Dear Colleagues,
The approach of fall is a milepost for transition. And in this year, not just a transition of seasons, but also one from the tumultuous peak (or depths) of an historic pandemic to the hopeful signs of recovery, rebuilding and rethinking the future of each of our organizations. That process of rethinking is one that is occurring at your ACHE chapter as well. As we approach the last quarter of 2020, the board continues to re-examine how we must change in the future, and I am happy to report some solid initial progress.
This begins with asking each of you for your thoughts, so please take note of our newly released member survey and complete it at your earliest convenience. This year, our Chapter survey will replace the ACHE National survey so your feedback will be even more important to chart our future. Also, we continue our discussions and work with our Diversity and Inclusion Committee on how we can be a better organization to further their work at this issue’s very important time in our industry.
It is inspiring to see how well we have adapted in moving toward the “virtual” world in educational programs as we continue to partner with our RI and CT Chapters as well as MHA on excellent virtual offerings. Case in point, our annual fall conference is being reimagined as a virtual event and will include a three-part series starting November 10 to December 1 with a wide range of speakers and the theme “Building Healthcare for the Future”. For more information, please check out our event page linked here. In addition, I am excited to report we will also be acknowledging our D&I awardees at the conference during the November 10 session and focus on this topic in roundtable discussion as well.
Lastly, as I head toward the end of my term as your chapter president at year’s end, we are working hard to build a slate of officers for 2021 that will continue to drive our mission and move the Chapter forward into areas of growth and opportunity. Along those lines, I would like to acknowledge the great work of Chris Louis who steps down from his board role as leader of our Higher Education Network (HEN) this month. Chris has been an invaluable leader in coordinating and improving our HEN structure as well as helping the board understand the needs of not just early careerists, but mid and late careerists as well. I will miss his thoughtful input at our board meetings, but true to form, he has identified an excellent successor in Joni Beshansky of Boston College who will join the board this month. Thank you, Chris, and welcome Joni!
Sincerely,
John Fogarty, FACHE
President, ACHE of MA
