are under way will simplify the document. It is expected that this process of updating will be completed by April 2007. Strategic Plan: The Board of Directors adopted a revised mission statement [included in this newsletter and available at our website (www.selaminternational.org)]. Clear articulation of our mission formed the basis for a strategic plan. A first draft of a strategic plan has been proposed. Two task forces have been established. One task force will evaluate our entire program of activities and make recommendations that will become detailed directives within the strategic plan. The second task force is charged with establishing a development plan to support those programs to ensure their success. Our goal is to accept a formal plan by April 2007. Committees: Under the leadership of Mary Lou Voytko, the Membership Committee is working to strengthen the benefits of membership and identify new ways to engage institutions. New member services are an important part of the strategic plan. Please let me know if you have suggestions for new programs or would like to get involved (cabrass@u.washington.edu). Programs: At the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Medical Colleges in November 2006, the SELAM program, "Making your work work for you," defined ways to translate leadership into scholarship, as well as other forms of activities. Many thanks to Roberta Sonnino, MD, who took a lead role in developing this program. Mark your calendars for the annual SELAM Spring Continuing Education program "Academic Leadership: Lessons and Lesions," which will be April 20- 21, 2007 in Bryn Mawr PA. This program will focus on skill building for improved navigation in the changing environments of academic health centers. Seasoned leaders will provide insights into unexpected challenges. Legal experts will provide cogent solutions to everyday gnatty problems. I challenge each of you to get involved in SELAM to make the next decade even better! Chris _______________________________________________________ SELAM PAST PRESIDENTS REFLECT As we enter the 10th year of SELAM International, we asked Past Presidents to describe the impact and value of being President on their career lives. We asked the questions:
Here is the second and final installment. PonJola Coney, MD, FACOG, 1997-1999 The first organizational meeting was held during the 1997 AAMC annual meeting in Washington, along with the organization’s inaugural continuing education program. I personally funded this first program. The faculty, Carl Getto, Sue Cejka, Marvin Dunn and Jeffrey Houpt, donated their time and virtual honoraria. Page graciously blessed the name, SELAM, after our concerns that it could be confused with ELAM. Nancy Hardt was elected founding president (in absentia) and, lo and behold, she accepted. Shortly thereafter, Nancy, Debbie German and Suanne Daves were conscripted to serve as founding board members. The four of us convened in Atlanta and hammered out the details of putting the organization together. Thereafter, having gone through the painstaking legal and financial steps of developing Bylaws and other criteria necessary for obtaining 501 (c) (3) non-profit status with the Federal and state bodies, the Society was incorporated in Springfield IL. Thus, SELAM International was born. SELAM continues to pollinate a very special group of professional women in academic medicine and related fields who share their own culture and institutions in a network of some of the most accomplished individuals in leadership circles and academic healthcare. Outside the social and professional impact of SELAM for the members, implicit in the meaning of SELAM is that its mission, vision and members share the mutual concern and interest in recognizing the value of empowering and advancing women and supporting with commitment, dedication and resources the funding of initiatives of ELAM and other similar programs as they might emerge, hence the need for the 501 (c) (3), non-profit, IRS designation. From that auspicious beginning, the interim years have witnessed SELAM become a distinct self-perpetuating group with members who are committed to the advancement of women in academic medicine and to growing personally and professionally. While the time, energy and dollars that the other founding members and I invested in establishing this society brought challenges, I can say unequivocally today that I am personally and professionally gratified and immensely proud of SELAM. SALUTE! Nancy S. Hardt, MD, 1998-1999 PJ planned the first meeting of SELAM, which I could not attend, but we talked about it before the event. She asked me if I would be an officer of this newly formed and named organization. I said sure, as long as