Tennessee Medical Association Alliance

Dear TMA Alliance Friends-

I was thrilled to see so many of you at our 2023 Update Retreat at Dancing Bear Lodge! The dedicated time together in the Great Smoky Mountains was the perfect opportunity to focus on our organization. As a reminder of my theme for this year, and as a token of appreciation for the leadership team and members attending Update, I included a velvet heart in the gift bags. I hope those may find a special place as a reminder that your Hearts for Health are appreciated within TMAA!  Mine is hanging in my office where I will see it daily as I go through this year as President. Special thanks to Nora Lee, Beth Peterson, and their official host team from the WUJ Alliance, and to Sheila Barnett who helped me in scheduling our plans at Dancing Bear and curated information about nearby activities. 

Our new TMAA Website is underway!  We have been working with Nathanna Design in Knoxville to collect and organize TMAA content into the Wild Apricot platform.  Developing the website and member app is a primary goal for this year and a major step forward toward developing TMAA’s messaging and identity, growing our membership, and finessing our operating processes. If you have an interest in working with our communications team as we begin training members to use the website, newsletter, and member app, please reach out to me!

Over the summer, I had a chance to connect with members of the Tennessee Medical Association and meet current members of the TMA Board of Directors when I attended the TMA Board Retreat held in Knoxville in July. The main speaker addressed strategic planning, a focus of our own TMAA Update Retreat. I was able to relate with some valuable points such as: don’t think of a strategic plan every 5-10 years but every year, be planning all the time; accomplishing goals should be the focus of every board meeting agenda; work toward clearly stated outcomes and consider recruiting board members based on skills that are needed to generate those outcomes; if the money allocated in the budget is not resulting in the desired outcomes, revise spending.

My focus this year is to create specific, achievable goals that move us forward in meeting our strategic plan objectives. I encourage each of you to consider what you have to offer and how you can join us in shaping our organization’s future.