Preserving the legacy
Article Outline
BRENDA C. ULMER
On Jan 28, 1949, 17 OR supervisors from the metropolitan New York area met and voted unanimously to form an association. Edith Dee Hall, the founder of the group, was elected general chairman and remained in office until 1957. The original organization was for OR supervisors only, and those 17 nurses became the charter members of the organization: Marion Burch, Emma Robertson Burns, Joan Driscoll, Edith Dee Hall, Helen Keyes, Rose Maguire, Carrie Marshall, Anita Martin, Helen J. Nolan, Sophie Pepper, Frances E. Reeser, Evelyn Rogers, Ruby T. Sanches, Anne Dodge Sasse, Barbara A. Volpe, Rose Wabersich, and Mary Ellen Yeager. At one point during the formative first years of the Association, Charles Riall of Davis + Geek was called to Chicago to explain to the American College of Surgeons why the company was supporting a “splinter group of OR nurses, who were rising above their station.”1
By 1952, 30 chapters had formed across the country. The first national conference was held in New York in February 1954. Approximately 1.700 nurses and 300 guests attended.2 At the fourth national conference in Los Angeles in 1957. 52 delegates voted to establish the national Association of Operating Room Nurses. A slate of officers was developed the same day, and Pauline A. Young of Philadelphia was elected president. By 1958, national AORN membership had risen to 3,200 nurses.3 Growth continued throughout the 1950s, and although exact figures on early membership statistics are vague, by 1967 the organization had grown to 8,000 nurses.4
AORN today has continued to grow and prosper. Although we have experienced a decline in membership since 1994, we have experienced an overall growth in services to members. We made a conscious decision several years ago to increase revenue from nondues sources. That decision has helped keep the organization stable, even with the decline in membership. I would like to see AORN gain back those lost members and claim a greater percentage of the estimated perioperative universe of approximately 80,000 nurses.5
RESPONDING TO CHANGE
Declining membership is not only of concern to our Association and our profession. In 1998, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) surveyed more than 1,000 associations to determine how they were adjusting to an environment of rapid change. Many of the surveyed associations began governance studies after they experienced a decrease in membership numbers. Such events are difficult to ignore because the result has implications for the entire profession.6
Like all living things, organizations have a life cycle. Growth and prosperity are followed by a slow period. If the organization does not address changes it encounters, a period of decline can occur. Organizations and companies that respond to change are successful. Organizations that stop to take the pulse of changing times and adjust their course are better able to move into new periods of growth and prosperity. It is an appropriate time to reconsider organizational designs grounded in ideas that began in post-World War II and pre-Internet days. We must reflect on the state of the Association and distill those timeless ideas that will help us design an Association prepared to move into the future.7
TRENDS
There are many critical issues confronting associations and businesses today. In its 1999 environmental scan, ASAE identified the following 14 trends that will affect associations in varying degrees.
POSITIVE CHANGE
For the last few years, AORN has been making adjustments to remain a vigorous and viable Association. We diversified and formed for-profit subsidiaries to lessen our dependence on revenue from Congress and to help keep member dues low. We expanded our vision and became more inclusive rather than exclusive by inviting any RN who supports our mission to become a member of AORN.
We updated our name from the Association of Operating Room Nurses to AORN, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, to denote the profession of RNs rather than a location in a hospital where people work. We have included specialty assemblies and state councils in the structure of AORN—which, by the way, are not represented in our governance structure. There are many other adjustments we have made over the years to help ensure we have a perioperative nursing legacy to bestow on future generations of RNs. We have had a rich history of growth and prosperity, and it is the desire of the Board that the legacy we leave is equal to the one left by our former leaders.
GOVERNANCE TASK FORCE
Our viability as an organization through continued growth and prosperity requires that we take a hard look at ourselves. Toward that end, at the February 2000 meeting, the Board of Directors approved the formation of a task force to look at Association governance. The task force consists of 10 people representing different facets of AORN's membership and potential membership:
The task force formed after Congress and will conduct an Association governance study with the help of outside experts. The task force will design the study and lay out the work plan. The study will include data from many sources to determine where we are as an organization and where we want to go—what must we do to meet members' needs and make AORN an organization that all perioperative nurses want to be part of? The design approach will include four phases:
Information will be gathered from stakeholders through interviews, focus groups, and surveys. A report on the findings of the task force will be presented to the House of Delegates at Congress 2001 in Dallas.
The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses took on the challenge of a governance study in 1994. The result was a new design that streamlined the association's governance, engages volunteers, develops leaders, enhances communication, maximizes technology, and invests in new programs and membership development. Members of this association believe that the time and effort spent on the study was worth it because they now can focus on the association's mission and make a difference in the lives of the people they serve.9
Forming the task force fits well into the AORN strategic plan, goal #5: Maintain organizational strength and viability.10 We must look at ourselves to spur a new period of growth and prosperity for the Association and for the profession of perioperative nursing. Surgical patients and perioperative nurses everywhere have a right to expect no less.
NOTES
- . Preserving the Legacy: AORN 1949–1989 . Denver: Association of Operating Room Nurses, Inc; 1990;
- “AORN conference a great success,” . ORS . Brooklyn: Davis + Geck; 1954;
- Driscoll, Preserving the Legacy: AORN 1949–1989.
- S Osborn, personal communication with the author, Denver, July 1999.
- US Department of Health and Human Services Sample Survey . Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; March 1996;
- . “Gaining strength by restructuring association governance,” . Association Management . February 1998;50:45–69
- “The organization of the future: Strategic imperatives and core competencies for the 21st century,” . Organizational Dynamics . Summer 1999;28:45–59
- American Society of Association Executives, CEO Symposium, Washington, DC, 10–11 January 2000.
- . “Building a new organizational framework,” . Association Management . November 1997;49:34–41
- . “Board of Directors addresses business decisions to secure AORN's future,” . AORN Journal . January 2000;71:33
PII: S0001-2092(06)61924-8
doi:10.1016/S0001-2092(06)61924-8
© 2000 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.