it was not President or Treasurer. Of course, we all know what happens when we miss a meeting. After that meeting, PJ phoned me and, with that characteristic warm laugh of hers, congratulated me on being appointed President! I felt too guilty about missing the meeting to tell her I wouldn't do it. Her disarming words and laugh made it very hard to say no. At the AAMC annual meeting I wracked my brain to find others who could help. I felt really grateful to Kris Lohr and Roberta Sonnino, who were willing to pitch in and help as Secretary/Newsletter Editor and Treasurer, respectively. All of us were acting on faith, since the organization had just been born. Time would only tell if SELAM would grow and blossom into something. Once when we were discussing a logo for SELAM, we got caught up in choosing its color. We were too poor to create a multicolor logo, so we had to agree on one color. I really opposed having a pink or purple logo, thinking these colors were stereotypically too "girly". I hoped for green, the color of money, which we needed to raise through memberships and donations to carry on. Well, I guess the others won out, but they did modify the pink-purple to make it a bit closer to burgundy. I’m sure this was just to pacify me. Then one day some of us met in the Barnes and Noble bookstore located on Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. Roberta and Kris wore the same attractive black raincoat from Travelsmith. I thought it would make a nice "uniform" so I went home and ordered one. To this day, this raincoat is my favorite, and has traveled with me all over Europe and the British Isles. For fun, I would love to have a photo of the three of us wearing that coat. The SELAM/ELAM network helped shape some of my career skills to move boldly forward in my career path. This led to positions of VP Finance (U FL), Endowed Professor of Women’s Health and Professor of Preventive Medicine at UT Health Science Center, and currently a Robert Woods Johnson Health Policy Fellow. So much credit goes to so many people, to name just a few: PJ, Deb German, Roberta, Kris, and of course, Suanne Daves who put together a great SELAM meeting the following year. Alice J. Speer, MD, 2002-2003 I realized that the movement of SELAM members into higher executive positions now encompassed academic health centers and major healthcare, pharmaceutical, and policy-making institutions. That network carried the benefit of diversity for the SELAM network. The diversity of ideas and the perspectives of SELAM members from around the country and across national borders could enrich the growth of SELAM. I saw my contribution of leadership to be strengthening the infrastructure of SELAM and pulling more members into active roles. My focus included broadening the membership; developing marketing, advancement strategies, and membership benefits; solidifying the Bylaws; setting up policies and procedures; and centralizing the SELAM office. Many people worked with the SELAM Board of Directors to accomplish these tasks. SELAM Bylaws
Policies and Procedures Guide SELAM Award of Excellence Continuing Education Program A special regional plenary session was designed to reach out to women faculty in the Pennsylvania area. The CE tradition of including ELAM Fellows for one day continued. Other Accomplishments
During my term as President of SELAM International, I gained the sense of moving from a fledgling organization to a professional society of executive leaders with a strong mission and far reaching scope. Enhancing each other’s professional development and careers and reaching out to others to expand the network, we are building great skills and moving health practice and academic health closer toward excellence. Vivian Reznik, MD, MPH, 2003-2004 My leadership team could not have been a better example of people I wanted on our bus:
We were preoccupied with ideas of how our future could be secured – how to increase membership, secure financing and focus our activities to keep them in line with our founding mission. Collin’s rules include one that talks about adherence to core values, combined with a willingness to challenge and change everything except those core values—keeping clear the distinction between “what we stand for” (which should never change) and “how we do things” (which should never stop changing). Doesn’t that sound like a SELAM Board Meeting? Vigorous debate about how to do things, but never any wavering from who we are and what we stand for. And we moved forward during my time on the Board from a “start up” to a mature organization that now has status within the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and shares ownership of many of the AAMC premier sessions on leadership.
