Want to Volunteer?
The College is currently looking for other amazing individuals to “Advance Rheumatology.” Nominations for the ACR and REF committees are being accepted through June 1, 2012. To learn more on how to become an ACR volunteer or to nominate yourself or a colleague, visit www.rheumatology.org or contact Megan Blake at [email protected].
ACR Bus Driver and Member
Because of the amazing people that sit around the BOD table, it is a real privilege to drive the ACR bus. I have always had a great degree of respect for all of the previous presidents and, as I try to do this job, that respect has grown. In November, I got some great advice from a former president. (Advice, by the way, is in no short supply when you become president, and you have to figure out when it is great and when it is not so great.) Joe Croft, MD, the ACR president in 2000, told me, “Jim, just remember, it is not about you, you are just a caretaker.” That was Joe’s way of saying, “Jim, don’t screw it up!” I’m grateful for this advice and even more grateful that the BOD understands this concept very well. It is not about any of us. It is about coming together and representing our diverse constituencies, often with lively discussions, and then checking our own individual agendas at the door and trying our hardest to make decisions that are in the best interest of the whole ACR and all of rheumatology. I’m proud and profoundly grateful to work with these remarkable individuals to “Advance Rheumatology.”
Dr. O’Dell is director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and division chief of rheumatology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha and the Omaha VA medical centers. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected].