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September 1999
Volume 63 |
Number 9
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ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE
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| How Does ASA Really
Work? |
Marcelle M. Willock, M.D., Assistant
Secretary
In this continuing series of articles by the ASA officers, let
me share my thoughts with you on my role as Assistant Secretary.
Little did I anticipate what a rewarding experience it would be
when, as a new faculty member, my chair encouraged me to join
ASA. I dutifully did, unaware that ASA's organizational structure
was designed to allow participation at many levels and thus assist
its members to learn and develop a variety of skills. With that
as background, let me elaborate and provide some answers to frequent
inquiries about ASA.
ASA could be considered a federation of state societies
and thus the necessity for an ASA member to be a member of his/her
component state society. Governance of ASA is by the House of
Delegates (HOD). Each state selects its own delegates, one per
100 active members or fraction thereof. Those states or contiguous
states with a minimum of 500 members constitute an ASA district
and each elects a director. Currently, there are 30 ASA districts,
of which 14 consist of single states, 12 represent two states
and four represent three states. Each state selects alternate
delegates and an alternate director with a voice but no vote in
the deliberations at the various meetings of the Society. The
HOD currently has approximately 342 anesthesiologists (voting
and nonvoting members) from all states, the District of Columbia
and Puerto Rico and consists of delegates, directors, officers,
all past presidents, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Anesthesiology,
the chairs of the sections on Education and Research, Annual Meeting
and Clinical Care, one representative from each of the seven recognized
subspecialty organizations, the chair of the ASA delegation to
the American Medical Association (AMA) and the resident delegate
to the AMA Resident Physician Section. Members should be proud
of their representatives; attendance at the annual meeting of
the HOD is consistently near 100 percent.
The ASA Resident Component, added 10 years ago, now numbers
around 4,300 and has been very active. The medical student membership,
which is less than a year old, is already more than 100. This
bodes very well for the future of the specialty. Affiliate members
include physicians and scientists in the United States and abroad
and numbers more than 2,500 from 78 countries, and this number
has been slightly increasing each year.
The ASA Bylaws specify the various duties in the organization,
and the Committee on Bylaws proposes modifications as needed for
action by the HOD. The work of ASA is done primarily by its committees,
appointed by the President-Elect after reflecting on communication
from members indicating their willingness to serve and recommendations
from officers of state societies and others. Terms are for three
years and renewable. Committees consist of six members, but often
adjunct members with special expertise are added. Currently, there
are 68 committees with more than 600 members from all states and
a mixture of both more experienced members and younger members.
For organizational oversight, committees are grouped by their
general function into sections for review by the Administrative
Council, the Board of Directors and final action by the HOD. A
five-year review of all committees allows the HOD to make decisions
on continuing, dissolving or creating new committees, either permanent
or ad hoc, to meet newly identified needs. Under consideration
is publishing all committee reports on ASA's Web site to acquaint
members more readily with what ASA is doing. For example, the
Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology, new
in 1997, explained its charge and accomplishments in the November
1998 issue of the ASA NEWSLETTER.
A little known fact is that ASA has liaison representatives
to and from medical, nursing, governmental and other organizations
whose work interdigitates with anesthesiology, such as the American
College of Surgeons, Association of Operating Room Nurses, Health
Care Financing Administration Cross Specialty Practice Expense
Panel, American Association of Blood Banks and many others.
The bylaws stipulate that the Assistant Secretary is to
assist the Secretary (whose duty is to maintain and preserve the
records of the Society) and serves as a member of the Administrative
Council. The records of the Society are numerous, with contributions
from myriad sectors within ASA. The Assistant Secretary also chairs
the Committee on Credentials, verifying the representatives of
each delegation at the meetings of the Board of Directors and
the HOD.
Many publications are available to the membership, which
can be obtained either on the Web site or by contacting the Publications
Department at the ASA Executive Office. Thus, we rely heavily
on the staff in the headquarters office in Park Ridge, Illinois.
A more professional and competent staff would be hard to find.
Year-round, they respond promptly to the needs and demands of
the officers, directors, delegates and members.
Why have I spent considerable time explaining all of this
when much of this information can be found in the ASA Directory
of Members? Well, the directory is like an unabridged dictionary
-- we all have one and use it when necessary, but few of us read
it electively and some of us do not use one. Our membership directory
may be somewhat misnamed because it has a plethora of information
-- just check the table of contents. Many items, such as the standards,
are already available on the Web site, and we hope to make the
directory available in its entirety in electronic form within
a year or two.
I began by saying how valuable and enjoyable being involved
in ASA has been. I would like you to have a similar experience.
You are ASA. Write to the committee chairs and your officers
(state or ASA) with your opinions, suggestions and solutions.
At the ASA Annual Meeting, come to Reference Committee hearings
on Sunday afternoon. Listen and express your thoughts. Your opinions,
your contributions and your actions make ASA effective. ASA wants
and needs YOU!
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