Differentiating Our Members
As we start thinking about marketing the VBMA to practitioners and industry in general, I think we need to be careful as to what we are actually marketing. I know that there have been conversations for a while about VBMA members that are there for the right reasons and those just there for the free food.
With that said, I had a very interesting conversation with Dr. Tollon from the VetMedTeam about this topic. I know that he has been suggesting that we need a certificate program for a while and I explained the logistical challenges of doing something like that at NAVC. He came to me with a slightly different idea that really captured my interest.
Instead of a certificate program, how about creating a list of tasks that a student needs to complete before graduation to become a "Certified VBMA Member" versus just the regular member. These tasks could include things like completing business-related modules that we could get from the VetMedTeam (CE programs), completing a VBMA externship, serving in a leadership role in at least organization at their school, etc.
The standards would have to be high so that we could get the cream of the crop, but when we have the Dr. Wilsons and Dr. DeBowes of the world telling everyone that they need to hire a VBMA student, we need to be able to provide some value to that title and not risk our reputation on someone who is sneaking out the back door after the pizza arrives.
Thoughts?
Great Idea
I think that this is a great idea! The goals like completing the business related modules and completing a VBMA externship are goals that everyone can achieve. I also think that with a little effort everyone could find a leadership role in their school somewhere.
How would we go about certifying that people completed these tasks? I know we could probably track their progress on the modules in some internet way (y'all know I have no idea about those things). As far as the externship and serving in a leadership role, we could have a form on the website that they could print off, get signed by either the person they went on the externship with or the club sponsor for the club they are in a leadership role in and then they could mail it in either individually (or with other members of their local chapter) to whichever officer would be in charge of keeping up with tracking this. It might fall well under Compliance which would be just fine with me.
In any case, I think this is absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of our "product". This way people cannot just join and never attend a local meeting and have the same standing as a member who is very involved.
Mandy - I think you are
Mandy -
I think you are right on! Obviously we would need to determine the necessary steps to become certified. Afterwards we could determine how to track that those tasks have been completed. Tracking completion would naturally fit under compliance if you wouldn't mind the task. Let me discuss the idea with the current board and see if their feelings match ours and we can go from there. We'll also need to get Cyndie involved in the conversation at some point to see how we can tie the website into the plan.
Kevin Finn
2008 National VBMA President