By Mary Pender Greene, ACSW, President 

In my first "message" as President of the New York City Chapter of NASW, I want to say "thank you" to our outgoing President Dr. Alma Carten, and to assure her, and all social workers in New York that I will surely "stay the course", as she so aptly advised. 

During Alma's Presidency, she began the President's Roundtable, bringing together the Chapter and community based social work agencies.  The purpose of these Roundtables is to convene social workers in different communities, to learn about their concerns and needs as social workers, to strengthen the Chapter's relationships with social workers through the City, to increase NASW membership and to explore the possibilities for collaboration between the Chapter and social work organizations.  I plan to continue this project, expanding into all the boroughs, and would welcome suggestions for additional host sites.

During my Presidency, I intend to focus on social workers and what our needs and concerns are.  We came into the field as helpers; too often we neglect to include ourselves in this process.  We in NASW believe in advocacy for our clients, let us include in our advocacy efforts our profession and ourselves ad individual social workers.  This will be the foremost task for my Presidency!

In subsequent editions of Currents, I plan to outline in detail how the NYC NASW Chapter might work on this issue.  I welcome your ideas and suggestions regarding this goal. 

I have noted before that I am a team player, a group person, practiced and eager to network to move our agenda along.  Our organization should be in the forefront of efforts to assist all levels of social workers to feel better about what we do, how we can look ahead, and plan how we can get there.  We need to do the same kind of strategic planning for our own careers as organizations do for their future.  In future "Currents", I will elaborate on our organization's strategic planning efforts with specific details regarding the report and recommendations for actions.

NYC has 5 graduate schools of social work.  I hope to engage them in projects with NASW, and will start by exploring how their interests and ours might be joined to produce benefits for all concerned.

I am very interested in hearing from members about their thoughts and concerns; how do you think we can engage you in what really matters to you, for you, for your clients and for our profession?  What do you want NYC NASW to do for you? What could get you more involved? I look forward to working with and for you.  Please let me know your thoughts.  I look forward to hearing from you.