Note from the Associate Director: Local chapter love

By Melissa Varnavas

About a month after I joined ACDIS, in the fall of 2008, members began requesting information on how to network with other CDI professionals locally. A few enterprising volunteers in Massachusetts and Illinois actually had networking efforts in play, predating ACDIS. We reached out to those leaders (thanks Colleen Stukenberg and Gail Marini) and started reaching out to others who’d expressed an interest in gathering for informal, informational meetings close to home.

Florida then joined the fray. I remember being on the conference line as the leaders there at the time, Kimberly Richert, Virginia Baily, and Charlie Morrell, welcomed speakers and thanked the hospital host facility and volunteers for its hospitality.

Soon there were half a dozen local networking groups. Then a dozen. And then two dozen. Now there are more than 40 local chapters throughout the country.

You’ve no doubt heard me explain before that these groups vary in formality. Some are very structured, like Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which elect officers, have non-profit status, collect dues, and hold full-day in-person events. Others are much less formal groups that gather in the evenings at a local diner or coffee shop to talk about best practices and common struggles. Now, 10 years later, many local chapters hold full-day and even multi-day events supported by their members and a number of exhibitors and sponsors here at the national conference this week.

I continue to be amazed by the unselfish dedication of the volunteers who stepped forward to originate these networking groups and by those who follow in their footsteps to keep these valuable meetings going. There is no direct financial relationship between ACDIS national and these local groups. Those who collect dues, do so as non-profit organizations. The funds collected from members go back to the chapter to help offset the cost of food, programming, and facility fees. The leadership volunteer for these duties in addition to their full-time CDI jobs and their full-time family lives, and often in the face of difficult life challenges, but they still manage to make time to share their love of this profession with their local peers through chapter activities.

If you are attending the conference this week, please visit the local chapter section of the ACDIS website to see what your local chapter leaders had planned. (Be sure to reach out to local leaders via the ACDIS App too.) The Utah chapter filled balloon letters to represent their state. The South Carolina and Florida chapters brough inflatible palm trees. Maryland ACDIS chapter brough handmade lettering and the most amazing configuration of imaginative table decorations we've ever seen. We got folks in Cubs gear, folks wearing Panther’s paraphernalia, some sparkly garb representing area code 505 (if you see them, you have to ask them--and thanks for making me an honorary member for the day!). I saw a wonderful woman in Gator gear and a woman from Kentucky sporting a race horse hat. I absolutely fell in love with each and every attendee who showed their local chapter pride today.

Every year, it seems, I am genuinely moved to tears by the graciousness and generosity of our ACDIS attendees, membership, and local networks. This is year is no different. I cannot thank you enough for helping to make ACDIS a true community.

Editor’s note: Varnavas is the Associate Editorial Director of ACDIS. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.