2009 Leadership Retreat - A Run Away Success

by Todd Karpinski, ICHP President
January 25, 2010

The 2009 ICHP Leadership Retreat took place November 13-15 at the Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois. Over 40 leaders from across the state, including one Wisconsin resident (me), took part in this highly successful event. The retreat began early Friday evening with a social networking hour, followed by a dinner and ice-breaker session. The group started bright and early on Saturday morning with the Keynote session led by Mike Sanborn, Vice President of Cardiovascular Services for the Baylor Health Care System. Mike is the previous Corporate Director of Pharmacy Services for Baylor and was recently elected to the ASHP Board of Directors. His presentation focused on three primary themes: healthcare reform, the pharmacy practice model and strategic planning. Within each theme, Mike highlighted the current state, made predictions on the future state and finally discussed how our profession will need to adapt in order to continue the successes we have realized over the past several decades. The morning program was very informative, interactive and was truly enjoyed by all participants. I would like to personally thank Mike for sharing his knowledge, experience, and predictions with our group. If you would like to view the slide deck from Mike’s presentation, please visit the ICHP website.

Following lunch, the group had 2 hours of free time to enjoy the sunny weather and picturesque setting that Allerton offers. Much of the group participated in an outdoor scavenger hunt, while others enjoyed a nice run through the woods (thanks to my running partner Jamie Borkowski!). With the group revitalized, the strategic planning session commenced. The 3 hour session was lead by each Division Director with the goal to celebrate successes within each Division, identify and remove unsuccessful objectives from the strategic plan and finally identify new objectives that will help ensure the continued success of ICHP. Below are some key strategies discussed within each Division.

Marketing Affairs – will continue to use the website for mentoring programs, will focus on retaining student members as they transition into practice and will form a taskforce to examine the use of social networking sites.

Professional Affairs – will continue to develop new toolkits for the membership and will provide webinars and live presentations to roll out the tool kits and will determine the feasibility of sending resident members to the Leadership Boot Camp.

Educational Affairs – will incorporate leadership programming into the Annual and Spring meetings, will explore publishing poster abstracts in KeePosted, will continue focus on obtaining educational grants and will highlight technician projects and posters.

Government Affairs – will develop a crosswalk between the ASHP 2015 initiative and our current Pharmacy Practice Act to determine if additional changes in the Act are required to meet the initiatives, will develop materials to help members contact their local representatives and will continue advocacy on pending legislation.

Organizational Affairs – discussed CEO succession planning and a plan for future capital expenditures. Dinner and social time followed the lengthy planning session. The group then started bright and early on Sunday morning with the Board of Directors meeting. Following the Board meeting, participants said their respective goodbyes and made the journey home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the leaders for their participation in this event. Your thoughts and input were the drivers behind this highly successful meeting. Additionally, I would like to thank the ICHP staff for coordinating this event. Your hard work and dedication are very much appreciated!

I would like to end this month’s article with a challenge to those members currently not actively involved with ICHP. I challenge you to either engage or re-engage with the organization. There were several critical strategies identified during the planning session at this retreat that each Division will be working on. We need the active participation from experts across the state (yes, you!) in order to accomplish the tasks that were identified. I guarantee that you will get much more out of your work with the Division than you put into it.

I am looking forward to the 2010 Leadership Retreat. I hope to see you there!

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