Your Legacy

By David R. Fox, CRA, FAHRA

Among other things, a true leader should think about both succession planning and the eventual legacy of his or her leadership role. I am doing more of these types of reflective things today; more than in years past (thank you Gordon Ah Tye). I’ll say more about legacy today and succession planning at a later time.

Our association’s 2015 Membership Development Campaign, is all about creating a legacy for ourselves as servant leaders, mentors, volunteers, and educators, as well as a legacy for our association and those who will follow us. I use the word “our” association because it truly is ours. It’s governed by members and funded by members. Members bring the educational programming to life and share best practices through networking and peer-to-peer collaboration. So it is up to us to be good stewards of this industry resource that plays a critical role in advancing the profession and bringing high quality, safe medical imaging services to the patients that put their trust in radiology professionals from across the country. In essence, it is our charge to ensure the AHRA legacy lives, after we are all gone.

At the core of this legacy is the collective knowledge base that AHRA members bring to the association. The more knowledge housed within the AHRA, the more valuable the resource is to members. So with that said, it is now time for each of us to reflect on members of our teams and identify those rising stars who have the obvious potential to be leaders someday and bring value to our association. By having a larger collective of medical imaging professionals engaged and inspired to give their time, their knowledge, and their energy, we create a stronger, more valuable association for all of us and the radiology industry overall. Through the growth of our membership base we ultimately create the foundation upon which AHRA’s legacy will be built.

So, as your AHRA President and colleague, I encourage you to make 2015 the year where you define your personal and professional legacy while also supporting the creation of AHRA’s legacy through membership development. You can do this by taking advantage of the group membership offering and/or individual recruitment of your team members. The AHRA member services team has many resources to assist you in communicating AHRA’s value proposition to your supervisors and create group rate estimates based on your unique situation. I am also asking members to share their personal or professional legacy on the association’s website at www.ahraonline.org/my-legacy. Through this special section we can all see how others are creating a legacy for themselves and the AHRA, and become even more inspired through their personal stories.

At a recent AHRA meeting, Brenda Rinehart, MBA, CRA, FAHRA shared some thoughts about what she believes will be her legacy. She explained that from the moment she joined AHRA, she saw her involvement in the organization as a way to make a positive difference on a national scale. Brenda went on to say that everything she has experienced over the years through AHRA, every person that she helped and positively influenced, is what she views as her professional legacy. I share Brenda’s passion for giving back to our association and consider the honor to serve as your 2015 association president an awesome opportunity to support the creation of my professional legacy and the legacy of the AHRA. What will be your professional legacy?

David R. Fox, CRA, FAHRA is president of the 2014-2015 AHRA Board of Directors. He is the president of Saint Vincent Health-North Hospital in Sherwood, AR and can be reached at Dfox@stvincenthealth.com.