Minutes #1

Virginia Beach Medical Society

Organizational Committee Meeting

Minutes #1 – October 13, 2022

Members Present: Duane Lawrence, MD; Lisa Barr, MD; Keith Berger, MD; Lee Ouyang, MD; Greg Warth, MD, Susan Herring. Excused Absence: Joel Bundy, MD

The meeting started at approximately 6:10 PM.

Introduction

This is the first informal meeting of this committee conceived by Dr. Joel Bundy in an attempt to revive the Virginia Beach Medical Society (VBMS) with a new focus, a new purpose and a new mission to provide support, advocacy, and a new sense of comradery for physicians in Virginia Beach. Susan Herring, the Director of the nearby Tricounty Medical Society, was instrumental in contacting former members of the VBMS asking for volunteers to help in this effort. These volunteers were brought together, and the meeting was scheduled.

Purpose

One of the first questions the committee discussed was what the purpose of this new organization will be. Why should we have a local medical society? What benefit will this have for the individual physician(s) in this area? These were the ideas presented:

·      Engage all local physicians (including medical students and allied health professionals?) of all specialties within the region to learn how a large organization can provide support to groups as well as to individual physicians.

·      Enhance social comradery.

·      Promote and assist in providing educational standards.

·      Establish professional collegiality.

·      Establish professional advocacy.

·      Provide a cohesive voice regarding our collective concerns.

·      Include these concepts in our Mission Statement.

Strategy

Another question we had to answer was how will we get this going again. There were reasons many of the members left before. What were those reasons? How do we overcome them? The answer was that we had to show individual physicians and groups that there was a real benefit in joining again.

·      Once we have that established, we can start by calling the leaders of the various groups of physicians in the area to explain what we are doing and ask for their support. We each will use a list of same or similar questions so we can compare results more effectively.

·      The Medical Society of Virginia is a great resource for us and can provide excellent support and information about how to get started again. We would like to invite Jenny Young from MSV to provide a presentation for us on this subject.

·      Once we get started here in Virginia Beach, we can perhaps merge with other Societies in Southside Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore to create a somewhat larger organization with more members and a stronger voice.

·      Do some research and find out what other local medical societies are doing. There is one in Northern Virginia that is thriving. We can perhaps get some ideas from them.

·      Learn how to market ourselves and our activities.

·      Develop a useful, informational VBMS website and monthly newsletter.

Communication

Establish a Team Google Docs account that all members of the committee can access and provide edits and comments on documents that we will need to develop. This could speed up our collaborative activity tremendously.

Documents

We will need to re-establish several documents:

·      New Bylaws.

·      Mission Statement.

·      Financial Spreadsheet and Budget.

·      Explanation of Budget Line Items.

·      Others?

Financial Support

·      Dues from members. Send invoices after we achieve acceptance.

·      Donations, grants, sponsorships (If we accept these, we will have to develop non-profit status through the IRS).

·      Auctions?

·      Set up a bank account through Debbie Millard at Towne Bank.

Establish the Structure and Leadership

·      What will be our specific relationship with MSV? Subsidiary? Partnership? Separate entity? We should be a separate entity, but collectively part of the Medical Society of Virginia.

·      Re-write the Bylaws

·      Election of Officers

·      Director - We will need a paid Executive Director, just as Susan Herring is to the Tri-County Medical Society.

Letter of Inquiry

We will send out a Letter of Inquiry to all previous members of the VBMS, and perhaps new physicians in the area if we can get a list. This letter will explain what we are planning, the potential benefits of joining and ask for their level of interest.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Greg Warth, MD

gjwarth@gmail.com

757-816-8399

Newsletter

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