Issue link: https://ahint.epubxp.com/i/574474
Prioritization of the Strategic Initiatives The Board was then asked to a) prioritize the nine strategic initiatives developed; b) assign responsibilities for developing tasks to accomplish the Strategic Initiatives for the next one, three, and five years and quarterly goals; c) Develop 2016 budget implications for each of the strategic initiatives outlined in the final report The following was the resulting prioritization of the nine strategic initiatives: 1 Education: Improve ASHI leadership in education and training in the fields of histocompatibility and immunogenetics This meets the needs of members, the transplant community, patients, and their families 2 Membership: Promote ASHI membership within and outside the society; particularly recruiting and engaging younger members, and making sure ASHI is appropriately serving member needs 3 Engagement of members and volunteers: Create engagement ideas and values; ensuring growth and diversity of volunteer involvement, planning for and executing leadership development, and thinking about leadership succession planning 4 Governance: Align Committees with the strategic plan 5 Regulatory: Take a leading role in regulatory affairs 6 Funding challenges: Identify new sources of funding 7 Technology: Use technology to deliver more and better programs and services (e g CE, training, online education, disseminating scientific information, polling members) 8 Collaboration/Competition: Collaboration with other related organizations; identify issues hindering collaboration and opportunities 9 Communication: Need for better internal and external communication Next Steps The strategic plan will be reviewed quarterly during Board meetings to specifically track progress The Board agreed that communication of the plan to all stakeholders was imperative and also to the use of social media in a more effective manner as a communication tool for this and general ASHI communication purposes An executive summary of the key information will be shared with the entire membership This information will be incorporated into the overall marketing and reporting to the membership Promoting the plan and integrating it into our website, marketing, etc , helps to keep the board and committees more accountable It also makes it much easier to integrate the plan into the budget and board agendas This plan and its progress will be communicated to committee members and future leaders who should and will play a key role in its implementation It is critical that all active volunteers will be kept informed of the plan and its impact on the direction of the board and the organization ASHI will periodically gauge the impact of the strategic plan on members through the use of annual member surveys and shorter poll questions on a more frequent basis (as an example, consider integrating weekly polls into our website) Re-approval of ASHI's Deemed Status with CMS CMS has completed its CLIA validation review of ASHI for fiscal year 2014 We are again pleased to report that the disparity rate this year is zero CMS praised ASHI for its history of zero percent disparity in 18 out of the past 19 validation reviews Myra Coppage, along with Linda Buckert and Melissa Weeks, will attend the CMS two-day onsite inspection the week of Nov 16 at AH Human Immunology The Board discussed recent complaints received regarding delays in the review process and in communication with the authors ASHI is working closely with Elsevier to provide Dr Mack, the Editor-in-Chief, with secretarial support and one or two associate editors In addition, Elsevier offered to train reviewers to use the electronic review system at the ASHI annual meeting in Savannah, Georgia The ASHI Board is closely monitoring these efforts aimed at resolving these issues in a timely manner to promote our Society's flagship publication New ASHI Website and Database The design files for the ASHI website are approved by the Board The go-live date is anticipated to occur after the annual meeting ASHI Travel Award ASHI has travel awards available to four ASHI members based on scientific or service contribution to ASHI ASHI has put aside some of its investment income to support this travel award, and all current ASHI Board members have also contributed to this fund. Please click on the "Donate" button at the top of the ASHI home page ( http://www ashi-hla org/ ) to make a contribution in support of this fund so that our members in need can attend our meetings Other Important Updates 2Q ASHI Quarterly The numbers for the 2Q issue indicate that the Quarterly is reaching more readers than ever before This issue had 622 unique visitors; the most unique visitors (those viewing the publication for the first time, not repeat readers) we've seen so far Since its digital launch, ASHI Quarterly has reached 1,682 readers and had 44,339 impressions; it is a very impressive number and outpaces all other digital publications produced by AH Marketing Report AH's marketing group, MarCom, has been tracking ASHI's social media pages (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) to determine its growth since the beginning of 2015 ASHI's social media pages have grown since the beginning of the year ASHI's rise in social media engagement means the society's messages are reaching a wider audience, possibly leading to an increase in memberships and renewals, additional meeting registrations, and a heightened awareness of ASHI's educational offerings Lab Week also gained more followers for both Twitter and Facebook E D I T O R I A L 7 ASHI Quarterly Second Quarter 2015