Letter from the President
By: James B. Shea, NERVES President
NERVES colleagues! Hello from the Black Hills of South Dakota. It’s the middle of Fall and I’m sitting in my office weathering storms already! It is 6° with wind chill outside so what better time to write this letter.
We are at about mid-way point between our last annual meeting and our next one – the countdown has begun. I am excited about 2020’s meeting in Boston. It’s going to be another great one and our annual meeting committee has been working diligently on it since getting back from San Diego. The dates are April 23rd to the 25th of 2020 and it will be held at the beautiful Boston Marriott Longwharf. Please put our meeting on your calendar now. If you haven’t been to a meeting yet or missed the last one, I urge you to attend. The value of our meetings, from the speakers to the fellowship, is unmatched. I guarantee it will inspire you. We have scholarships available to interested members who may need some assistance in paying for the meeting. If you are interested in applying, contact the NERVES office.
The Socio-economic survey just closed. This is an important tool for our organization and helps us to be recognized in the neurosurgical world as an important and relevant partner. If you completed it this year, thank you! If you were unable to do it, I respectfully ask you to give it a shot next year. It’s of great value to our organization and its mission.
The Board of Directors and the many committees have been working hard in the months since our meeting in San Diego in a variety of different ways. Our summer Board meeting was extremely productive and resulted in the creation of our organizations first Mission, Vision and Value statements. Donna Bailer has written an excellent article for this edition summarizing what was accomplished and how these statements will add value to our organization.
In San Diego many of you have asked about volunteering to serve on one of our many committees. We greatly appreciate and actively solicit your participation in them. The health of these committees and our organization is highly dependent on new members who will bring new and creative ideas to us. We want to invite you, to submit a request to join one of our committees. Please see the article in this edition which presents detailed information on each committee, including its Chair, duties and commitment. Please let us know which committee or committee(s) you’re interested in joining.
The website update, while taking a bit longer than we planned, is making great progress. I hope that you will find the updated site to be more user friendly and visually appealing. See “News You Can Use” for more information. If you have any additional recommendations for content, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].
Membership renewal time is upon us. I hope you will all renew your memberships. Our members are our greatest resource and are the reason we exist. Equally as important are new members. I encourage everyone to take the time to invite another to join our organization. Ask a fellow manager to join. The growth of our organization is a key component to our long term success and viability. You, our members, are our greatest advocates.
I’ll finish with a thank you to all our members. You are all managers, administrators or CEO’s with full-time critically important jobs that consume much of your working hours. Despite this, you have agreed to belong to NERVES. I believe that this is a sign of your professionalism and commitment to the profession of neurosurgery. I am grateful for that commitment.
I encourage you to consider becoming more active in our organization, whether it be in soliciting new members, participating in a committee, making recommendations for topics at the annual meeting, participating in a presentation at the annual meeting or just making recommendations of new or cutting edge practices to make our organization better. With your active participation you can help make our organization more vibrant and relevant.
If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns and you want to talk to me, please call, text or email me at [email protected]. Mobile: (605) 381-0919.
Thank you for being a member of NERVES!
James B. Shea
President
More from the November 2019 Newsletter
Letter from the President by James B. Shea, NERVES President
NERVES Constructs its Mission, Vision and Value Statements
NERVES 2019 Socio-Economic Survey
Opt In! Join a Committee
News You Can Use
Introducing the Newest Members of the Society