Installation Address, May 3, 2008
It is very special to be here with so many of you, my family members and good friends. I appreciate all of your support and I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as your California Medical Association Alliance President.
We are privileged to have many special guests with us this evening. Dianne Fenyk is our AMA Alliance President. She has become a role model for me as I have enjoyed working closely with her on national committees. We are all delighted that she is with us for the entire weekend. Representing my home county of Santa Clara are my friends Suzanne Jackson, Siggie & Dr. Phil Stillman, Jean Cassetta and our President, Carolyn Miller and her husband Dr. Richard Miller. Two other special friends from Sacramento here tonight are Dr. Lars Laslett and his wife Laurie Winthers. Now I am honored to introduce my family. As you can see, I am blessed with a large family most of whom are here tonight. My mother, Noma Wilken, my brother Kent Wilken, his wife Cathy and their sons Tyler and Matthias, my sister Charlotte Wilson and her son Tommy, my sister Gayle Lomeli and her husband Martin, my brother Dean Wilken, his wife Mindy and their children, John, Chas and Grace and my sister Dawn Sullivan whose four children and husband are home in San Diego. Our daughter Megan Abraham is here, our son Nathan and of course, my husband and soul mate, Bill Ricks, the one who keeps me on track.
At this time I would like to thank Ann Hansen, our own past AMA Alliance & CMA
Alliance President, for the lovely installation and for her mentorship. I would also like to acknowledge two special friends who have also worked at the national level capably representing our California alliance….Marilyn Kezirian and Carolyn Plested. I must also acknowledge Nancy Schneider for her dedication to the Alliance. Nancy has worked tirelessly all year without the benefit of office staff making sure that everything ran smoothly and that all of the items were checked off the many to do lists. Thank you Nancy for your dedication.
Looking around the room I realize how many of you have had an impact on my deciding to choose the Alliance as my main volunteer focus. I have known many of you for a long time and others of you are new friends. As I was creating my board and committee lists, I had the opportunity to reflect on each of you as your name came up and think about how important your friendship is to me. I also am reminded of some important 1st like my 1st CMAA meeting here in Sacramento in 1990 when Carla Andrews was president, when I observed many of you in action for the first time. I also remember my 1st AMAA meeting when I began my long friendship with special friend Cyndi Ginn. The testimonials and surveys all show that the main reason people stay involved in the Alliance is for the friendship and I'm grateful for yours.
In the late 1970's, when I was a music specialist in an elementary school and playing harp professionally, I received a request from the musician's union to play at a luncheon at a lovely home in the area my new doctor husband and I had just moved to. I took the day off of work and played for the luncheon. One of the ladies asked me what my husband did and I mentioned he was a cardiologist at the local hospital. The group I was playing for was the Santa Clara County Medical Association Auxiliary where I was warmly welcomed as a new prospective member and joined shortly there after. I have been an active participant ever since and remember my warm welcome.
Tonight we celebrate THE ALLIANCE, the organization that brings us all together. We are an organization rich in the tradition of promoting public health and social welfare work dating back to May 8th 1929 when the Woman's Auxiliary to the California Medical Association was formed. I have a personal interest in the history of our CMAAllliance. My grandfather, Dr. Hubert Turner Wilken was an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in Santa Monica. My grandmother, Vivian Wilken, Mrs. H.T. Wilken, as she was known, was president of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Los Angeles County Medical Association in 1946-47 and also served on the CMA Auxiliary board. Recently, I started doing some research on the years when she was active in the Auxiliary and was thrilled to find a wealth of information at the Los Angeles County Medical Association office where they have the Auxiliary/Alliance archives. I found clippings from her year and the hand written minute books logging the year's activities. I was also very excited to find several old diaries and
correspondence of my grandmother's in my uncle's garage. In my Grandmother's 1946 diary she writes on February 1, "Was asked to be county Auxiliary president but don't think I should." On February 2, she writes" I called Mrs. Maloney about the Auxiliary job and weakened." Then on February 3 she writes something that sounds very familiar, "Hope I'm doing right. It's quite a task to shepherd 500 strange ladies that are hard to please. Hope I do a credible job. I want to emphasize the LA County Health Picture." According to the year-end report that was also in the archives, she did just that. The same year there was an influx of physicians returning from the war and the Auxiliary had the problem of too many new members.
Today, we don't have the problem of too many new members, but our mission does remain the same as it has been from our inception...to advocate for quality health. The changing make up of our target membership requires us to rethink our approach. Is the Alliance relevant in today's climate? Are we meeting the needs of our potential male members, of our potential younger members, of our potential ethnic members of our potential physician members? Do we want to encourage expanding our membership and promoting the Friends of Medicine category? All of these are things for us to consider seriously if we want to remain vital.
The CMA Alliance has taken a very important step this year in beginning to address these issues. We have begun the Strategic Planning process with a professional facilitator who will help us to identify our vision, mission and focus. This will in turn help us to identify what changes need to be made to keep the Alliance relevant in the 21st century.
My personal goal in the next two years is to help create an organization that we can all be excited about, one that reaches out into the counties and provides the support and training for our future leaders while providing the link to the valuable resources provided by the AMA Alliance.
Last spring I attended a leadership training session for incoming AMAA committee members that was led by then incoming president, Dianne Fenyk. The homework prior to the training was to read Jim Collins' best seller "Good to Great" The discussions on how companies and organizations could consciously move from a good organization to a great one inspired me and helped me to form a plan for my leadership of the CMAA. Collins further expanded on his ideas in a monograph entitled "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" which specifically deals with ways that non-profits can move from a good organization to a great one. This short 35 page book is a mighty one. I encourage each of you to read it. Collins also talks about the power of the flywheel. Success breeds support and commitment, which breeds even greater success, which breeds more support and commitment--round and around the flywheel goes. People like to support winners and winning organizations. Your Strategic Directions Committee has been given the challenge; to guide the CMA Alliance in this process of going from a good organization to a great one, a winning one, that will be a recognizable force for quality health in California.
With open minds, ready to change with the times, we will not only keep the Alliance relevant in the 21st century, but we will be a strong force for continuing the rich traditions set forth by our founders.
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