Happy Spring!

I am excited to use this space to share some updates with you about how your Board of Directors and management company (Kellen) have been hard at work on our Strategic Plan. Your three presidents (past, current, future) have been meeting weekly with staff with the goal of implementing the strategic vision, orienting new board members and supporting the work of other directors, and streamlining board processes. We are a great team and I am so appreciative of their skill sets and perspective.

One of my very first goals as AOSW President was to create an AOSW Fellowship. The purpose of AOSW Fellowship is to recognize and honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the science and practice of psychosocial oncology. I am so proud of the work our Awards Committee did in the creation of this Fellowship and thrilled the Board supported it. And I cannot wait to introduce and honor our inaugural cohort of AOSW Fellows at the Annual Meeting in Atlanta in May!

The Research team, under Sophia Smith, is supporting Goal 2 of the Strategic Plan—Professional Development. The team is working to advance the knowledge base of the field by building the research capacity in oncology social work and supporting the bidirectional relationship of research and practice through the following actions and goals:

• Developing partnerships with foundations and industry/pharma,
• Communicating program funding announcements to AOSW members,
• Advocating for social work researchers to sit on NIH study sections, and
• Strengthening the research component within the annual conference planning process by
  • Developing research abstract reviewing guidelines
  • Facilitating research paper planning sessions.

The Membership Committee, under Kerry Irish, is focused on all strategic goals. To that end, the committee is currently hard at work on three priority projects:

Goal 1. Organizational Development: The recent establishment of a Diversity Committee, chaired by Susan Hedlund and co-chaired by Marcia Clark.

Goal 2. Professional Development: A Mentorship Subcommittee has been envisioning a new member benefit that will also help us to keep our seasoned, longtime members engaged—an online tool that will allow members to find and connect with a willing short-term mentor by area of expertise (more to come soon!).

Goal 3. Connectivity: The MSW/Field Instruction Subcommittee is putting the final touches on a “Field Instruction Toolkit.” This is a follow-up to last year’s rollout of the option for members to identify whether or not they are “interested in being identified as a field instructor” in the membership directory. This option is also proving to be a benefit to AOSW members in academia who are trying to place students in oncology settings.

The Education Committee, under Chelsea Kroll, is engaging the strategic goal of Professional Development with AOSW being the catalyst for the advancement of oncology social work:

• The Education Committee continues to strive to provide quality distance-learning in order to facilitate meeting the educational needs of our members and nonmembers alike. The committee has arranged for 7 CE-producing webinars to date for 2018.
• In its desire to adhere to AOSW’s mission of advancing excellence in the psychosocial care of people with cancer, their families and caregivers, the 2018 Conference Committee diligently and purposefully planned our Annual Conference in Atlanta and is proud to present "Guided by Best Practices in Pivotal Times."

Director at Large Jane Dabney is working on all strategic goals by working with SIG leaders to help them engage members to make the SIGs more meaningful. She is encouraging them to form small working committees to work on updating and adding resources and information on their respective SIG web pages. The goal is to help SIG committees brainstorm meaningful projects, guidelines, presentations, research, etc., and share this information with members to continue to make SIGs relevant to practice. Jane is also working with AOSW staff regarding the AOSW website so the SIGs and SIG information are more visible and accessible to members as well as the public.

Director at Large Meredith Cammarata is working on all strategic goals. She is supporting state representatives by empowering and encouraging each state to create realistic goals based on their demographics and individual state needs. She is also assisting with promoting and increasing membership diversity at a state level.

The Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships, Krista Nelson, remains focused on goals 1 and 3, organizational development and connectivity, through her weekly nurturing of strategic partnerships with other organizations. She has helped forge new partnerships and re-established old ones around goals common to all organizations looking to improve the quality of lives of those affected by cancer. She has also been successful in securing thousands of dollars in grants and sponsorships for AOSW. As well, she is also working with AOSW leadership in considering how best to maximize this board position in the future by creating a Development Committee.

The Advocacy Committee, under Sarah Conning, has worked on all three strategic goals.

Goal 1. Organizational Development

• The Advocacy Committee has grown over the past year, establishing new committee roles to engage more members in advocacy leadership.
• The committee developed an advocacy policy for AOSW to guide our decision-making and how we use our voice as an organization.

Goal 2. Professional Development

• The committee started an advocacy blog, featuring the writing of AOSW members, to share timely policy updates and reflections on issues relevant to our profession. The blog is shared with our members and the general public.
• Committee members are currently working on opportunities to teach advocacy skills, both for oncology social workers and for people living with cancer. We look forward to sharing some of this work at conference. Also at conference, they will engage members in helping to identify advocacy priorities going into a midterm election year.
• The committee also identified a need to articulate and promote the skills that oncology social workers bring to patient navigation. We recommended the board establish a task force for this purpose.

Goal 3. Connectivity
The committee has strengthened our connections with other advocacy organizations such as the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the Patient Quality of Life Coalition and others. This has allowed us to participate in higher profile advocacy actions and elevate the visibility of oncology social work in the cancer community (which also covers Goal 2).

AOSW management company staff are hard at work implementing all the wonderful work of the various directors and committees. They recently completed the following key action items:

• Developed a “Benefits & Accomplishments” marketing campaign promoting AOSW membership and utilization of AOSW programs and services.
• Distributed 2016 Member Needs Survey, which indicated that membership is uninformed of benefits available to them. This provided AOSW the opportunity to highlight the many benefits of membership.
• Increased opportunities for leadership development by launching the Professional Development and Leadership Webinar Series in 2017, utilizing veteran AOSW members’ expertise in a variety of professional development areas.
• Developed targeted re-engagement email campaigns to lapsed members, inviting them to reactivate membership.
• Launched AOSW’s Career Center, giving oncology social workers the chance to search for and post OSW-specific jobs.
• Revamped our Donation Page, creating the option to make a donation in honor or in memory/recognition of someone through our new Tribute Donation feature. All donors have the option to be publicly recognized on the AOSW website.
• Created a “Proud to be an AOSW Member” logo for you to download and add to your email signature.
• Developed the AOSW Volunteer Portal to provide members additional opportunities to get involved with AOSW.
  Posted AOSW’s Diversity & Inclusion Statement to the AOSW website.

As always, we appreciate all the wonderful work of our volunteers and we welcome your thoughts and time should you desire to be more engaged with your AOSW. Thanks for reading!