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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Brian Lagana
PFA Executive Director
[email protected]
PFA Rolls Out Three-plus
Year Strategic Plan
Last year, PFA’s Board of Directors met for a weekend to
develop strategic guidance – a survival plan, if you will - for the
association for the next three plus years. A complete version of
the strategic plan as adopted is included in this issue of Current
Pedorthics. However, I wanted to take this space to highlight
those strategic initiatives and goals that the board selected
to attempt during this fiscal year or that were confirmed as
on-going activities.
1. Adoption of a mission statement that is more inclusive of
professionals that provide lower extremity modalities:
PFA’s mission is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of
credentialed providers of lower extremity pedorthic modalities
through education; increase the demand for services through
marketing; and, promote the right to practice through
government affairs activities.
2. Maintaining PFA’s position on state licensure for pedorthists
– protecting the pedorthists’ right to practice in those states
with licensure; supporting the concept of pedorthic licensure
nationwide; and, actively advocating for pedorthic licensure
in those states where a majority of the pedorthists want
licensure and request PFA’s help to obtain it. On a broader
level, PFA will continue to monitor legislation and regulations
at the federal and state levels and respond to initiatives that
impact pedorthics, either positively or negatively. In support
of these activities, PFA will work to build or join coalitions
of organizations with similar positions, maintain a lobbying
presence at the federal level, and quite possibly the most
important – work to build a strong grassroots ethic within the
membership.
3. PFA will work to continue to increase the public awareness
of pedorthics by continuing its visits with federal legislators and
regulators; working with symbiotic organizations to enhance
awareness of pedorthics with their members; and, revitalize the
public information section on PFA’s website and better exploit
10
Pedorthic Footcare Association www.pedorthics.org
the reach of social media.
4. PFA will strive to be a leader in providing high quality
pedorthic continuing education through its annual Symposium
and Exhibition, webinars and regional workshops. To build
upon the foundation that pedorthists already have from their
pre-certification programs, PFA will work to develop a basic, but
comprehensive program leading to a secondary certification in
AFO fitting, fabrication and dispensing.
5. PFA will continue to build on the quality of content and
appearance of its flagship publication, Current Pedorthics
magazine. PFA will work to reach other lower extremity
audiences for subscriptions to the publication as well, such as
podiatrists, physical therapists, wound care specialists, etc.
6. The core underpinning of all of PFA’s efforts is financial.
In FY 2014, PFA’s board has set a goal of rebuilding its reserve
fund, as well as working as hard as possible to ensure that all
of PFA’s endeavors – the Annual Symposium & Exhibition,
membership retention, continuing education programs, Current
Pedorthics advertising, etc., are as successful and profitable as
possible to ensure the viability of the organization and its ability
to continue to deliver on its mission.
Of course, the most carefully crafted strategic plan is
meaningless without the backing of the organization’s
membership. Backing can be through numerous channels participation in education programs, grassroots lobbying efforts,
membership retention, encouraging a colleague to join or rejoin
PFA, volunteerism, contributing articles to Current Pedorthics,
etc. This next year will be a critical year for PFA in determining
whether it will be able to implement its strategic plan as is or
need to drastically scale back its plan to support the pedorthic
profession. The key to PFA’s success lies with the existing
membership and their ability to utilize the tools that PFA
provides to advance the awareness of pedorthics, enhance their
professional abilities, and continue to build – or rebuild - PFA.