Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey yo!! Welcome back to Stimulating Stuff Podcast. I'm your host Rich Vogel and I am done as ASM President.
[00:00:21] Oh come on. I mean, the term had to end at some point, right?
[00:00:26] My term lasted from May to May 2024 to 2025, officially ending on 17 May at the ASNM annual meeting, which was just two weeks ago as of this recording. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to reflect on my time as President and share some of the goals, accomplishments, observations, insights that happen along the way and how things look moving forward.
[00:00:51] This year it was not about checking boxes. I don't live my life to check boxes. I'm a purpose driven person. I'm motivated, inspired, driven to achieve. Even if I'm spread thin, I still get something done. So this past year AS AS President was about momentum. And much of it happened behind the scenes because I spent a lot of time creating and optimizing systems and processes that will ensure the ASNM continues to grow in size and strength and relevance.
[00:01:24] Rumor has it that Abe Lincoln once said, give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Assuming that he actually said that. Old Honest Abe was commenting on the fact that preparation is key to success and a sharp axe is a strength multiplier.
[00:01:46] So doing work behind the scenes may not be sexy, but it serves our community well today and multiplies the strength of ASNM's position for tomorrow. In case you're wondering what it's like to be President of the ASNM, or perhaps I don't know any other society, I'll share a bit about that, but from the heart, I would highly recommend it to anyone who cares enough about the society and obviously this profession to put in the work volunteer to make this a better, stronger and more relevant and integrated profession for the next generation and the next.
[00:02:28] I definitely recommend running for office because it is rewarding in so many ways. Being president has its ups and downs. Everything does. I suppose if you enjoy leadership, it's great. You, you become the voice and face of the society and that has pros and cons. But serving in a board of directors leadership position can actually open many doors for you.
[00:02:53] So for example, there's the knowledge piece. If you ever wonder what the heck is going on in Congress and why do things take so long and what are all these procedures? Well, they're called parliamentary procedures, and understanding how Congress functions or any other parliamentary body like that is something that comes from your work on the board of directors because we also have parliamentary procedure.
[00:03:23] You may find one day that you are sitting on the board of a company, whether that's a for profit or nonprofit organization.
[00:03:31] And you having had this experience with running for a board of a society, you would then come with the understanding of the process by which decisions are made in a formal sense.
[00:03:45] And I think, you know, you never know, you may have some future role in community representation, whether that's at an HOA, small town politics, state senate, or maybe even something on a national level. And all of these things do have some commonalities. And I think that it prepares you for what may lie ahead in the future and, and tells you whether or not you might even like doing that work.
[00:04:12] Speaking of work, being president certainly can be a lot of work. Over the last year, I received and read well over 1000 emails and led over 50 meetings all related to my role as, as president. Through it all, I was surrounded by a core group of leaders who really became like a second family to me. I think, you know, the truth is the strength of the ASNM has never been about any one individual. Though some people might like to believe the contrary.
[00:04:44] But in reality, it's all about all of us. The board, the committees, the volunteers, the entire leadership team, including the executive management team from Affinity, and every single member who contributes to our society's shared mission and vision.
[00:05:05] Everything that we accomplished over this past year was a team effort. And I had the privilege essentially of leading this team. And that's a big reason why, once again, serving as President of the ASNM has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life.
[00:05:22] And I got to do it twice.
[00:05:24] When I took office last year, I made it a priority to ensure that ASNM delivers real estate tangible value to our members. And this year we saw growth across the board. Membership numbers increased. We're now around 1300 members. Meeting attendance broke records. Actually, for the third consecutive year, we broke attendance records and sponsorship support was stronger than ever. I mean, unbelievable. We're not just growing in size, we're growing in relevance.
[00:05:56] So I want to thank some people who have really been instrumental in keeping our organization moving forward. And I'll go through some of the committees first. So for the education committee led by Dr. Jeff Balzer and the webinar subcommittee under Patty Warf, Kent Rice, Colleen Cholsky and Ernesto Lima, we as a society delivered high quality, accessible education all year long. So whether you joined us live or caught recordings, these sessions, I think kept our community learning and connected. We also maintained our Elevated and growing Research Profile thanks to the Research Committee chaired by Katie Jaquez and Victoria Cellis really stepped in when Katie went on maternity leave and did a few fantastic job serving as the Chair during that period.
[00:06:50] Our platform presentations and poster sessions at the annual meeting were a direct reflection of their work and the innovation happening across our field. The Membership Committee led by Josh Mergos ensured that we grow our membership by proactively engaging with university students in the international community and by delivering the value to our members.
[00:07:15] The Award Subcommittee, which sits under membership, is led by Michelle Mora, our current president. Woohoo made sure that members received the recognition they deserve, from rising stars to lifetime achievers.
