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PRESIDENT
Jay Zaffater, C. Ped.,
PFA President
[email protected]
Just a Moment of Reflection
as I Get Ready for Take Off
It is hard to believe that my two year term as President of the Pedorthic Footcare
Association (PFA) is coming to a close. I know all of us have heard the saying that “time
flies when you’re having fun,” and most of us have experienced this sentiment with the
understanding that preoccupation can often lead to loss of time. I would be lying if I
said everything was fun, but fun is not the reason I volunteered.
The PFA does utilize the immediate past president’s position, which will make moving
on easier on me and the incoming leadership. Hopefully this will allow the Board of
Directors (BOD) to draw from my past experience and proceed with anything that
needs continued attention, including changes and directives of the new president. This
will also help cover any gaps in our leadership change. Besides continuing to work very
closely with the executive committee and the BOD, I have additionally forged an even
closer relationship with our incoming president Rob Sobel, and I strongly feel that this
should serve us well.
Now it is time for some reflection on whether I did enough or did I make a difference
in the management of PFA. Everybody likes to think what they labored over was not in
vain. However, I also find it hard to judge myself in any capacity, but ultimately we all
are measured against our accomplishments.
I have never been a person who looks at a process or challenge and boasts about what
I can do, but rather I attack it and see what I have done. In many instances with a
leadership role, it is difficult to have quantitative, tangible or measurable outcomes. So
when I made my “to-do list” at the onset of this adventure, I knew that some of my pie
in the sky ideas may not come to fruition and even if they did, how would I know?
One of these ideas was the instrument of change.
For anyone paying attention to my messages over my tenure as president, it was apparent
that I was pushing for change. Much of this change was to manifest itself in a different
attitude towards the direction of our association and that the out of the box thinking was
not only going to be progressive, but also accepted. After all, this association belongs to
the members and we are charged, as a BOD, with improving this organization with their
directives in mind.
I listened to what the membership was saying and took it to heart. I heard their
concerns about lack of communication, being out of touch, the association’s relevance
in toda