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September 2003
Volume 67 |
Number 9 |
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Of Mountains and Molehills: Big Picture Made Up of Little
Details
As the new ASA Assistant Secretary, I am struck by the
enormity of the organization. I knew ASA was large and
complicated, but as I work within it from a different
point of view, I see the contrast between big and little
being repeatedly played out: Big picture, little details.
The Assistant Secretary under the current organization
is Chair of the Committee on Credentials. We assure
the Speaker of the House of Delegates that the House
is properly credentialed and seated. This year for the
first time, we will not use credential cards to seat
the delegates. This eliminates lost, forgotten or conflicting
credential cards and will hopefully speed up the credentialing
process so we can have everyone seated by the time ASA
President James E. Cottrell, M.D., bangs the gavel to
convene the House. Each step is a little one, but if
the House is not properly seated and on time, it could
create big problems.
In 2001, the House of Delegates approved many recommendations
of the Task Force on Structure and Governance. Beginning
with the 2003 House of Delegates, the Assistant Secretary
will chair the Section on Representation that is comprised
of eight standing committees. Officially the Bylaws
charge reads, “The Section on Representation shall
plan and coordinate the internal and external representational
affairs of the Society.” The eight are the committees
on Representation to the American Medical Association;
Anesthesia Care Team; Anesthesia Subspecialties; Professional
Diversity; Residents and Medical Students; Uniformed
Services and Veterans’ Affairs; Representation
to the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists;
and Young Physicians.
As you can see, these are vital committees to ASA. Some
of them are the future of our specialty, and some are
important to our current professional lives. Hopefully
a little more communication will yield big results.
One of the pleasures of a new officer is serving on
the Administrative Council. I knew that the senior officers
face big tasks as they go about the business of leading
the Society, but I have to admit that I was amazed at
how big the tasks are. After attending some of the meetings,
I am very impressed with the talents of the senior officers
and the other members of the Council. They have incredible
institutional memory and use it to make considered decisions
about a host of topics. Little bits of information about
people, members, organizations, budgets, politics, the
American Medical Association, Washington, D.C., and
other anesthesia providers interplay with big ideas,
approaches and controversies to yield the big decisions
about how the Society should react or in which direction
it should move.
Another pleasure of a new officer is increased contact
with ASA staff. Over the years of working on committees
and the Board of Directors, I have had the opportunity
to interact with many members of this highly dedicated
group. I am impressed with how they keep track of so
many big and little details and push the agenda of the
organization forward. They impact the Society in big
ways, often with little thanks from us.
Member Services Manager Robert M. Wallace and his staff
keep track of the membership. Can you imagine getting
more than 38,000 members, most of whom are busy physicians
and some (many?) of whom are procrastinators, to renew
memberships and actually write a check and mail it in?
This is unquestionably a big job and extremely important
to the Society.
Director of Information Services Janice L. Plack and
her staff oversee ASA’s computer activities, including
the Web site. They recently reported that the ASA Web
site averaged 47,663 “hits” per day and
totaled more than 4.4 million hits for the most recent
quarter. During that same time period, the Web site
was visited by more than 86,630 unique individuals.
The top three most visited pages were the ASA homepage,
the Clinical Information Page and the Publications and
Services page. Visitors downloaded 134,000 documents
from the Web site. The top three were all practice guidelines.
It only takes one little click of the mouse to access
a huge amount of information! What a great way to disseminate
information, but what a big job keeping it up and running.
What continues to make the biggest impression on me
about ASA is volunteerism. Watching the officers, committee
chairs and members, task forces, directors, delegates
and alternates all giving of their time, talents, efforts
and monies to better ASA, medicine and the practice
of anesthesiology is truly awesome. I served as Chair
of the Committee on Clinical Forum for five years prior
to becoming Assistant Secretary. In those five years
of putting together 45 Clinical Forums for the Annual
Meeting, only one person turned me down for moderating
a forum. (That person was president of a subspecialty
society that year and had countless conflicts; he personally
arranged the moderator for me.) Leading a forum is a
big job, and takes a great deal of work to recruit panelists,
write the cases and lead the discussion. All of the
people I asked were busy folks, like all of us; yet
they did not hesitate to take on a big task and do something
good for other members of the Society.
My message of big and little could go on with countless
other examples. We all experience big and little every
day in each of our individual interactions with patients.
Maybe an anesthetic seems “routine” or “little”
within the numbers of anesthetics we perform day in
and day out, but each one is a “big” anesthetic
to that patient. It also makes a big difference in the
way they perceive the medical specialty of anesthesiology.
Did you make a big or little impact in your patients’
lives today with a little extra kindness or care?
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