[00:07:30] And under Lanjun Guo's leadership, the Guidelines and Standards Committee delivered a new SSEP position statement.
[00:07:39] I think essentially reinforcing our commitment to evidence based practice in neuromonitoring, we appointed three new members to the Ethics Committee, including the new Chair, Donald Crammond, and the DEI Task Force, which is led by Brooke Callahan, had numerous accomplishments including hosting impactful career development webinars that helped open doors for junior professionals in neuromonitoring.
[00:08:04] While I'm on DEI, let me just say this. Whatever your personal politics are on the phrase DEI, I need you to divorce yourself from those politics because there's no relation between the concepts that linear cable news stations misrepresent for their core audiences of white men whose average age is like 67 years old. There's no relation to that divisive concept and what ASNM does with DEI, which is fundamentally about embracing the diverse academic, national and cultural backgrounds that have made up neuromonitoring practitioners from the very beginning since the 1970s.
[00:08:43] And it's about helping anyone with an interest in neuromonitoring to understand that the ASNM welcomes them and there's a pathway to leadership for anyone who wants it. That's why, for example, the DEI Task Force is currently hosting a webinar series on career development.
[00:09:03] I can't imagine that anyone is bent out of shape over that, but I've been wrong before and nothing really surprises me anymore. The next committee I want to mention is the Nominating Committee led by Lanjun Guo.
[00:09:18] They worked this year to ensure a strong and representative leadership pipeline for the future of the ASNM. And yes, this was our first year doing this, but I think it worked out really well.
[00:09:30] So the way the process works is that early in the spring there's a period of time during which any member can nominate any other member to run for the board of directors. And this year, I can't remember the number, we had somewhere between 16 and 20 people nominated for four open board positions and then one incoming president elect position.
[00:09:53] And their job is to whittle that number down from 16 to 20 nominees to essentially 10 candidates. So two candidates for each open position on the board. And those folks will appear on the election ballot this coming October.
[00:10:12] Their goal really is to ensure that we have turnover on the board, so the same people aren't running for the board all the time. You know, fresh faces, fresh perspectives. But we also want to make sure we don't get too much representation from individual institutions, whether that's hospitals or companies.
[00:10:31] And really making sure that we give the most qualified candidates a chance to appear on the ballot for what is otherwise unfortunately, and generally a popularity contest.
[00:10:44] So a couple years ago, as we updated the bylaws, I was a strong advocate for maintaining elections when many other societies have moved away from that.
[00:10:53] And so in our first year with this new system, things are working out very well. And I hope that you'll all vote in the elections this fall.
[00:11:03] Another major priority this year was expanding how we communicate our value, not just within our profession, but to the world. And the Digital Engagement Committee, which is led by Danielle Stewart, has done a fantastic job sharing our story and celebrating our people through social media and member spotlights and through the Representation and Advocacy Committee, which is led by Brad Vinson. Now we began building patient facing content for our website and just making that website easier to navigate. Overall, I think it's an important step in educating the public about who we are, what we do and why it matters. And by the way, Brad has done a marvelous job in stepping into this role and demonstrating true leadership in executing on this committee's mission and vision.
[00:11:52] And of course, finally, I want to acknowledge the important work that is done by our CoA-NDT liaisons, Colleen Cholsky and Ashley Walbert. So CoA-NDT stands for the Committee on Accreditation for Education in neurodiagnostic Technology.
[00:12:12] All of the major societies in neurodiagnostics have liaisons to this committee. And Colleen and Ashley serve in this role for the ASNM. Their primary focus is to, oh, you know, review and evaluate educational programs in neurodiagnostic technology and interoperative monitoring to determine compliance with established standards and guidelines for accredited educational programs in neurodiagnostics. So thanks to Colleen and Ashley for the important work that you do.
[00:12:43] As a summary for the committee work over the last year, I will say that the one Thing that stood out to me was teamwork. You know, I work with a lot of other societies and not to name names because it's irrelevant. But one of my observations with other societies is that they spend a lot of time really working, trying to figure out how to get their committees and subcommittees to, to collaborate. And what I'm seeing in the ASNM is that whether it's within the board or between committees or subcommittees or task forces, we're seeing a lot of teamwork and collaboration and it's all happening organically, which tells me that we've got the right people in leadership. We have a group of leaders in the ASNM that they put in the work and they've accomplished a lot over the last year. So big congratulations to them.
[00:13:41] One other thing that I did this past year was an exhibitor survey. Why did I do that? Well, it's important to me to optimize the exhibitor experience because I believe that their presence at our meetings contributes significantly to the educational quality of, of our meetings.
[00:14:01] So I've been focused on developing meaningful relationships deeper than that, partnerships with exhibitors.
