Seriously. I need help. Not in “the ACCP President is in need of serious professional help” sense—as suggested by most of my friends, family members, and many random strangers—but rather, in the “call to volunteerism” sense.

As you know, a great deal of ACCP’s important work is accomplished through you, our members, who willingly give of your time and expertise to further our mission, through volunteering to serve in any number of capacities. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how important you are to achieving our strategic plan, advancing our mission, and serving the needs of our members and, ultimately, our patients. We rely on you to roll up your sleeves and help accomplish much of the main work of the College. We are extremely appreciative that so many ACCP members already contribute to the mission of ACCP. With that in mind, the time of year has come again for us to ask for your help.

During the last week of April, you received ACCP’s annual Committee and Task Force Issues survey in which we asked for your help in identifying clinical pharmacy practice, research, education, or other related issues that you believe that the College should address in the coming year and beyond. We need your help! Please complete this survey and help guide our activities and priorities. Your responses to the survey, as well as your consideration of uncompleted objectives in ACCP’s current strategic plan, will help President-Elect Bill Kehoe, the Board of Regents, and ACCP staff members formulate the charges for next year’s committees and task forces. In addition, your responses will guide the College’s future strategic planning activities. Next month, you will receive our annual survey to determine your willingness to serve on a 2011 committee or task force. Next month’s survey will contain brief descriptions of the 2010–2011 committee and task force charges, and your response to that survey will represent your official notification to us that you wish to serve on a specific committee or task force. Please feel free to volunteer for more than one committee or task force—if appointed, you would not be assigned to more than one activity, but this would provide us some flexibility and options with respect to committee and task force assignments. Please also provide some text in the survey describing your motivation for serving on a specific committee or task force, the reason for your interest in a specific charge, and/or your experience in dealing with the issues/charges in which you are interested.

In addition to service on committees or task forces, we need your help in other areas. ACCP’s Practice and Research Networks (PRNs) are in continual need of volunteers to serve as officers or to otherwise contribute to their activities. Similarly, ACCP’s chapters are continually seeking volunteers for leadership positions. If you have not already done so, please consider volunteering for service as an officer in a PRN or chapter. Not only is participating as a member or chair of a committee or task force—or as an officer in a PRN or chapter—professionally rewarding, such activities also provide opportunities for members to achieve and attain important leadership growth, experience, and development and can lead to further leadership opportunities within ACCP, including consideration for the ballot for the Board of Regents or the Research Institute Board of Trustees. As a reminder, avenues are available from the College for all ACCP members to facilitate leadership training and skills development through the ACCP Academy’s Leadership and Management Certificate Program, as well as to develop career advancement strategies through the ACCP Academy’s Clinical Practice Advancement Certificate Program.

Several other opportunities exist for members to contribute to ACCP’s mission. We need your help! For example, please consider volunteering to serve as an abstract reviewer for ACCP Annual Meetings. We are very pleased with the growth in student membership through StuNet, and we need volunteers to serve as reviewers of students’ curriculum vitae for the CV review service we offer to student members. The forthcoming “call for volunteers” survey next month will ask for assistance with other ACCP activities as well. We need your help!

Speaking of student members—we need your help, too. Please apply to be a member of the StuNet Advisory Committee. Moreover, many of our other committees have a student member, so if any student members are interested in serving on ACCP committees or task forces other than the StuNet Advisory Committee, please let us know in your response to next month’s survey.

So—have I mentioned that we need your help? Thank you for your commitment to ACCP, and thanks in advance for your willingness to volunteer to contribute to ACCP’s mission. As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or call me at (317) 613-2315, extension 306, with suggestions or questions.