ENVISION

It’s tremendous what happens when you articulate your hopes and dreams for the year ahead—and list out your Chapter Goals. And prioritize them.

Start with your goals. Take some time to forge a clear understanding
of where you hope to take your chapter — you can do this with your Chapter Leaders
or on your own. We recommend setting between 3-6 high-level goals
for the year ahead, too many and it’s easy to lose track.

Armed with your chapter goals list, get together with your Chapter Team and let the ideas fly: how will you strategically drive on each of the goals set forth? What kinds of projects would be effective? Have handy the intel and notes from your Chapter Officer Briefing, so you can leverage what historically has worked and what could be done better. Get ready for the idea volcano!

In a timeline format, map out your strategy for the year.

Think on all the great ideas from your team brainstorming—and overlay them with your goals and your resources (who does what? What is realistic to execute?). A good approach can be to:

• Start with the National AMSA events*—convention, etc.—and secure those dates (best to do this as far in advance as possible for planning and travel purposes—final plans should be made 4-6 months in advance)
• Add your campus, local and regional events. Be sure to think through who will be responsible for what projects—how it will be executed. 
• Ensure that your timeline leverages a framework that can be easily shared and updated. (Google sheets can do well here!)
• Upload your Strategic Plan here — and you’re off to the races.

*AMSA National Events National events & programs to watch for

• AMSA Leadership Program
• AMSA Mentorship Program
• AMSA Convention & Exposition — Early spring
• PremedFest 
• Residency Fair 
• Scholars Programs 

You can learn more about programing and events here.

You’ve got the strategic plan and ideas. Now, how to get it all done?

Develop a draft budget for the upcoming year with the associated costs for each planned project or event. This budget will guide your fundraising efforts. Draw from your Officer Briefing discussions to create a database of potential contributors, including the dean’s office, clinical departments, medical supply companies, local doctors and local merchants. Host an equipment fundraiser with The Medical Store in partnership with AMSA. The Medical Store fundraiser helps raise thousands of dollars a year for chapters across the country.

You can learn more about The Medical Store fundraiser and request a chapter fundraiser at your school here.

More and more schools are realizing the benefits AMSA can bring to medical education—the power AMSA brings in preparing well-rounded physicians who go onto to impact society in positive ways. These schools are prime candidates for AMSA’s Institutional Partnership Program: where the school offers a complimentary AMSA membership to all medical students. This is a potent means for AMSA to grow and engage more members—helping us better realize change in health care in lasting, meaningful ways.

If you would like help explaining an Institutional Partnership, please contact Sandy Fridy at sfridy@amsa.org or Jamie Thayer Scates at jthayer@amsa.org. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement many medical schools enjoy. If you spark a conversation with a Dean or relevant faculty (Student Life is typically interested!), you can use this sheet to guide your conversations. Easy peasy.

Set up a system to record all of your yearly projects to keep track of their successes and notes on what could have worked better. Consider a google sheet that all Chapter Team members can access and update in real-time.