Posted by 
By Bill Algee, CRA, FAHRA
January will bring the “call for nominations” for the AHRA Board of Directors and President Elect. As the immediate Past President, I will serve as chair of the Nominations Committee and have assembled a great group of AHRA imaging leaders to review the nominations, interviews candidates, and provide the board a final group of nominees for the ballot. The nominations committee is made up of some great AHRA members that most of you will be familiar with: AHRA Past President Robbie Edge, Kyle Kellum, Sandra Edson, Greg Adamczak, and Jeff McGough.
We do not take this task lightly as there are many goals the AHRA is working toward that will need the attention of a broad spectrum of thoughts and opinions. Being on the Board of Directors is a serious and important commitment; we understand that you have entrusted us with steering the AHRA in the right direction. This includes continued efforts to maintain relationships with other imaging associations and vendor partners while seeking new opportunities to enhance our association. Most importantly, is the continued ability to maintain and grow our membership. Since we are a volunteer led association, it is important to solicit input from the membership on these positions.
Nominations are so important to ensure we are able to provide a slate of candidates to the association to help move the objectives forward. This is where we need your assistance. In the last few years we have seen some challenges in having an abundance of nominees: 32 in 2019, 24 in 2018 – down from a high of 40 in 2017. We would really like to see the list of nominees be at or above 40 for consideration and interviews. The committee is asking that when you see the call for nominations next week, please take a few minutes to review the criteria; reflect on those leaders who you have interacted with through the AHRA that you feel would bring value to the Board to propel the association forward. Please start thinking of those mentor leaders that you have interacted with in the last few years.
Another significant challenge we have is getting our members to actually vote. Last year I made several attempts in various formats to increase the number of voters. We should be seeing about 10% of the membership voting and although we have met the requirement in the bylaws, our voting numbers have continued to decline. In past three years voting has dropped from 8.6% to 6.5%.
I am asking all of you to please consider making a nomination this January. Yes, you can self-nominate, there is no shame to tooting your own horn here! And lastly, when election time rolls around take a few minutes to read the profiles of the candidates and cast your vote. Your vote counts!
Bill Algee, CRA, FAHRA is the immediate Past President of the AHRA Board of Directors. He is the director of imaging services at Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, IN and can be reached at balgee@crh.org.
LINK 
Thanks for reminding us of the importance of the Board and of getting out to vote.
Good luck to all, oh and vote too!
Great article Bill to remind us all the importance of the role we play in propelling our association forward and the opportunity to pay it forward!
It is important for all of us members to cast our votes for our professional organization.
Thank you Bill for reminding us of the importance of our vote.
Salient points Bill. We need diversity of experience to better fulfill the needs of our membership. Also active participation in the voting process validates our commitment to the organization.