With
the closure of the 2004 Georgia Nurses Association Convention, the
GNA Chief Executive Officer, Debbie Hackman, and I sat down to look
at our organization. The picture was mixed—financially the
organization was strong but with little room for deviation from the
budget. The sad, and scary, realization was that of our membership
numbers were not healthy. That started the quest to find a way to
improve our association.
The first
step was hosting a planning retreat with the leadership of the Georgia
Nurses Association. After reviewing trends of associations, including
nursing associations, the Board of Directors, presidents of the
Districts, regional representatives and chairs of the commissions set
out to develop the strategic plan and navigate a course for the future
of the association.
The fact remains that memberships in
organizations are declining. The youngest members of our profession are
not joining organizations. The reasons are numerous—too many
commitments, not enough time, the organizations not meeting the needs of
the membership and not enough money, to name a few.
As part of the preparations for GNA’s
Centennial Celebration, the Board of Directors and members of the
District Assembly (the presidents of the districts) made a commitment to
increase the membership of the Georgia Nurses Association. We are
dedicated to keeping this commitment for ourselves and generations of
nurses to come.
After reviewing and reaffirming the
mission statement—“Nurses shaping the future of professional nursing
and advocating for quality health care”—the leadership decided by
group consensus that the Georgia Nurses Association should serve it’s
members first, followed by service to the nursing profession. Therefore,
the focus for the Georgia Nurses Association was determined to be:
Create meaningful, diverse opportunities and services for
GNA members and promote professional
nursing practice in Georgia.
The Board of Directors selected the
Executive Board and the Director of Strategic Planning to develop a plan
for meeting the goals of increased membership. This task force (Betty
Daniels, Kay Gatins, Debbie Hackman, Kay Hampton, Wanda Jones, Kathy
Shaw, and I) spent the following ten months reviewing research, looking
for best practices, developing a plan, and then presenting the plan to
the Bylaws committee and the membership.
On
October 21st, 2005 –the Georgia Nurses Association’s House of
Delegates voted to change the bylaws of the organization. Please spend
some time reviewing these bylaws (I know they are not exciting), but it
is important that the membership understand how our organization will
now be functioning. I will review a few of the highlights:
-
Changes the basic
group of the membership to chapters (versus the previous
Districts). A chapter can be any group of nurses with the same
passion or goal. Since the chapter does not have to be in a set
geographical area, the same area might have 2 or 3 chapters based on
passion, function or goals of the members. For example, a hospital
based chapter, a retired nurses’ chapter and a hospice nursing
chapter may all exist within the same town.
-
There will now be
biennial membership assemblies instead of the annual House of
Delegates. This will include a one-member/one-vote scenario rather
than elected delegates, giving everyone in our organization a voice
and vote.
-
The biennial
membership assembly allows the association to be creative in
planning membership events instead of the annual House of Delegates.
-
The Board of
Directors has been reorganized to improve the functioning of the
Georgia Nurses Association. Two new positions—the director of
leadership development and the director of membership
development—will be important in helping the organization grow and
improve the services and programs that will be of interest to our
current and potential members.
These are
a few of the major changes that are now in effect!! Please review the
new bylaws, the provisos and the transition plan (all printed in this
edition). It will take all of us to improve the Georgia Nurses
Association for the future. Making these changes will not be easy for
any of us, even if we know that this is what is needed. I applaud
everyone who made the tough decision to vote for these changes. I am
excited to see what the future will bring!
Our work
has begun to make the Georgia Nurses Association a leading nursing
organization in our state and throughout the nation. Please let me know
how we can continue to improve OUR organization. Many of our
districts have been in desperate need of leadership, enthusiasm and
members. Now, we need to find the area or issue that these nurses are
passionate about, so that they may rally to it through a chapter.
As we
plan for our 100-year celebration (2007 in Savannah), we need to build a
vibrant, growing organization. This can only happen if we all commit
ourselves to this single, unifying goal. Thank you for allowing me this
opportunity to serve as your president; I look forward to continue to
move the Georgia Nurses Association into the forefront of the nursing
profession.
