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APA wants you.
After years of complacency when its membership was growing at a comfortable pace, APA is once again turning its attention to its most valuable asset: its members, according to Bernard Katz, M.D., chair of APA's Membership Committee.
Katz spoke in June at an annual meeting workshop on membership recruitment and retention. In the past few years, he recounted, APA began to realize that with the entrenchment of managed care and related changes in the health care marketplace, APA's "membership was under a great deal of strain. The harder things have gotten, the more inclined members have been to drop out of the Association-ironically, just when APA needed them the most."
While APA can't change most of the economic forces affecting medicine today, "APA can minimize the damage for psychiatrists, patients, and their families," said Katz. But to do so requires the involvement and support of as many psychiatrists as possible.
Attending the workshop were district branch presidents, presidents-elect, and executive directors who share the national organization's concerns over the dip in membership and the need to make APA more responsive to psychiatrists' needs.
"We are trying to reduce members' frustration of dealing with a large organization," Katz said. "For example, we are improving our procedures for becoming an APA member and transferring to a different district branch. We are not interested in taking away the authority or autonomy of district branches; we just want to make" such membership procedures easier and hassle-free.
While joining APA may become easier, resigning is becoming more difficult, said Katz. "Members at risk to drop their membership now get a call from someone in the leadership. Nothing is more effective at retaining potentially lapsed members-one-third of the people we've called agree to retain their membership."
Katz said that a calling program will be held in November in conjunction with APA's annual leadership orientation meeting in Washington, D.C. "We will be asking DB, state society, and national leaders to participate," he said.
APA President Rodrigo Muņoz, M.D., reiterated Katz's message that the foundation of APA rests on its members. For psychiatry to succeed in its mission of helping the mentally ill and assuring that they have access to high-quality care, psychiatrists must be involved in their professional association.
"APA is the result of the efforts and strength of all its members," he said, "and we must give members what they need. This year will be a turning point against managed care. We must be prepared to move at the state level. To be powerful, we need our members to be powerful. We need to keep our current members involved and encourage former members to come back and psychiatrists who have never been members to join," said Muņoz.
Muņoz pointed out that he had been a strong advocate of APA's recent creation of the Office of District Branch and State Society Relations (Psychiatric News, March 20). Through this office, he believes that APA will be able to share more quickly and easily its resources pertaining in particular to education, research, government relations, and public affairs with APA's district branches and state associations.
Kevin Adler, APA's membership marketing manager, noted that APA wants to deliver a consistent and concise message to members: APA values their membership.
Adler summarized some of the procedures and services that APA has either adopted or is now working on to make members feel they are an important part of the Association and to make communication with the national office hassle free:
These items are in addition to services that have recently been added by APA, such as the Women's Mentoring Network, the fax-on-demand service known as APAfastFAX, an expanded Web site with links to DB Web sites, and the APA Answer Center.
R. Dale Walker, M.D., chair of APA's Task Force on Strategic Planning, commented that one of the main forces driving APA's current reorganizational plan is the goal of being more responsive to member needs and working more successfully on behalf of the mentally ill.
He noted that APA had just conducted a membership survey whose results will be instrumental in guiding the strategic planning effort. "There is no way we can do strategic planning in isolation," he observed.
He urged members to acquaint themselves with the APA Assembly as their representative body in the Association and become involved in its work, either directly or through their representatives.
"APA doesn't function well when the membership is quiet," he observed. "When communication is only one way, retaining members is difficult. If you in the district branches are not getting the information you need, let me know, let APA know."
Walker noted that the Oregon Health Sciences University department of psychiatry, which he chairs, pays APA membership dues for its residents. In return, the residents must attend the district branch's spring and fall meetings and an Executive Council meeting. Walker is pleased with the return on the department's investment: The residents are able to learn about their professional association, meet leaders, and become plugged in. He urged other teaching departments to adopt a similar program.
In closing the workshop, Katz encouraged APA leaders and members to send him their ideas about making APA membership more valuable via e-mail at member@psych.org or fax at (202) 682-6385.
"We will read your ideas and take them seriously," he promised.
-C.F.B.