11/08/2021

Membership Committee Updates

LCDR Paul Roszko, MD and Capt Joshua da Silva, MD

The primary goals of the membership committee are to support members through all career transitions and to develop a highly connected and engaged membership leading to higher recruitment and retention.  We have seen a spike in membership rates over the past two years that we believe may be secondary to the formation of GSEMRA and the close ties between GSACEP and their members. Since last year, the leadership of GSEMRA has been requesting the creation of a mentorship program to connect knowledgeable attendings with their motivated residents and medical students. We decided to expand that idea to not only create connections between our two organizations but between the members of GSACEP as well. 

A 6 member team of GSCAEP and GSEMRA leadership had been working on this mentorship program since early this year. What has resulted is a multifaceted program based on the new Tradewings platform that provides an overall structure to allow individuals across all career walks to connect in an organic way, without mediators. This program functions on three levels:

1. One-to-one mentoring: Mentors self identify using instructions on the mentorship connect group and pertinent information is gathered through expanded portions of the user profiles. Mentors can be searched by entering a keyword into the search bar. Those searching for information can either use this search method to look at user profiles and message a mentor directly or post a message to any group with the appropriate tags, which will email all those mentors who follow the subject tag. This does not mean that others cannot answer questions posted by other members, but the identification of a mentor sets certain ground rules and expectations which are helpful in the formation of productive and efficient professional relationships.
   
2. Group mentoring/professional networking: This will be achieved through table talk/zoom calls in which we can engage GSEMRA/GSACEP members about the program. We can also use the Tradewings platform and the Mentorship Connect! brand to host program directors and other experts for table talks and Q&A sessions. 
   
   
3. Peer mentoring: This will involve a repurposing of the social media support groups. Many students, myself included, have used these platforms to navigate through clinicals and residency despite the fact that they are fraught with misinformation. This effort will be to point students on social media platforms to the large database of constantly updated information on the GSEMRA homepage and the mentorship GSACEP will offer. 

We believe that by harnessing the expertise of our GSACEP membership and creating a meaningful mentorship experience for medical students, residents, and attendings that we will be able to show the value that a GSACEP membership brings and ultimately develop a more engaged chapter.