STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE: The California State Council’s goal!
The Cal ENA Board of Directors works for you, our members. We strive to gather input from members, Chapters, Committee Chairs, and Special Appointments to figure out what direction our State Council should take. Your Board takes care of many behind-the-scenes activities you may not know about: conference calls and endless emails; banking reports to our accountant; submitting tax returns to the IRS; filing annual reports with the California Secretary of State; and reporting to the national ENA office. This takes an incredible number of hours, especially given the fact that we are all volunteers and all of us have regular full-time jobs. With all of this going on, your Board is still charged with guiding the organization into the future.
Three years ago, the Board updated our State Council’s Strategic Plan. This April, the Cal ENA BOD will meet to update that plan. The BOD really wants to engage all of you – our members – to provide input into our planning process.
The Board’s major focus will be to refine our Strategic Plan so that we might qualify for the State Council Achievement Award. Here’s some history… Years ago, State Councils were given the award for meeting the minimum criteria. Within the past few years, the criteria changed…State Councils now have to FAR EXCEED the requirements to be considered for the award.
In order to accomplish this goal, the Board needs the help of all members, Chapters and Committees. Here are some of the criteria we need to meet:
- Succession planning
- Orientation and mentoring for new leaders
- Voting percentage in ENA’s national election
- New member communication; expiring member communication
- Strategies to support “Safe Practice, Safe Care”
- Collaboration with other professional organizations
- Collaborate with, recognize, and strengthen vendor partnerships
- State/Chapter-sponsored ENPC/TNCC courses
- Assist members in obtaining specialty certifications
- Recognize members who have obtained specialty certifications
- Support evidence-based practice
- Student nurse recruitment
- Engage non-members
- Member recognition
- Member mentorship
- Engage members to participate at the local, state, national level
This is really quite a list! It may seem overwhelming at first, but I believe our California State Council can meet AND EXCEED these requirements. We need your help!
The Board of Directors will do their best to align our Strategic Plan with the national organization’s priorities. But it will be up to individual members and Chapters to grab on to the idea and move it forward.
Please, I urge you to consider how you can contribute at the individual or Chapter level to help us meet our goals. The California State Council has over 4,400 members…more than 10% of the entire ENA membership. I am certain that TOGETHER, WE CAN DO GREAT THINGS!
Looking to the Future,
David S. Samuelson, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, CCRN, CTRN
President, California State Council
Emergency Nurses Association
