CPM Winter 2020 - 7

daup h i n c m s .o rg

initiatives. PAMED has taken a stand on many issues over the
years by adopting public positions. That is not, and will never
be, an end unto itself. Effecting change in our world requires
time, effort, and resources. As an organization we will always be
limited in paid-staff resources to lobby in Harrisburg. But true
grass roots activism, initiated and sustained by our members,
can often surpass the influence of a lobbyist because it is the
collective voice of voters that are being heard. Any time this
kind of activism is consistent with PAMED's positions, it is
perfectly acceptable to engage a legislator with the full backing
of the society as a whole. To borrow a phrase, don't wait for
orders from headquarters when you hear the sounds of battle.
Let's empower our members to engage in the issues they care
about, when it suits their schedules.
There is another side to the value equation, that of cost. It
is true that dues have gone up recently for the county after
many years of holding the line. As President, I will be focused
on finding ways to avoid this in the future, and my real goal is
to find a way to decrease dues over time. Cutting unnecessary
expenses will always be on our collective agenda, but the easiest
path to decreasing dues is to increase revenue. We do this by
increasing membership, both through face to face recruiting and
exploring ways to increase the eligible population of members.
We will also explore sources of non-dues revenue. The future is
uncertain, but our commitment to improvement is not.

As we look forward to the upcoming year, we expect to have
multiple meaningful events that will reflect who we are as a county
medical society. But none of this is planned in a vacuum. We
want each and every member to feel welcome to join us in this
process. Some people want to be involved in everything, and some
people are only interested in one thing. That's fine, there's room
for everyone! But please don't sit on the sideline. The house of
medicine will only ever be as healthy as its individual members,
and as the local branch of that community, the Dauphin County
Medical Society not only wants your involvement, but it needs
it. Here's to a successful 2020! Cheers!
Dr. Mackley is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Milton Hershey Medical
Center and serves as the President of the Dauphin County Medical Society and
5th District Trustee for the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He can be contacted by
emailing hmackley@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

Central PA Medicine Winter 2020 7
http://www.dauphincms.org
CPM Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CPM Winter 2020
