Professional Organizations: Staying the Course in Tough Times

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At the opening session of the annual meeting of AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management, Edward J. Cronin, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of AHRA warned some of his comments would address a very serious situation facing AHRA.

Robert Salmon, Carestream Health

The thoughts running through the heads of hundreds of members in attendance probably included wondering what somber, scandalous or now emerging crisis would soon be revealed. You could sense the quiet pall that descended quickly upon the assembled group as many of us pondered where his ominous remarks would likely lead.

While certainly not scandalous, clearly a bit somber—and not yet a nasty crisis but could easily become one—Mr. Cronin disclosed a disturbing trend facing AHRA: Tight budgets and scarce dollars for professional education and development are contributing to a decline in AHRA membership.

AHRA is not unique in facing a downward trending membership spiral—as many other professional healthcare organizations are challenged to simply maintain let alone grow their membership ranks. The fact remains that the impact of too few dollars and too many mouths to feed nearly always translates into fewer resources for professional development no matter where you work. In fact, as healthcare organizations in particular face enormous budget challenges not previously seen, professional development is often the very first to go in trying to manage an ever dwindling pool of resources in world that only seems to get more expensive overnight.

The many benefits to membership in AHRA and other well-run medical imaging and healthcare IT organizations unquestionably contribute to the ongoing and much needed development of professional leadership. Participating members and sponsoring organizations are exposed to new technologies; presented with opportunities for continuous professional improvement through education; and given access to real-life examples of leadership, innovation and successful financial management that can be hard to acquire during the day-to-day challenges that come with providing high-quality patient care or developing the technology and the products that make that all possible.

AHRA and other organizations are rising to the challenge by developing grass roots plans to grow membership; reaching out to volunteer and sponsorship networks to boost visibility and generate interest; and by ensuring that the value offered to their members continues to improve. With much hard work, success may be attainable.

But at the same time, as each of us and the organizations we serve look at budgets, resources, career demands and the need to continuously improve as a professional to excel at what we do—I feel certain that the question in tough financial times is not “Can I afford to support this organization”—and the smarter question to consider is: Can I afford not to?”

AHRA will be featuring this as well as other updates of the annual meeting on the organization’s blog.  Likewise, we’ll continue to reflect upon what we’re learning throughout the week here and on our other online channels.