Chair’s Column: Rolling Up Our Sleeves

As the country in general and many within the healthcare industry face a lot of uncertainty, the same is true for the ABA and the Health Law Section. Some of the issues have been brewing for a significant period of time (membership numbers being the primary one), while others are newly emerging (recission of government grants). The challenges are significant to the operation of the Association as a whole and the Section. We cannot ignore any of the issues or think that the Section exists in isolation, because we are a part of the larger whole of the Association.

Given the swirling forces at work, we have not been sitting on our hands. The past month-plus has been particularly active for the Section’s Council. The activity has been assisted by multiple in-person meetings, and the value and impact of the in-person meetings cannot be understated. The ability to dive into topics face-to-face allowed for thoughtful and wholesome conversation that also resulted in ideas coming up beyond the initial topics that were on the table.

The State of the Association

While some members of the Section may be aware, it is probably helpful to provide a quick update on the state of the Association as a whole. It is important to know what is happening in the Association because the Health Law Section is a component of the larger organization, and we are impacted whenever there is turbulence or turmoil within the Association.

One trend that has been ongoing for years is the difficulty in retaining members. While marketing efforts are able to bring in new members on a year-over-year basis, stickiness is challenging. Depending on the numbers, less than half of new dues-paying members may renew their membership, which means there is a lot of churn and overall membership remains relatively static. While avoiding further declines is good, lack of growth is not. The churn in membership ties into dues-based revenue remaining flat—or really declining, as longer-term members who pay higher dues retire and are not equivalently replaced with the dues levels of new members.

A newer impact on the Association is the removal or cancellation of many grants that funded the Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI), the Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence, and other initiatives that the Association pursues both within the United States and internationally. As grants disappeared overnight, the Association is making the difficult decision to reduce staff levels (the reductions have not impacted the Health Law Section since we cover our own staff) and taking a strong look at what the Association is able to achieve as a whole.

The combination of those and other circumstances means the Association, like many trade associations, is looking at how to continue strong operations in the future. Our officers are working to remain connected to these issues through involvement with the Section Officers Conference (a gathering of officers from all Sections across the Association), which includes asking a lot of questions about business plans and pushing for practical approaches. The other fallout from the challenges has been the discontinuation of financial distributions from the Association to the Sections. In the past, the Health Law Section received money from the Association that was essentially revenue for the Section and a positive part of our balance sheet. The mechanics of the financial contributions to the Section evolved over time, but all of that support is now gone. Any allocation from the Association is fully eaten up by chargeback expenses that the Section owes to the Association. The lack of support means the Section lives entirely on the funds we can generate internally.

Council is Taking Action

The description of the Association is not meant to cast a dire picture, but it is important for all of us to understand what is happening. The uncertainty in the Association passes down to us as a Section and the Council is working to be a good steward for our future. Being a good steward means making tough decisions and taking a long hard look at what we are doing. The reality is that we cannot just keep operating as we always have in the past. Remaining static will put us into trouble a lot more quickly.

At the recent Council meetings, a lot of discussion and adoption of policy changes have focused on managing the Section’s expenses. Management of expenses is a nice way of saying that we need to reduce areas where the Section spends its money, so the resources we have can be focused on maintaining the great programming and other resources that the Section creates. This will change financial outlays by the Section for various leadership positions. We value and appreciate what the leaders bring, but it is also important for all of us to participate in preserving the future of the Section.

Another area of activity has been diving into the budget. The Section will present its final budget for the next bar year by the middle of June, which means our staff, along with the budget officer and input from other Council members, are working to maintain a balanced budget. A balanced budget seeks to bring in enough non-dues revenue that we only need to withdraw the minimum amount required from the Section’s reserves. The reserves are in an investment account and reflect profit that the Section generated in the past. A balanced budget has been hard to produce in recent years. In this bar year, we are running close to even. That outcome reflects hard work by all of our staff to contain expenses at in-person events along with our volunteer leaders generating interest in and support for our activities.

Since the Section needs to generate non-dues based revenue, we’ve also been exploring a potential health law certification program. While the viability of the program is not certain and consideration is ongoing, the concept reflects a willingness to think outside the box and explore new ideas that have not been done before. In that vein, any ideas from other members of the Section for ways to attract members and provide value will be valued.

One final recent action to highlight is the formation of a new strategic business operations task force. This new task force, which includes the next three upcoming Chairs of the Section along with other leaders, will be evaluating every nook and cranny of the Section to come up with a new business plan and think about how we can adapt to the changing times. Many can expect to hear from the task force, especially if you’re a leader on a committee, interest group, or task force. Even if you are not serving in one of those capacities, anyone can feel free to reach out and ask for a discussion or offer up ideas. The more we can collaborate and work collectively to make tough decisions, the stronger we will be in the end.

The Future

None of us can predict the future, but it should be accurate to say that we all value our involvement with and connection to the Section. No matter how deep or light your current connection is to the Section, we can all come together to do all that we can to ensure that not only can all of us remain connected to the Section, but that it will also be around for all of the health lawyers that will come after us. The question to ask now is, what are you willing to do and how can you help out?