I mentioned in last month’s column that our Board has already had some lively discussions that I would share when possible. One specific discussion I want to highlight is around Genetic Counselor (GC) Awareness Day in November.

For some background, I have heard much feedback over time regarding GC Awareness Day vs. GC Appreciation Day. When this day was initiated by NSGC in 2017, our profession was in a different place in its level of public visibility. ‘Awareness’ made a lot of sense then given the focus of truly lifting up our name into the healthcare vernacular, with a national day to align us and unite us in who we are and what we do.

Over time, we have seen the fun that has evolved with this day each year – NSGC has created press kits to help GCs easily approach public-facing opportunities, friendly GC-themed competitions have developed through social media channels, states and local areas have hosted gatherings to connect GC communities in so many different places. GCs (and GC supporters) sharing appreciation for each other, as well as the communities and audiences they serve. Appreciation AND awareness efforts in synergy.

While the awareness piece is still a very important aspect of this day, the GC community also deserves the appreciation that the title of other healthcare professional groups have every year. This evolution also signals an element of our strategic plan in modernization of how we frame this  day of recognition.

The idea of changing the name from ‘awareness’ to ‘appreciation’ was recently brought to the Board for consideration. I am happy to share that the Board officially approved the formal name change to Genetic Counselor Appreciation Day! We also wanted this to be WAY in advance of November so everyone will be knowledgeable about the change, and time for NSGC to launch revamped materials in the months to come to acknowledge this change.

In the spirit of this recognition of GC appreciation, I also wanted to express my appreciation to our volunteer leaders who took their time to go to wintry Chicago for our Second Annual Leadership Summit in early February. For 1.5 days, NSGC’s committee chairs and vice-chairs, along with the Board of Directors and staff partners, were able to come together at NSGC headquarters for a packed agenda.

We learned about many topics together: leadership best practices including engaging in difficult conversations, team building through a personality analysis exercise, building inclusive communities, learning how NSGC works and how the committee leaders work synchronously with Board liaison/staff liaison support, change management, engaging volunteers and preventing burnout, and learning to leverage leadership roles for professional self-development.

A major highlight was several of these modules were led by Second City facilitators (a famous Chicago institution of improv comedy) to get the team creatively working together to learn leadership best practices, navigating change and engaging volunteers – all through fun improv exercises!

Another major goal of the Summit was committee leaders having focused time with their Board liaisons and staff liaisons to discuss committee charges for the year and how they align with the Strategic Plan. Each committee had one on one time with the President-Elect (Carrie Haverty), Executive Director (Meghan Carey) and I to discuss any questions or feedback needs about their charges to ensure alignment as the year kicks off.

By the end of our time together, we talked strategy, learned leadership lessons, had some great food and time to get to know each other as the people behind the leadership roles. For a behind the scenes look at our Leadership Summit, enjoy this video where I sat down with NSGC Director-At-Large, Sheetal Parmar, to discuss outcomes from our meeting:

I returned home to warmer Texas weather with excitement and energy for the year to come. To all of you volunteers, whether leaders in a larger role or individual contributors that make this organization what it is, this is an appreciation post from me to all of you.

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