[00:14:09] So how does this work? Just fundamentally, right, We're a society, we have members, we have meetings, we bring in attendees, and we provide high quality education.
[00:14:21] And what do exhibitors do? Fundamentally, they pay a lot of money to be at our meetings, to engage with attendees, to share information and insights about their products and services. And the money that they pay us allows the AS and M to offer competitive registration fees. Can you imagine if you went to a meeting and it cost you like $4,000 to register? You wouldn't go. The reason we're able to keep our prices so low is because it's offset by the money that we receive from the exhibitors. So I just want them to keep coming back to our meetings. And I wanted to understand and address their grievances and challenges and optimize their experience.
[00:15:05] So what I did was developed a survey. And many thanks to Julie Trott for helping to design that survey and refine the questions. And I sent it out to about 30 different companies.
[00:15:18] Not everybody participates in surveys. I got 11 participants overall from those 30 companies. So I think that's pretty good. But I asked them a bunch of questions and I shared some of the results from the podium at the annual meeting. But I also came away with some what I think are member facing insights. So here's what comes to mind. First, I think it's important to engage with exhibitors. I think a lot of people avoid them when they walk through the exhibit hall because, I don't know, maybe they don't want to be sold to, for example. But think about this.
[00:15:54] Walk up to the table, explore their products, explore their services. And if you see something you like, they know that you're probably not a decision maker, but you can bring the idea back to leadership. And even if you can't, here's another way to think about it. Share your challenges with everybody. Share your feedback on their products.
[00:16:18] Because exhibitors are in the business of solving problems to help you deliver the best care and most efficient care possible.
[00:16:28] So I would say talk to them, share your experiences. And you never know, you might come back the following year and find a solution to the problem that you presented the year before.
[00:16:40] And that's what I mean by partnership.
[00:16:44] So I would say we had a productive year overall. Despite these wins, being president does have its downsides.
[00:16:52] I don't know if it's just me or if it's part of being a leader. I think it's part of being a leader. I hope it's part of being a leader. But my experience in being president twice is you sometimes become a target for baseless and unwarranted attacks. And this happened to me during both of my presidencies.
[00:17:13] You can't let that stuff get to you, though, because anger eats its own container. So what I do instead is surround myself with good people and totally eliminate the negativity in my life. And it's like what FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
[00:17:37] I admit it, I might be a little weird, but I'm also one of the nicest, most transparent. What you see is what you get, people.
[00:17:46] If I have an enemy, it says far more about them than it does about me. I think random, baseless attacks, they probably come with the territory of leadership. But that doesn't mean I have to swallow my pride and sing Kumbaya. You know, the Philly in me just won't allow it. But I digress. So, yes, it was a successful year. We had some challenges, as all societies do, but we grew larger, stronger, and more impactful together.
[00:18:15] None of this could have happened without a strong board of directors, without dedicated committee chairs, tireless committee members, and an engaged membership.
[00:18:26] Every one of these folks works hard as volunteers for the benefit of ASNM members and the advancement of the neuromonitoring profession. And I am deeply grateful for the privilege of working alongside each and every one of these individuals over the last year.
[00:18:45] I would be Remiss if I didn't specifically mention a few additional people. For example, the folks at Affinity Strategies. This is our management team led by Cayla and her team. Ari, Skyler, Rosaleen. You guys have made my life so much easier over the last year. Thank you for everything that you've done and continue to do. And to the members of the executive committee over the last year, Melissa Miles, Jay Shills, Lanjun Guo, Michelle Mora, and then our two incoming folks, Kent Rice, who is now the president elect, and Cheryl Wiggins, who is now the treasurer.
[00:19:26] All six of you have been extraordinary and like I said before, like a second family to me. Thank you for the support.
[00:19:35] So all of this is to say, looking forward to the future. I'm super optimistic. When I think about our presidential line of succession with our current president, Michelle Mora and Kent Rice following her and whomever you all elect in October to follow Kent, I think that we're in a really good position.
[00:20:00] You know, when I handed that gavel off to Michelle mora at the ASNM meeting a couple of weeks ago and we formally transitioned presidency, I did so with confidence that the ASNM is in good hands with Michelle and with Kent to follow. Because these are people who accept responsibility, hold themselves accountable and the people around them accountable, and they are people of character and integrity.
[00:20:27] So, yes, I pass the gavel with full confidence that the ASNM is in exceptional hands. The path ahead is exciting and I look forward to continuing to support this society however I can.
[00:20:42] To all members, thank you for your trust and support, your energy, and your unwavering commitment to advancing the science and practice of neuromonitoring. Let's keep it moving forward together.
[00:20:56] Okay, that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please continue sending your comments, insights and thought provoking questions to Stimulating Stuff Podcast at gmail dot com. I always love hearing from you. I'm Rich Vogel and that was stimulating stuff.
