American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2015 - (Page 3)

President's Message Quietly in the Background, a Modernization Unfurled The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) is proud and gratified to be celebrating its 40th year. Over the past 4 decades, ASRA has undergone extensive changes but rarely to the extent seen during the past 3 years. A small cadre of dedicated administrative partners plus a substantial number of volunteers have lived these changes first hand-from the Board of Directors, to meeting participants, to committee members. Yet, I suspect that our typical members-those of you who pay your dues, read the journal, or attend an occasional meeting- are understandably unaware of the magnitude of the Society's behind-the-scenes metamorphosis. Not that ASRA has tried to hide these changes from you; indeed, recent ASRA News columns have focused on new initiatives. Nevertheless, much like a fabled insurance company, ASRA may be called "The Quiet Society." At its core, ASRA is not an "in your face" type of organization. If ASRA's leadership has gotten it right, our behind-the-scenes modernization should help members and the organization for years to come. Strengthening the Society's infrastructure opens the opportunity to thoughtfully, deliberately, and strategically enhance the Society's future impact on the subspecialties and our patients' health. I wish to convey to you in the next few paragraphs a picture from 3 or 4 years ago of an outwardly well-respected and largely well-functioning ASRA. Yet the bridges needed repair, the communications network was patchy, the membership was dwindling and not optimally engaged, the management team had a high turnover rate, and the rudder was loose. Please do not misinterpret my personal appraisal of "the former ASRA" as casting criticism. Everyone was working hard and had the Society's best interests at heart, but the circumstances were not conducive to maintaining a stable infrastructure, much less to charting a course. A series of different management companies (three in the past 5 years, to be exact), different executive directors (if memory serves, six in about 10 years, but who's counting?), and suboptimal leadership turnover fostered a loss of institutional memory and an environment where crisis management trumped strategic reflection. Our Bylaws were years out of date, and our administrative procedures, where they existed at all, were often contradictory. A brief foray into strategic planning resulted more in a laundry list of tasks (grow membership, improve the website) than a thoughtful strategy to guide ASRA into the future. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) placed us on probation not once, but twice. Few members knew of these issues-heck, I was an officer of the Board and did not fully appreciate the breadth of our opportunities for improvement. But just as these challenges were not readily apparent on the surface, so too their resolutions have occurred quietly and decisively. Today's ASRA is a different version of the same organization-better, but with the same core values and mission. My unabashed reason for discussing these changes during this, my last President's column, is to ask you to join me in thanking and celebrating the incredibly hard work of those who have brought about this transformation-the Board of Directors, some extremely talented chairs and key committee members, innovative and uncompromising annual meeting chairs, and a handful of exceptionally skilled and dedicated administrative partners. Some are holdovers from our previous Kenes management team, some of them are temporary team members, and all are led by Angie Stengel as Executive Director of our new self-management team headquartered in Pittsburgh. Joseph M. Neal, MD ASRA President Angie Stengel, MS, CAE ASRA Executive Director THE INFRASTRUCTURE Those things that define a society, guide the present, and preserve the past are now in place. The Bylaws have been completely updated. Our Administrative Procedures now consist of over 100 pages that bring consistency, order, and guidance to everything the Society does-from the timing of dues assessments, to defining officer responsibilities, to listing day-to-day management tasks. The terms and duties of committee members are now clearly tracked, which facilitates timely appointment and turnover. Because the Society is larger and more enduring than its officers and managers, these basic structural elements should guide ASRA's consistent and legal functioning into the future, regardless of who is leading the organization. For the first time, new directors must now undergo orientation to ensure that they understand their fiduciary responsibilities to the Society. Nor have we forgotten the past-we have invested funds to sort and digitally archive ASRA's historic records, back to and including its original articles of incorporation. None of this could have happened without the exceptional input of past presidents John Rowlingson and Rick Rosenquist, and our association attorney Paula Goedert. THE MEMBERSHIP Compared to 3 years ago, ASRA's membership has fallen-not because we actually lost members, but because we now know who is really a member and who was merely a name in an outdated database. Indeed, ASRA membership is now growing at a modest pace, attracting new members and retaining old ones. Much of this progress has resulted from our 2014 Year of the Member Initiative, which was overseen by Gene Viscusi and Membership Manager Diane McGuire. We have added value to your membership. Using our new website, you can now create a profile of personal vital statistics that flow into everything that you engage in-from dues American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine 2015 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2015

President’s Message
Editorial
Pharmacogenetics in Monitoring of Chronic Pain Patients: Are We There Yet?
Phrenic Nerve Injury and Interscalene Nerve Block: Have We Learned Anything From the Surgical Treatment of Over 150 Cases of Diaphragmatic Paralysis From Multiple Etiologies?
An Exercise in Negotiation: The Success of the Pain Medicine Fellowship Match
Regional Analgesia for Patients with Acute Rib Fractures
Application of Regional Anesthetic Techniques for Cancer Pain

American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2015