EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Lori Grassi
WSCA Executive Director and Lobbyist
For 16 ½ years, I have been your lobbyist and 14 ½ years, your Executive Director. My job, simply defined, has been to protect the profession. I protect chiropractors through health care policy, politics, coalition
forming, and formal testimony. From the administrative side, my job is to protect your dues dollars through appropriate spending, solid staff, administrative contracting to support the work at the office, professional services, corporate partner engagement, and professional relationships.
This past year the WSCA Board of Directors retreat process allowed me to reflect on those years by category of work. I spent considerable time reviewing and analyzing the progression of the WSCA’s membership recruitment, financial strength, staff assignment, support and workload, board engagement, and legislative accomplishments. What did we learn?
Financial and Administrative: We hold a strong financial position and are backed with a reasonable reserve. The WSCA is a lean machine with every staff member working hard to protect the profession. Each of us is cross trained in many facets of the organization to support you as best as we can and I have worked closely with my staff throughout 2017 to develop processes and practices that increase efficiency and decrease operating costs.
Membership: Thank you, because if you are reading this Plexus, you are a member. You are the foundation of our ability to represent chiropractic in the best way that we can. We learned that the WSCA membership has remained solid through a difficult economy. While many organizations lost members during the great recession, the WSCA remained strong. However; while we didn’t atrophy, we didn’t grow, either. We need to engage everyone in growing our association. When you invite your non-member associate, or your best friend who thinks that we “don’t do anything,” you make a big difference in our membership strength. Our biggest gains come from you promoting membership to your colleagues; and your biggest gains come from the policy work your association does for you. For instance, did you know that over 50% of your income is a direct result of laws passed by the WSCA?
Did you know that over 50% of your income is a direct result of laws passed by the WSCA?
So what’s missing? We need more engagement from our members to continue to operate at our strongest! Engage with your colleagues, engage with your legislators, and activate your patients into grass roots activities. Talk to people about the work of the WSCA and tell them how they can help. DCs should join the association and patients can talk to their legislators about prior-authorization challenges that interrupt their care. These activities will make a difference to the outcomes of our legislative and policy challenges.
Another way to engage is to volunteer for a leadership position in the association. Annual elections are just around the corner and there are four positions on the board of directors that we are now accepting nominations for. Those positions are President Elect and the Representative positions for each of Districts 1, 2, and 6. Districts 1 and 2 include San Juan, Island, Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, and northeast King Counties; District 6 includes the City of Tacoma and the Olympic Peninsula.
Not only that, but the opportunity for professional growth is always expanding with WSCA membership. We have recently launched our new membership tiers giving DCs unprecedented benefits such as no-cost attendance at the Annual Conference & Tradeshow and at the Annual Meeting & Research Symposium, up to twice the standard member discount for other events (both for you and your CAs), increased print and electronic advertising, and much more. On top of that, Rainier level members get professionally-sourced content posted to their Facebook accounts every business day, significantly increasing their online engagement with new and existing patients! These posts can be easily rebroadcast via Twitter and Instagram for additional exposure.
Nominees for District Representative must be WSCA members for a minimum of two years, with no break in membership, and submit at least 10 endorsements from current WSCA members who live or work within their district. Nominees for President Elect must have five years of membership, without break, and submit at least 25 endorsements from current members anywhere in the state. All endorsements are due no later than close of business on November 1. Contact the WSCA office for more information, and to get your endorsement forms.
Remember, there is nobody else working to protect the chiropractic profession in Washington State. Do we do everything right? Probably not, but without your involvement with the WSCA Board leaders and staff, we may not see other ways of doing things on your behalf.
8 www
.chirohealth.org
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