Note from the Associate Editorial Director: Volunteer for your local chapter

by Melissa Varnavas

Facebook is good at digging memories up and bringing them forward. Sometimes they’re refreshing, sometimes silly, sometimes potent.

A year ago this week, I spent a long weekend on Jacksonville Beach in Florida. The city was experiencing a cold snap. It was about 40-degrees when I arrived, clad in a specially made “ACDIS Road Show” T-shirt.

Sometimes those Facebook memories are bittersweet.

That photo came alongside selfies with Deb Dallos, Edna Betances-Harold, and Karen Williams; the Florida ACDIS Chapter leaders. There were shots of colorfully dressed and packed tables at Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic, our hosts. Pictures of me and Jillian Fore Hubbard and Jamie Dugan, long-time ACDIS members and friends. Even shots of the nearly 100 attendees doing yoga-esque exercises after lunch.

Of course, there was the requisite photo for my Massachusetts friends intended to inspire jealousy (despite the reality of the temperature) of a palm tree with the sun obliquely shining through its branches in the right side of the frame, the white beach, ocean, and dunes with their spikey grass a horizon line to envy.

Yes, sometimes they’re bittersweet.

This time last year, we’d made plans for members of the national team to visit a number of local chapter events, attend a few associated healthcare conferences, participate in a handful of conventions. I originally envisioned us getting on a bus together—a real road trip. Of course, the pandemic put a pause to those plans.

The pandemic paused a lot of people’s plans. As we’ve said throughout 2020, few folks have been untouched by it. (ACDIS Director Brian Murphy holds a free webinar next week, on February 11, on the ramifications for CDI in 2021. If you haven’t registered yet, please do. Along with a panel of CDI program directors, they’ll review recent statistics and discuss strategies to overcome COVID-related obstacles.)

Some of our local chapters, too, have needed to pause their plans for educational gatherings throughout 2020. Some recently have reached out asking for additional help, lamenting the ongoing status of stress and struggle of these times.

So, I’d like to take this time, and this space to thank all our volunteer chapter leaders past and present for stepping forward and bringing their energy and devotion to their local CDI communities. I’d like to also take this time and this space to ask anyone who might be willing or interested in getting involved to step forward now if they have the availability to do so. In particular, I know our friends in Florida would love some additional volunteers having to take a hiatus since that last 2020 meeting in Jacksonville. Our friends in Washington state, too, may need to take a hiatus for 2021 if new volunteers aren’t found.

Local chapter are a vital component of ACDIS’ mission to provide a space for education, professional growth, program recognition, and networking for those working in the clinical documentation integrity field. Now, maybe more than ever, we need to feel connected with one another personally, professionally.

If you’d like to learn more about ACDIS local chapters, visit our “Networking” pages or reach out to me. Contact a member of our Chapter Advisory Board or visit your state page and email one of the current chapter leaders listed there. Or you can simply complete our online membership roster and indicate your interest in helping.

One gentle reminder for those core chapter leadership volunteers—the 2021 leadership agreement form is past due. Please reach out to ACDIS Editor Carolyn Riel and myself if you need assistance or an extension.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to take to the road again soon and leave the bitter behind for new photos of more CDI sweetness.

Editor’s note: Varnavas is the associate editorial director for ACDIS. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.