The CSA Board of Directors met September 9-10 in Sacramento in our first full meeting since officer elections were held in June at the House of Delegates meeting. Hosting an in-person meeting was a valuable reminder of the importance of networking and personal connection to enhance our wellbeing, professional satisfaction, and effectiveness in leading your state society.
Now that we are meeting in person again, CSA leadership was able to execute on a plan we established prior to COVID-19 – leveraging our Board of Directors meeting events to host residents and practice group leaders from the nearby community to better connect with and learn from individual members. Since we were meeting in Sacramento, we had the good fortune to host several residents from UC Davis and practice leaders from UC Davis, Shriners Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, CASE Medical Group, and St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton.
Dr. Jacqueline Chen, a CA-2 resident at UC Davis said, “The CSA dinner was a wonderful experience and valuable opportunity for me to visit with and learn from actively practicing CSA members from all sorts of practice settings and places around California. I also gained insight and appreciation for the many things CSA does behind the scenes for us (and how it all works!).”
The Board of Directors meeting on Saturday began with an educational session by CSA’s Executive Director, Dave Butler, who provided Board members with an overview of CSA’s organizational structure, finances, Board member roles and responsibilities and a timeline of recent achievements which were made possible by CSA leaders’ consistent commitment to a set of strategic priorities approved by the Board and informed by the House of Delegates.
CSA Secretary, Dr. Philip Levin said, “The presentation was very useful for new Board members to understand how the Board works and what is expected from each of them. The overview was also incredibly helpful to existing Board members, reminding us of the many things we have achieved since we started collaborating with AMG in 2015. I feel all the members found it very inspirational and helped increase their focus on the matters that were discussed.”
The business of the CSA Board of Directors meeting was focused primarily on the operational budget for 2023. Over the last two years, CSA leaders have implemented several priority projects directly aligned with expressed member needs, including greater financial support for resident engagement in CSA and ASA programs, an ongoing digital media campaign promoting the value of physician anesthesiologists to both policy makers and the public, a member benefit subsidizing registration to the new CSA/UC Irvine Leadership in Healthcare certificate program, a new website and special funding to commemorate CSA’s 75th Anniversary in 2023.
New expenditures, combined with reduced revenue from various sources, have created budgetary challenges for 2023, similar to what other nonprofit member-driven professional organizations have had to deal with during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the leadership of Treasurer Dr. John Hsieh and Assistant Treasurer Dr. Phillip Richardson, CSA’s Finance and Administration Committee members are working to develop a revised budget proposal for presentation to the Board of Directors and House of Delegates with expected approval at its virtual meeting in November.
During times of financial uncertainty, it is important to go back to the core values of CSA. At every meeting, CSA leaders review these guiding principles:
- Create value for our members
- Perpetuate CSA as a self-sustaining professional association
- Promote the reputation, unique identity, and brand of CSA
- Provide strong advocacy for CSA and the practice of anesthesiology
The CSA Membership Committee, led by Assistant Secretary Dr. Eugenia Ayrian, will implement our membership recruitment plan by engaging leaders of large private practice groups including Kaiser Permanente in northern and southern California and promoting the early career membership program benefits offered by ASA and CSA.
Dr. Todd Primack, Chair of CSA’s Legislative and Practice Affairs Division (LPAD) updated the Board on CSA’s ongoing efforts to cultivate support from CMA and other medical specialty organizations for legislation to strengthen California’s truth in advertising (TIA) laws relative to appropriate medical title usage in both public and clinical settings, a key priority identified by our House of Delegates at its 2021 meeting. Our CSA lobbyist, Bryce Docherty, is working with Dr. Primack and Dr. Michelle Raney, the Chair of CSA’s Delegation to the CMA, to engage directly with leaders of individual specialty societies in California to form our own coalition in support of stronger TIA legislation for introduction to the state legislature in 2023.
If you have any questions about CSA activities or want to get more involved, I invite you to please contact me at emariano@stanford.edu.
In the meantime, I look forward to seeing many of you in New Orleans at the upcoming ANESTHESIOLOGY 2023, October 22-26. If you do plan to attend, I encourage you to please join me and other CSA leaders and members at our second annual All-Member Reception, cleverly themed “Mardis Gras, Music and Membership” this year, on Saturday, October 22. You can RSVP for the reception here.