During graduate school a mentor told me to “follow the fun.” He explained if I followed what I enjoyed doing, opportunities would arise and I would be happy in my career and life. I took these words to heart, and it turns out this was great advice. Although there have been bumps in the road and turns in the path, by following what I enjoyed in my professional and personal life I have had some amazing opportunities, including serving as the 2024 NSGC President.

Several years ago, I was fortunate to be able to hear a keynote speaker at the Iowa Hospital Association’s Annual Conference. He shared a tip which was to begin staff meetings with moments of gratitude. We started doing this in our University of Iowa Genetic Counseling team meetings and it’s been a nice reminder on stressful busy days that there are often things, even small things, we can still be grateful for even on bad days.

Fast forward to today. I recently had the opportunity to attend an American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) CEO Symposium to learn about leading a professional association. Everyday when I walked to get my morning tea, I would pass a beautiful flower alone by the corner of a building. The first day the Iowan in me was confused how this beautiful flower was alive on the chilly 36-degree morning, and why it was hidden in a remote location. On subsequent days I just stopped to appreciate it’s beauty. I even had our Executive Director, Meghan Carey, trek across the property during one of the symposium breaks because the flower was just so beautiful, I had to share it in my moment of gratitude. After the symposium, on the Uber ride to the airport our driver, Max, reminded us to have fun. Today, I’m flying home and reflecting on all of the things about our organization and community I am grateful for and the fun we are having in 2024 and thought I would share some updates.

I’ve previously spoken about our amazing volunteers and how grateful we are for their time, energy, and expertise. We kicked off 2024 with the Inaugural NSGC Leadership Summit. This was a wonderful opportunity to bring together our committee chairs, vice chairs and Board of Directors to learn and develop our leadership skills and think about how we can work together to advance our profession. It was a fun and energizing day and a half. I loved seeing everyone learning and collaborating. I enjoyed getting to know our volunteer colleagues better and look forward to continuing the conversations. I am grateful to our staff partners for organizing the event, and to the volunteers who traveled to snowy Chicago in a week full of inclement weather to embrace a new opportunity.

I am also grateful for our Organization Liaisons. Prior to joining the Board of Directors I was not aware that NSGC has official liaisons to other organizations. These more than twenty volunteers help with represent NSGC in other societies projects and meetings. These volunteers report back to the leadership team and Board to keep us aware of updates and potential opportunities for collaboration. I want to take this moment to thank our colleagues who volunteer to serve as official NSGC Liaisons for your time and dedication to our profession.

As I mentioned, I am flying home from an ASAE CEO Symposium I am grateful for the opportunity to attend the symposium and my head is filled with new ideas and best practices for leading our organization. I am also honored that I had the opportunity to represent the National Society of Genetic Counselors at an event with seventeen other organizations. The purpose of the symposium is to help the President and Executive Director learn about new and well-established approaches to leading an association, challenges professional membership organizations face, and provide us an opportunity to work through visioning exercises to plan for the upcoming year.

Although NSGC is rapidly growing, it was fun and also humbling to learn the sizes of some of the other organizations and how they operate. I was reminded of how young our organization is compared to other organizations that began in 1846, 1907, 1917, versus NSGC which began in 1971. It’s pretty incredible to think about what we have accomplished and how our organization has grown in a relatively short period of time. It was interesting to hear that, although the details differ, other [larger and older] organizations face many of the same challenges we face and often these are reflective of society and the world today. This was a really helpful perspective. Hearing about other organizations also helped me put into perspective what is working well in NSGC and how grateful I am to be working with so many dedicated volunteers and members.

With regards to following the fun, I am excited to share we are beginning our strategic planning process, which to me is a lot of fun! In January we began investigating and discussing our options for how to approach our strategic plan. In February we finalized the details of the process the Board of Directors will take, and now we are beginning the background work to help us develop the 2025-2027 strategic plan which will be finalized in the fall. I will continue to provide updates on aspects of the strategic planning process. 

What are you grateful for? How will you have fun in 2024? The pilot just announced we are flying over the Grand Canyon, so I am going to take a moment to enjoy this beautiful view and reflect on how grateful I am to be part of the NSGC community and how much fun we will have working together to advance our profession in 2024!

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