It is amazing and heartening to be at this point in my term as your President – one year down and one year to go!  Association leadership is nothing if not the effort to engage the energy and commitment of our profession’s most talented and inspiring people.  Thus it is a pleasure to welcome new officers, Board and Nominating Committee members with cutting-edge knowledge and skill, as well as solid NASW experience into the NASW-NYC family.  Our President-Elect Dr. Pat Brownell is highly-regarded in the field of gerontology and mental health while our new First Vice President, Dr. Megan McLaughlin, and current Board member is unparalleled in her experience in and devotion to the development of leadership for the human services.   Treasurer Tom Sedgwick, a seasoned hospital and health care social work manager, will continue to provide sound judgment to the Executive Committee as he assumes the chairmanship of our active Finance Committee.  Dr. Susan Egan as Third Vice President has held many positions in the Chapter over the years and, as an assistant dean, will accentuate our efforts to gain and maintain student and new professional members.  My congratulations and best wishes to these new officers and Chapter leaders and sincere gratitude to all the talented and experienced social workers who agreed to compete for these leadership positions.  We are blessed with a strong field and will work hard to earn the continued participation of everyone who extended themselves for the good of our organization.

Mission and Maintenance: a Creative Tension

As a former graduate school of social work teacher of organizing and planning, I always found the tensions between organizational mission and maintenance intriguing.  How does an agency avoid having its goals sidelined by organizational survival needs?   Despite many social workers’ best efforts, the primacy of client and community service often seems secondary to funding and regulatory demands.   Here at NASW-NYC, the maintenance (read “growth”) of our membership is an ongoing, pressing requirement to assure fiscal solvency and organizational survival.   And yet, as in other non-profits, membership growth and the achievement of our mission – to serve and represent our diverse membership and, by extension, quality client services - are completely intertwined. 

The Challenge of Renewal, the Expectation of Benefit

Right now, of the 18,000 licensed social workers practicing in New York City, at most  50 % are members.  Thus, it is imperative that we enlist a greater percentage of these social workers as NASW members, to maintain the resources necessary to provide the programs and services with meaning to a dynamic and diverse membership.  Staying ahead of the eventual revenue shrinkage due to the increasing numbers of retiring members is also essential.

Adding to the challenge of membership growth are trends affecting all non-profit associations: the increased diversity and segmentation of members and prospective members such that “one size fits all” in benefits or activities is no longer effective; the expectation of a greater return on the investment of membership dues; the desire for web-based “virtual” experience as opposed to in-person meetings and connection, among others.   Social workers – as is the case in other professions - are no longer joining associations in the numbers common in the past, have many more choices of associations to join, and expect more frequent and personally advantageous outcomes. 

Hitting the Problem “Head-On”

Hitting the problem “head-on” requires both mission and maintenance activities, that is, programs to directly increase membership as well as to provide current and prospective members (all New York City social workers) with activities and benefits perceived to be professionally and personally essential and valuable.  We believe that inroads on the former are being made through the active recruitment of our committees and task forces, including those representing new professionals, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social workers, and private practitioners.  Board members are reaching out to make personal phone and email connections with new members. 

Expertise on Working Conditions, Licensing, Leadership and Program Development

Perhaps most important is the reality and perception of effective action on the issues our members care about.  Thus, our efforts to raise the discourse and identify positive actions regarding social work working conditions, including supervision, compensation, caseload size and reimbursement.   In this regard, we are hosting a focus group to learn from agency administrators perceived to provide a positive work environment for social workers despite fiscal and other constraints. 

Similarly, given the continuing lack of clarity across the profession about licensing and its implications, including the “sunsetting” of exempt categories of agencies and workers in 2010, we are hiring a licensing specialist to provide consultation and education to our members and social agencies currently struggling to meet licensing requirements.

We also are heightening our work to increase the numbers of bilingual, bicultural, racially and ethnically diverse social workers to meet the needs of New York City’s citizens and strengthen key service delivery systems.  Bringing together social work leaders in the Latino, African Descent and Asian communities, as well as leaders in hospital and child welfare services, each to develop special issues of Currents and work on perceived problems and needs, continues to be a major NASW-NYC priority.   I am pleased to announce that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social work leaders are designing the December issue of Currents and plan to follow its publication with ongoing interchange, education and special events with and for our members. 

Finally, our Executive Director Bob Schachter’s active involvement with the Human Services Council has engaged the active participation of this City’s major philanthropies (Catholic, Protestant and Jewish), as well as such organizations as Black Agency Executives, Black Equity Alliance, and the Latino Development Task Force in sponsoring special Undoing Racism workshops and in distributing the recently published NASW position paper, “Institutional Racism and the Social Work Profession: A Call to Action.”(pdf file)

Social Work Investment and Strategic Planning

The national and state reinvestment agenda provides NASW-NYC yet another opportunity to build relationships to strengthen our professional association.  We are currently meeting with the New York State Chapter to identify state-level social work investment goals and the partners essential within and beyond the profession to achieve them.  “Invest in Social Work to Enhance the Lives of New Yorkers” is a work in progress geared, at this early stage, to enhance the social work workforce as a route to better services and client outcomes, including access to professional education, research, educational preparation, licensure, recruitment and retention.  Given NASW-NYC’s small staff and high demand, our Board and staff will resume a strategic planning process to assure that all energies are focused on our top priorities and that overarching federal and state reinvestment efforts are implemented within our resources and facilitate NASW-NYC goals.  

Let me end with a thank you to all of you for making this one incredible year of grand moments, inspiring challenges and exceptional relationships to build on.

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