As I hear from more people, the most common question I get is "how can I get involved?" It's a question I love to hear because for me, volunteerism has been in my blood for many years. It began in my younger years as a child when I watched my father and uncle volunteer at a fire department in my town and my mother's volunteerism with our church as a CCD teacher, our schools PTO and with the JC Women. It must have rubbed off on me because I've been a volunteer at the same firehouse my father and uncle are at for 30 years and I've been involved in the volunteer side of our profession since the early to mid-90s. So you can see why I love the question "how can I get involved"?
Here is my inside track to getting involved. I'm a firm believer that volunteerism needs to start close to home and then fan out. So my first thought would be to tell the person to get involved with the state respiratory society. I do this not in trying to slight the AARC, but knowing full well that our strength as a national organization is tied directly to the strength of the state affiliates. The AARC will always have membership campaigns and of course not only does the new member become an AARC member, but they become a state affiliate member as well. In all seriousness, I've been at this for a long time and one of the things that need to get some press time is the needs of the state society. Think about it, this is no slight to those who are currently serving, but how much has the state society board changed over the last few years? Many of the state board’s membership get recycled because there is no one who wants to run for those positions. I'm not making this up, go ahead and ask one of your state board members. I'm sure they'll tell you the same thing. State societies thrive when those serving are fresh and have new ideas. Anyone who's served on that level will tell you that. So next time there is a board meeting, go to it! They're open to the membership. It's your state affiliate board. Ask them what you can do to get involved. Yes, you can run for a position on the board, but they have committees and conferences where they may need someone to help out. I will guarantee you that they will welcome you with open arms! The second suggestion is an easy one and helps out the state and national organization. Get involved by asking others who aren't members to become one. If every member would ask one person to join, we'd grow quite nicely.
Those are my initial suggestions when you want to get involved for the first time. Our states are the cornerstone of a strong professional organization nationally. We need to make sure that our profession continues to be served by a strong professional organization who is looking out to promote the profession, advance it to the next level to ensure our patients get the best care and finally advocate for our patients and profession to ensure that access to respiratory therapists continues at all points of care. We do this by ensuring the strength of our organization, nationally and statewide! So go ahead and "get involved"!
Thanks for all you do for our patients and profession.
Frank