A message from your president

“How are you?”
I want to know…. I’ll be coming back to this very question. You shall see…

VISION
Mark Twain said, “if you don’t know where you’re going any path will do” and I’d like to add there are many paths to choose and some of these involve changes and these changes can present new opportunities.

My obligation to you has already begun and has no defined end and we need to choose a path and take it together.
There is no term limit on a vision.
There is no vision that does not involve change.

CHANGE
I want to speak to you about change and how it is necessary for a vision to prevail and there doesn’t need to be a fear of change. Change is inevitable, growth is optional.

I have been chosen for the role of leadership of this organization.
Thank you. I accept the challenge.
As such, I am not a manager. We have a managing Executive Director, Dr. Nancy Scanlan who is working tirelessly for us.
We have been working together this past year, and with the guidance of the board we are reaching to the future needs of the association and our members. This can involve change,… and it must.

OPPORTUNITIES FROM POSSIBILITIES
Change can regarded as scary. Maintaining ourselves as the “status quo” seems to be the comfort zone for some. But as I saw in the 1st slide of Dr. Kerry Ridgeway’s lecture yesterday, “’Life, new knowledge and wisdom often begin at the end our comfort zone”.
Anything new and different is usually questioned and ridiculed and then opposed and only then does it become self-evident  — this was stated by the German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the early 1800’s. We can agree there have been many changes since then, because people have tried and dared to face the changes as opportunities.
The paradigm of change is that we need to adjust our perception first, step back and look at change and see if what you see is really what you see. Be open to change. Don’t judge it as good or bad just see it—when it comes.. it “just is”. Look for the possibilities in change.
How many times have you seen this happen in your own practice and personal lives as you take on new ventures and responsibilities? Are the demographics changing around us?, within us? Are we attracting these as members?

FEAR, …- stands for…Focused Energy That Alters Reality-Rick DeBowes (Leadership Coach).

For me, …and for us, change is good. Change is exciting. We don’t have to fear change.
Not even knowing what changes are about to occur isn’t scary. It’s the ability to be open to change and be ready that will make a change successful.
We cannot move to the future without looking for what we don’t have and for what we need, and going out and getting it or just being open to it when opportunity knocks. Being able to shift in the way we perceive and think and to embrace change along the way is the KEY to creating long term sustainability and to stay relevant.

OPTIMISIM
We can grow through change and we have to welcome any change and nurture it.
I’m optimistic about the future.  I want to make it easier for us to connect, contribute, care and create.

GOALS
My goals for the mission and vision for the AHVMA:
This is what I feel we need:

1.    To provide the resources and environment for the ordinary veterinarian to be introduced to integrative veterinary medical modalities

2.    To provide the intellectual and educational resources for veterinarians to pursue knowledge in the practice of integrative veterinary medical modalities

3.    To provide referral resources for practicing veterinarians to obtain guidance and assistance for the treatment of their patients using these modalities

4.    To provide referral resources for clients to obtain treatment for their animals using these modalities

5.    To further the education of our members and to maintain the best of practices among our members in the moral, ethical and evidence based practice approach to patient care with emphasis on empathy and the human-animal bond

6.    Finally, for each of us individually as well as collectively, to uphold and practice according to the oath of the veterinarian that we all have honored upon graduation and shall continue to in our daily practice lives

These are what I wish for you and for what I will work for, for us

“How are you?”
I want to know.
I’ll find out.
I’ll be checking in with you throughout the year and I invite you to check in with me.
I want to know.
I know where we have been. I know where we are going.

SUCCESS
Success does not have an endpoint. Success is a journey.
We have a conductor.
It’s ok to be a passenger on my train.
I want to know what you want. Tell me where you want to go and I will take you on my train to get you there or I will pave the new path to get it for you and we’ll get there eventually on our journey to together. Let me know what you perceive are our problems and what we need to change.

CHANGE FOR OPPORTUNITIES MEETING OUR GOALS=SUCCESS
When you find it is easier to connect and contribute you will care and you will get up from your seat as a passenger and let someone else sit for while you create and share your own contributions. I want to fill this train of change with enthusiastic energetic members.
THE VISION IS NOT MINE ALONE; IT’S OURS TO SHARE


I pledge to continue to have these face to face meetings. These meetings are tremendously important and have priceless advantages in the heart-mind connection we are beholding to each other…

Remember the question, “How are you?” Let me know.
I’ll open next year asking the same question and I hope the answer is from “good”…, “to great!”, for all of us.
See you in Kansas City!
Thank you

Dirk B. Yelinek, DVM, CVA
President, AHVMA

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