Doing Things Differently
With an outgoing AACP President whose mantra was “Be Bold!” and an incoming AACP President whose challenge is to “Think Off the Map,” I decided that my theme today should be “Doing Things Differently.” I'll approach that in 3 dimensions, first with a bit of personal sharing. Last year we celebrated completion of my initial term as AACP CEO. As part of my conversation with your elected leaders about the next 5 years, the Board emphasized their support for my own professional development, encouraging me to find the right opportunities to grow as an executive leader. 
 
Like many of you, I travel a lot and the thought of going to a week-long executive development program (where I would no doubt learn a great deal but come home too stressed to do much with it) didn't appeal to me. Instead I pursued the idea of engaging an executive coach and selected one last fall. In short order, after a few phone conversations with me and my 2 top staff leaders, Sylvia challenged me to think hard about what I needed to do differently to fully achieve our goals for AACP. Trusting the abilities of this outstanding team of professionals who serve as your staff, delegating activities that truly can be done better by others, and creating the capacity to take on new and even more strategic challenges were our collective agreement following our early interaction with my coach. 
 
You will see that subtlety translated into some changes. For example, while I will remain House secretary, Will Lang, our extraordinarily talented advocacy leader, will be working more closely with Speaker Carter and the House on issues identification and communication. This will allow further maturation of the goals Rod articulated from before he began his term as Speaker to develop strong, two-way communication between AACP and member schools using you as our “at the ready” conduit. 
 
Doing things differently obviously then also applies to how AACP conducts its business. This year we already found that we had to change our model of annual meeting program planning, not just to execute the joint meeting with our Canadian colleagues effectively, but to manage our enormous success! When you go in a single year from about 45 special-session proposals to over 80, you know you can't do business as usual! We more fully engaged our talented elected and volunteer committee leaders as the section and SIG level as well as the Program committee to design the curriculum you digested this week. My hallway customer satisfaction survey suggests that they were “spot on,” and we'll continue to mature program planning for AACP meetings and introduce whatever changes are necessary to insure they maximize your return on investment. 
 
One suggestion that has been made repeatedly is that we find ways to get the outstanding content of our meetings to others. With the power of a new web site designed on Microsoft Sharepoint technology, I believe we will have new tools in our toolbox to extend our reach. We are committed to meeting members and prospective members at other regional and national meetings as well. We are excited by the potential for the more effective use of technology and our outreach efforts. 
 
Speaking of outreach, I had so much fun this year on the visits I made with AACP leaders to many of your campuses! We met with students, faculty members, administrative teams, and in some cases with you bosses' bosses! You shared your exemplary practice sites, your innovative research and service programs. You even shared some of your fears and concerns, but each and every visit was an extraordinary learning opportunity. 
 
AACP is committed to continuing our outreach and it begins when you are ready to extend an invitation. We are in the early stages of planning at least 3 visits for the fall, but we are ready to plan more so please don't hesitate to contact me on your return if you think your school might want to work toward a visit in this next academic year. 
 
So I plan to do things differently and AACP finds the need to do so as well. What about you? Not surprisingly, I believe there are some things the academy is doing, or attempting to do, that deserve examination for change. We have proven that when we collectively decide to work on something together, it works – PharmCAS is an off-the-chart example. Clearly, your needs for assessment services support, experiential education resources, and faculty development programs top the list for national collaboration and program development. 
 
My aim is that with each project we agree to do nationally that your ROI locally is tangible and real in terms of human and other resources. If we can build, which we will, an electronic assessment system that eases the burden of continuous quality assessment and preparation for accreditation visits, that should translate directly into decreased faculty and staff time in this critical function area. At this meeting, one leader indicated that over $75,000 in personnel time had to be dedicated to preparing for an ACPE site visit. Of course that is over and above the large checks you send to our colleagues here in Chicago. 
 
In the interest of time, I won't delve into any additional areas where our working differently together can make a difference. When the deans gather at our second annual deans retreat, we'll be prepared to unpack some specific areas for national project work and collaboration. We'll engage your experts and our volunteer leaders in each project to insure we have exactly the talent we need to do things differently and make a difference in the lives of your faculty members, administration, preceptors and students. 
 
I'll close with a simple word of thanks. You are lavish in your praise of what AACP is doing and gracious to include me specifically in those kudos. In reality, it is you that makes the difference in AACP – your engagement, your participation, and your high level of concern about the quality of pharmacy education in this country and around the globe. It is an honor to be part of something wonderful!