Governing Council goals

The inaugural meeting of the 2007-2008 MSS Governing Council was a strategic goal-setting session during which the GC determined the Section’s agenda and prioritized goals for the upcoming year. In setting our goals, we worked to ensure that our priorities can be easily implemented, will work to benefit every medical student in the country, will set a forward-thinking agenda for the AMA and the MSS, and that our successes will be measurable and be able to be communicated to our membership. We started our goal-setting process by focusing on the three pillars of our new AMA brand: Advocacy, Involvement, and Communications. From there, we broke down and prioritized our broad goals into actionable items and ensured that we addressed the issues that are most important to medical students and the future of medicine in a manner relevant to today’s political and social climate. Lastly, we set a timeline for the implementation of each goal and determined which GC member and AMA and MSS administrative body would be responsible for implementation.

While the resulting goals are a synthesis of our individual campaign platforms, the AMA’s Health Care Advocacy Agenda, and the ongoing initiatives from prior GCs, we also created new initiatives in order to meet the growing needs of our Section and to serve as a more prominent force in shaping the overall agenda of the AMA. These goals and the accompanying action plans are not an exhaustive list of everything the MSS will do this year, but they indicate the areas where the GC intends to prioritize efforts and resources. We appreciate any feedback and comments and look forward to an exciting year working together! Please feel free to contact Rana Yehia, AMA-MSS Chair, at ryehia@gmail.com with any comments or questions.

Health Care Access Advocacy

Tier 1

• Mobilize students to AMA advocacy/marketing events focused on health care access and the AMA proposal for reform in key states during the upcoming presidential campaign. Events will begin in the fall in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Efforts should focus on helping finalize advocacy/marketing events with staff and mobilizing large numbers of students to those events.
• Work with COLA to develop resources for grassroots campaigns and promote local advocacy efforts including letter writing campaigns and phone calls.
• Interim and annual meeting programming focusing on health care access.

Tier2

• Work with each medical school in the MSS to develop a year long health care access program for the coming year, including at least two events on each campus related to access. One event should be a service project in line with our two year “Health Care Access” National Service Project (NSP) and the other event should be an educational or advocacy program.
• Develop a generic media press release and press guide for local chapters to utilize to help publicize local events and increase awareness about the AMA proposal for reform.
• Increase awareness about the advocacy efforts of the AMA and AMA-MSS to the individual member via electronic communications, such as eVoice, legislative action alerts, and issues briefs. Develop a mechanism for issues briefs to be routinely reviewed and updated.
• Collaborate with other organizations such as the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and Student National Medical Association (SNMA) to promote health care access.

Tier 3

• Develop a mechanism under the leadership of the Government Relations and Advocacy Fellow (GRAF) to plan and coordinate Medical Student Lobby Day. In addition, specifically delineate responsibilities of the GRAF and Advocacy staff in planning National Medical Student Lobby Day. Efforts should be focused on increasing awareness about existence of Lobby Day to general membership.
• Work with AMPAC Student Advisory Board (SAB) to organize local lobby days in coordination with local leaders and state medical societies.
• Work with state leadership to organize local health care access rallies in key states where reform is being proposed and/or implemented.

Medical Education

Tier 1

• Work closely with the student representative to the Initiative to Transform Medical Education (ITME) to ensure that the student perspective on medical education is adequately addressed in the initiative.
• Work with the Council on Medical Education (CME) and outside student organizations including the AAMC Office of Student Representatives (OSR) and AMSA to help develop policy levers to increase transparency of tuition setting practices and the cost of medical education.
• Work with the GRAF to ensure implementation of AMA student debt policy.

Tier 2

• Complete analysis of results of Clinical Skills Assessment Exam (CSAE) Survey and work to publicize the data appropriately.
• Organize a meeting with Dr. Peter Scoles of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) to discuss results of the CSAE survey and areas for improvement of current CSAE, including financial support, increased feedback on performance, and added value of examination.
• Work closely with the student representative to the Committee to Evaluate the USMLE Program (CEUP) to ensure that the student perspective on licensure and licensing exams is adequately addressed.

Tier 3  

• Develop tools for students to use on campuses to advocate for transparent tuition policies.

Community Service

Tier 1

• Encourage the Community Service Committee to provide more detailed information on resources and contacts for chapter-level community service projects. Update and increase awareness of the Project Ideas Handbook and NSP resources on the AMA-MSS website.
• Encourage GC and Community Service Committee to work with the AMA Media Relations staff to increase media coverage of the NSP and service projects.
• Continue the NSP at the Interim and Annual meeting.

Tier 2

• Develop a mechanism for chapters to publicize successful community service projects via the Web site and other resources.
• Continue to foster coordination of the Community Service Liaison (CSL) with the GC and region leadership.
• Update and increase awareness about Covering the Uninsured Week (CTUW) resources online and ensure broad involvement by most chapters.

Policy

Tier 1

• Establish top proprieties of the MSS and strongly encourage resolutions to fulfill those priorities.
• Provide regular updates of the status of the AMA-MSS goals, priorities and policy implementation via GC goals and policy grids at both the Interim and Annual meeting.
• Develop a presentation and printed brochure of national meeting proceedings to better orient meeting participants and first-time attendees.

Tier 2

• Clearly define the goals of the House Coordinating Committee (HCC) as a year long standing committee. Encourage HCC to assist in the resolution writing process and providing feedback to authors on resolutions.
• Propose a listserv feedback deadline to ensure that resolution authors receive enough help from more experienced members, submitted resolutions are not redundant and are of high quality, and policy is discussed through proper channels.

