Speakers: Jeff Michalski, MD, MBA, FASTRO, Chair, ASTRO Board of Directors
Jeff Michalski, MD, MBA, FASTRO: Hi, I'm Jeff Michalski, Chair of ASTRO's Board of Directors. I'd like to take a moment to share with you why I think it's important to renew your ASTRO membership. The most important reason to be an ASTRO member is to help shape your profession's membership association. Members make ASTRO stronger and as a member, you can contribute to important issues like treatment guidelines, scientific priorities or contribute to the recent conversations we've had about supervision. We continue to explore means to enhance membership engagement through our councils, town halls and membership surveys. More than 250 ASTRO member volunteers from the Government Relations and Health Policy committees, that represent community and academic practices, provide input on ASTRO's advocacy agenda and priorities including supervision. One of those members could be you. Government Relations and Health Policy committees are just two of the more than 50 committees that meet regularly to discuss new initiatives, strategic objectives and the goals of our Society. A Call for Volunteers will soon be announced in an upcoming ASTROgram, and I hope that you will volunteer for the committee that most interests you. Another important way to ensure that we have a healthy specialty association is for us to know what you as a member want and need. Please complete the membership survey that will be sent out at the end of May. We take these surveys seriously and the findings help shape our priorities for the year ahead. We also have a way for you to connect with leadership and other ASTRO members on the ROhub, the exclusive member forum. ROhub has conversations and discussions on a variety of topics that will help you with issues like billing codes or prior authorization questions. Or as a way to connect before the ASTRO Annual Meeting. Yes, there are other radiation oncology societies, but none is as large and as strong as ASTRO. In fact, we welcome their perspectives and collaboration as we tackle big issues at our nation's capital. There is power in numbers and when ASTRO visits Capitol Hill on May 21 on behalf of our specialty, it's important that we are able to say that our membership represents the full spectrum of the radiation oncology community. In the email below, you'll find some other valuable benefits to ASTRO membership. Thank you. And I look forward to seeing you soon.
