New Member Councils

Academy to Introduce Five Clinical Homes for Members in January 2009

Academy leaders have been working to find a new way to engage members and offer them the opportunity to build a sense of community within the Academy. After several years of evaluation and consideration, the AAPM&R Board of Governors has approved a method for the membership to evolve into communities that generally reflect physiatric clinical practice.

What Are Member Councils?

Member Councils are divisions or constituencies of the Academy membership that allow members to share common clinical interests and to work together to meet the needs of members in those clinical areas. Councils are a new benefit of membership; members do not need to pay an additional fee to join a Member Council.

This new structure is beneficial to members because it

• creates a way for all Academy members to interact with each other, to have a voice within the Academy, and to have greater access to Academy leadership and staff;

• provides an opportunity to find a community of colleagues with like-minded clinical, educational, research, and advocacy concerns;

• improves the structure for leadership development and in turn provides an opportunity to participate in decisions at a national level within the Academy itself; and

• allows development of clinically specific rehabilitation research, Annual Assembly courses, and journal support.

Five Member Councils will be created to reflect five major areas of clinical practice. Each Council will have an identical governance structure; identical voice, input, and impact within the Academy; and identical responsibilities to their clinical constituencies and the specialty as a whole. Responsibilities will include encouraging submissions to the Academy journal, PM&R; developing educational resources, practice guidelines, and programs; promoting and recognizing research; developing frequent communications; and promoting member awareness and feedback. As an integrated system, this new membership model gives equal opportunity to all physiatrists, regardless of their clinical realm.

Click on the links below to find details on different aspects of the Member Councils.

• Connecting With Your Academy: Member Councils
  A letter from David Bagnall, MD, chair of the AAPM&R Membership Committee

• Five Clinical Homes for Members
  Learn about the five Councils and which clinical areas of PM&R they encompass

• FAQs
  Answers to some of your questions about the Member Council model

• Community Networks
  Learn about the future of the Academy’s special interest groups

• PASSOR Integration

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