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WMAA President's Message
Dr. Sandra Obsorn
 In the past two issues of the Quarterly, we informed you about some of the new and very exciting things that have happened at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and about awards, triumphs, celebrations and changes in the lives of our family. Dean Golden described this extended family nicely in his message in the winter issue.
Many of the events that have occurred fit into our new Wisconsin Medial Alumni Association (WMAA) strategic plan. Strategic plans are usually created for a limited span of years. The last one was intended for the years 2001-05, and many of the goals had been reached while others were ongoing when we last reviewed the plan in late 2005.
Not only had physical changes occurred wit the completion of our new medical school building and move to the west campus, but a name change and leadership change was anticipated. It was time to review the entire strategic plan and update it to meet the needs of the future.
A committee chaired by John Kryger, MD ’92, was formed in the spring of 2006, and for the next six months we worked steadily at understanding our association, our past accomplishments, issues that needed to be addressed and methods to accomplish our goals. We needed up creating a document that is easily read and understood–and that really says what was felt to be important.
We now have a strategic plan for 2007-11. Just as our school has expanded its teaching, research and outreach mission to include public health, we felt it was appropriate to expand the scope of the constituents whom we serve. As a result, the WMAA now reaches out to graduates of the SMPH, current and former residents, students, and current and former faculty members.
We also arranged our core functions into the categories of communications, events and programs and student initiatives. We identified our priorities as improving communication effectiveness with all WMAA constituents, increasing active engagement of all WMAA constituents and increasing endowments to sustain the financial support of the organization.
Many of the familiar and successful WMAA-sponsored activities will continue, including the Quarterly, Alumni Weekend, the Host Program, Dean’s Cup, White Coat Ceremony, Operation Education and others.
In terms of new activities, our plans include:
• further developing our WMAA Web site
• restructuring and defining the role of class representatives and
providing them with technology to enhance their networking
• developing leaders from recent graduating classes
• offering programs and services for newly retired alumni
• exploring the effectiveness of the Low Interest Student Loan versus
scholarships
• considering Super Life Members
• inviting students to describe student funding needs.
There are also other plans and ideas to be presented at the appropriate time. It will be important to review this strategic plan occasionally to celebrate our accomplishments and, especially, to keep us moving toward our goals.
My thanks to John Kryger, Maury Cotter (strategic planning consultant), Dean Golden, Karen Peterson (WMAA director), members of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors and others who participated in creating our new plan. Their attendance at meetings and dedication to the project made the process go smoothly and resulted in a document that should serve us well for the next five years.
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