From a personal perspective, my long-term dreams had pretty much come to fruition. Now what was left was to do the best I could, both in my job and as SELAM President, to continue honing my skills, improving my own capabilities and performance, and filling in the many gaps. Hopefully at the same time I would be able to pass along some of the lessons learned to my colleagues and the younger generations, and finally become the advocate and mentor I hoped to be. For too many years, other concerns had inevitably put my own career in the forefront. Now it was finally time for my career to take a back seat, and to start looking out for those around me who could benefit from my school of hard knocks. As the movie says, now is the time to “Pay it forward”. I have been an active SELAM member almost from the organization’s birth, and a passionate fan of this crazy bunch of women who set out to change the face and culture of academic medicine. My SELAM membership always helped my career, never hindered it. In fact, it is through my SELAM connections that I landed the position (Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs) that I currently hold and enjoy. My leadership role in SELAM also helped, albeit in a different way that one would think. Presidency of SELAM is a much less visible position than leading other bigger and better known organizations, so I cannot say that it brought me any substantial “fame and glory”. But it did help me to pull out of some mental drawers a few skills that had started to collect cobwebs, such as bringing together people with very different personalities, crisis management as a way of life, answering to a large group of critical individuals yet trying to keep a smile on my face, and learning to delegate (after all, I am a surgeon… we are not very good at that). I was fortunate to have an extraordinary Board of Directors that made that task so much easier. I had many goals for SELAM (too many?) during my Presidency. The ones that actually were achieved were a result of planning (yes, I will take some of the credit), an energetic Board of Directors, and good timing. I think SELAM was ready to “come of age”, and I happened to be the one leading it there. Among my goals were
Looking back, my most significant achievements during my Presidency were
Working with a BOD and membership that proved to me every day that SELAM does indeed attract the best that academic medicine has to offer is probably the best part of the experience. I felt particularly honored to be serving as President during the 10th Anniversary year of ELAM. The ELAM team had an intense year of celebrations and plans for growth. SELAM was honored to partner with them. It was a great thrill for me to be the one giving awards to pillars of our organization and ELAM, such as Page Morahan, Walter Cohen, Deborah Powell, Roz Richman, and Kris Lohr. It read like a “who’s who” of ELAM and SELAM. I had the privilege of being the one to present the Awards. And finally the fact that we ran out of space for two events, in rooms that in the past would have seemed so large, was for me the best indicator of our success! Regarding a humorous incident during my Presidency, I recall the registration table at the 2005 SELAM Workshop at AAMC. Tori had diligently prepared everything, including the registration packets, our first ever give-aways (in neat little bags, each with a ribbon), etc. Everything seemed so perfectly ready… until the anticipated “20 on-site-registrants-if-we-are-lucky” turned into 60. We ran out of everything – seats, packets, give-aways. Most BOD members gave back theirs to hand out to the crowd that seemed never-ending. We ran to make extra copies, we emergently drafted our treasurer to help keep track of the registration money, we grabbed chairs wherever we could find them… Perfect organization had turned to chaos, but for the best reason of all: success! In reality, it was organized chaos, and all went well, but our sense of humor was tested for a while. That session was followed immediately by a reception so crowded that one had to be careful not to get knocked over … I am sure we all went to bed exhausted and relieved that the day was over! My experience as SELAM President was the high point of my career. Regardless of what will be said about it, the year was fun, hectic, invigorating, and exhausting, one that I enjoyed a great deal, and will cherish for years to come. Christine K. Abrass, MD, 2006-2007 SELAM is a network of wise and capable women who share their talents without selfish motives or expectations. Working with the SELAM Board of Directors this year has broadened that network further. These busy women devote that 25th hour each day to enhance the future environment for women in the academic health professions. They bring a diversity of opinions and approaches to the tasks at hand. They have accomplished tasks with an efficiency that I have not experienced previously. Working with the Board has offered me a chance to grow and learn from their talents, build friendships that will endure, and become a part of a growing network dedicated to the future. While SELAM works to grow its mission, reach out to more members, and achieve financial stability, its primary asset remains its network of women leaders. Participation is an ongoing opportunity to grow that network, learn from the skills of its members, and utilize those resources to enhance women's roles in the academic health professions. I can't think of another opportunity that costs so little, has so few demands and provides so much. My words for others…invest in yourself and your future…join SELAM! © SELAM International
© SELAM International |
