Abstract
Friends and colleagues sometimes poke fun at my data-driven approach to most things in life. ‘Show me the data’, I often say. I admit that, at times, I apply this perspective to a fault, but in fairness, numbers can be very telling. At the Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM), therein lies our collective strength.
Over recent months, SVM has achieved several important milestones in management, membership, programmatic success, and member engagement, as well as our financial and strategic outlooks. In Spring of 2021, SVM took the ambitious step of changing our management support to Veritas Association Management. With support from Managing Director Sue O’Sullivan, Executive Director Gina Baxter, Associate Director Sandy Addison, and the rest of the Veritas team, we are clearly in great hands and in a much better place than before, able to leverage their collective experience in professional society management. Thanks, in large part, to the efforts of SVM Secretary Dr Elizabeth Ratchford and the Membership Committee, the Society is bigger and more diverse than it has been in years and our growth trajectory is steep. At the last check, our members hailed from 46 US states and 18 countries. We are fortunate to include specialists from vascular medicine, consultative cardiology, interventional cardiology, vascular interventional radiology, vascular surgery, podiatry, and others among our ranks. Importantly, we have witnessed significant expansion in the Doctorate and Advanced Practitioner (APP) membership categories over recent years and retain a large contingent of Associate (i.e., trainee) Members. And I am proud to say that our Society’s leadership now includes multiple specialties and multiple disciplines, as well.
Despite pandemic-related challenges, our educational programs are thriving. Our Program Committee put together a highly successful virtual Annual Scientific Meeting this past September that included both live and on-demand content. Meeting attendance was the largest in our history, with attendees from 38 states and 16 countries, proving that SVM’s reach is as broad as ever! The curriculum was comprised of both traditional didactic and novel career development content, including an overwhelmingly successful mentorship event. Our Fellow-In-Training (FIT)/Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Course is expected to be face-to-face again in March 2022, and Program Chairs Drs Eric Secemsky and Andrew Galmer are hard at work putting the final touches on this wonderful initiative. Finally, in conjunction with the resumption of the Vascular Medicine Board Examination, Drs Aditya Sharma and Ido Weinberg are actively updating our online SVM Board Review Course content.
A society is only as strong as its volunteers. Over the summer, we sent out our first ever Call for Volunteers, uncertain as to what response we would elicit. We were thrilled to find that one in five of our members stepped forward to serve on SVM committees and taskforces, including the Audit Finance and Fundraising Committee; Bylaws, Policies and Procedures Committee; Education Committee; Membership & Credentials Committee; Next Generation Committee; Marketing and Communications Committee; Research Quality and Publications Committee; Scientific Program Committee; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Taskforce; Vascular Medicine Practice Taskforce; Vascular Medicine Specialty Recognition Taskforce; and Venous Taskforce. We hope to involve even more members through micro-volunteering initiatives, to be developed outside of formal committee and taskforce membership. Micro-volunteer workgroups and individual opportunities typically require much smaller and shorter-term time commitments, making them the ideal way for many of our members to get and stay engaged.
SVM finances are on a firmer footing than ever before with sufficient reserves to weather an unanticipated storm. We expect continued growth in our reserves with revenue from membership, educational initiatives, marketing, and advertising. A recent review of our organizational collaboration revealed more than four dozen current and past partnerships on scientific statement creation, education, quality, research, advocacy, marketing, and governance. It is clear that SVM is an often-sought partner and an integral participant in all things vascular.
On October 22nd, the SVM’s Board of Trustees, along with its committee and taskforce leadership, convened for a hybrid strategic planning retreat, with most participants attending in Boston and virtual attendees joining from around the country (Figure 1). Led by current and past Executive Committee members Drs Ido Weinberg, Elizabeth Ratchford, Esther Kim, Raghu Kolluri, Heather Gornik, and myself, we discussed short- and intermediate-term goals around vascular medicine specialty recognition, membership, education and training, finances, organizational collaboration, and Vascular Medicine, ‘SVM’s voice-in-print’. It was a productive meeting and set us on a collective, mission-driven path, of which we should be proud.
SVM leaders attend the October 2021 strategic planning retreat in Boston and via video.
As SVM heads into 2022 and builds upon the great work done by our past leaders and members, we are well-positioned for success, headed in a positive direction, and ready to welcome others to join our ranks! At SVM, our strength is undoubtedly in our members.
