New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians
Annual Leadership Forum Report 2009
The 2009 Annual Leadership Forum (ALF) of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) was held in Kansas City, Missouri on April 23rd to 25th. The forum is an annual event of the AAFP to develop and strengthen leadership within the individual member chapters, the national organization as a whole and to network the various state chapters with each other. The forum is open to all Academy members recommended by each member chapter with particular emphasis on chapter executives and chapter officers. The forum also has special accommodations for new members as well as “special constituencies” that are otherwise under represented within the Academy.
The forum offers a variety of educational and enhancement speeches such as inspirational speaker plenary sessions, chapter executive sessions designed to improve performance and communication and a breakfast for chapter presidents to coordinate and share ideas and challenges to general member sessions to network with other chapters. The “main event” of the forum is a series of “breakout sessions” organized by general topics promoting leadership, advocacy, membership, communication and non-dues revenue. Participates are encouraged to attend those breakout sessions most pertinent to their needs and the needs of their chapter.
The New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians sponsored two attendees this year: Chapter President-Elect Louis (“Lou”) Kazal Jr. MD and Alternate Delegate Jim Fieseher MD. We stayed at the Kansas City Crown Plaza Hyatt and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity and the atmosphere of networking with the AAFP leadership as well as members of other chapters from around the nation and came back with a wealth of tips and information which we feel will directly benefit our chapter operations and members. We attended meetings about writing and acquiring grants for CME programs which may help us to decrease costs of our state sponsored educational programs. We also attended meetings about strategic planning, streamlining business meetings and finding effective ways of communicating with our Board and chapter members while cutting costs, and reaching out to more of our membership. We also attended breakout sessions on legislative advocacy on the state and national levels to improve our effectiveness in making our voice heard on issues of health care and the patient (relationship) centered medical home.
We heard some terrific inspirational speakers at our luncheon plenary sessions. On April 23rd, we heard a reflective speech from Dr. Chuck Kilo MD, MPH about the importance of Family Medicine Leadership and the need to think outside the box. He pointed out that in most cases, additional money spent on health care has actually hurt communities and individuals by directing money away from where it would benefit people the most. On Friday, April 24th, we were treated to an excellent inspirational and humorous speech from former California Angels player John Cassis about “the game has changed” and the need to think “outside the box.”
Perhaps most importantly, ALF gave us the chance to network with physicians from all over the AAFP, particularly our northeast neighbors with prospects of future joint projects which will benefit family physicians from our respective state chapters. Lou Kazal was able to talk one-on-one with AAFP President Ted Epperly about a variety of health related issues such as concerns about the “medical home” concept. We are making plans to hold a CME Committee meeting of the Northeast State Chapters to coordinate our schedules and resources and to develop grant funding for present and future CME opportunities in New England. We are hoping to develop a variety of concepts that will improve the quality and relevance of CME activities in years to come. We hope the ideas and strategies learned at ALF can generate thoughtful discussion and creative changes which can benefit our chapter membership, our practices, our patients and the practice of medicine as a whole.
Enclosed is a picture of Lou Kazal and Jim Fieseher with the New York Academy Chapter contingency at a networking dinner hosted by New York.
James Fieseher MD, Alternate Delegate
Louis Kazal Jr. MD, Chapter President-Elect
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