Tier 3  

• Update and publicize resources for resolution writing and the resolution checklist.
• Study the Assembly extraction process and identify areas for improvement.
• Require formal meetings between Reference Committee Chairs and the Speakers/Vice Speaker before national meetings to define each individual’s role in the policy making process. Update the Reference Committee Chair guide.

Membership Recruitment and Retention

Tier 1

• Work with the Residents and Fellows Section (RFS) to develop a membership retention and recruitment plan of action to improve member retention into residency.
• Work with Region chairs and AMA Membership staff to identify struggling and/or emerging chapters in order to provide them with increased resources. Target these chapters to participate in the “Succeeding in Medical School” initiative. Encourage GC members to attend a minimum of three events.
• Continue to work with AMA Membership staff, chapter recruiters, and the Membership Retention and Recruitment (MRR) committee to ensure recruitment efforts across the board.

Tier 2

• Continue to work with the Special Opportunities Working Group to identify recruitment strategies across the continuum of the profession. Develop a tangible strategic plan with measurable actions.
• Work with the Section on Medical Schools (SMS) to identify initiatives that will address the disjunction between academia and organized medicine. Set up a meeting with the SMS at the interim meeting to discuss initiatives.
• Work with the SMS to develop mechanisms such as academic specific recruiting materials or a recognition program to honor leaders in academic medicine who are also involved in organized medicine.
• Work with AMA Membership staff to ensure student input to the content of membership mailings including the MSS Newsletter.

Tier 3

• Study the feasibility and advantage of further reduction in membership dues to all medical students eligible to join the AMA-MSS within the context of other efforts for increasing membership. Further study the factors that motivate students to choose to join and stay involved in the AMA.
• Continue to work with the SMS to develop the Chapter Liaison Program in which chapters will work with distinct local physician leaders to link up students to State and County Medical Societies and AMA resources.
• Coordinate MSS/RFS programming at national and regional meetings.
• Study and determine a “bare minimum” standard for the AMA-MSS membership at any campus wishing to be represented in the AMA-MSS Assembly.

Communications

Tier 1

• Advocate for student representation to the AMA’s Web Site Governance Committee to ensure that the student perspective on the overhaul of the AMA and AMA-MSS website is adequately addressed.
• Encourage submission of updates from MSS leaders including, but not limited to, the GC, AMA Council student members, Region Chairs, and Committee Chairs to MSS staff regarding website content at least twice per year.
• Publicize the Chapter Involvement Grants (CIG) so that each chapter can receive $1,000 of funding for programming.

Tier 2

• Explore the development of a “most read/most e-mailed” feature for the MSS home page, a “what’s new/most recently updated” feature, a meeting blog, a policy tracking grid, as well as a web-site based leadership newsletter directed to the general membership to allow for communication with members in a timely, effective, and volume controlled manner.
• Develop “GC office hours” and “brainstorming sessions” for national meetings.
• Continue to work with AMA staff to modify membership sign-up and renewal documents for students to include an “opt-out of receiving commercial offers” box and ensure that those who select this option do not receive commercial solicitations associated with membership.
• Distribute and raise awareness about the Chapter Programming Guide.
• Distribute a bimonthly GC newsletter to chapter leaders to highlight recent work/accomplishments and on-going projects.
• Increase dissemination of AMA Member Connect surveys to our individual members to ensure their voice is heard in setting the advocacy agenda.

Tier 3

• Work with MSS staff to compile a MSS staff directory for dissemination to section leaders.
• Facilitate personal interaction between GC members and chapter leadership by encouraging GC to personally contact each chapter leader by phone or email at least twice per year.
• Publicize the GC action item form so that members can easily influence the MSS and AMA agenda.

Leadership

Tier 1

• Work closely with region leadership to identify goals for each region. Schedule quarterly conference calls with region leaders to increase support for each region. In addition, secure funding for region leadership travel and region programming.
• Create a leadership training session at the annual meeting to allow councilors, liaisons, student representatives and region leaders to transition into their new positions.
• Develop a mechanism to communicate effectively with committees and assess progress on goals and other initiatives.

Tier 2

• Develop a Councilor Forum at the interim and annual meetings to increase communication between Councilors and the MSS.
• Encourage each student representative to communicate regularly with the MSS via a quarterly column and communicate regularly with his or her associated MSS committee.
• Study the overall role of the regions and regional leadership within the MSS, focusing on how these roles can be optimized to best serve the MSS and their member states/chapters. In addition, the roles of the regional leadership should be addressed and delineated. This can serve as the role for the Regional Infrastructure Task Force (RITF) over the next year.
• Review MSS committees and assess their need and efficacy. Assess status of current Ad Hoc committees.
• Encourage committees to develop a year end report to be kept by AMA-MSS staff for institutional memory.

Tier 3  

• Update the Region Leaders Handbook and include information on funding region meetings and hosting a residency fair.
• Develop an internal leadership award to recognize the work of truly exceptional leaders within the AMA-MSS.

Media Exposure

Tier 1

• Track the number and content of MSS media exposure at the local, state, and national level.
• Work with the AMA Media Relations staff to further identify opportunities for media exposure relevant to the MSS.
• Develop a generic media press release and press guide for local chapters to utilize to help publicize local events.

Tier 2

• Annual formal media training for each newly elected GC member.

Tier 3  

• Explore the creation of student biosketches for use of on student membership recruitment documents, AMA publications directed to students, and the MSS Web site.

Links of interest

• MSS 2007-2010 Operational Plan (PDF, 53KB)
• AMA 2008 Strategic Plan (Word, 71KB)