Section Annual Report for Medical Sociology
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Section Annual Report for Medical Sociology This annual report covers the period of section activity from September 2017 to August 2018 and a fiscal year from January 2018 to December 2018. The report is typically completed by the immediate past chair of each section as it covers the period this person served as chair. However, it is often completed in consultation with other officers and it may be submitted by anyone on the section council. Sections that do not file an Annual Report will have their budget allocation withheld until a complete report is received. Please submit the report by November 15. Section Governance Provide details of your section’s governance activity during the period between September 2017 and August 2018. Business Meeting Copy and paste below (or attach separately) the agenda and approved meeting minutes from the section business meeting which include a count of members present and summary of decisions made at this meeting. The Medical Sociology section’s major activities for 2017-18 include the following: • Published four section newsletters (attached). • Selected recipients for six section awards: Louise Johnson Scholar, Howard B. Kaplan Memorial Award, Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation Award, Donald W. Light Award for Applied or Public Practice of Sociology, Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award, and Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contribution to Medical Sociology. • Established a section Google drive and migrated our policy and practice documents from a Dropbox folder onto the drive. All Council members reviewed and, as appropriate, revised their position descriptions. We established a process for recording awards nominations. • Pursuant to the 2017 Council meeting discussion, revised awards descriptions to require the nominators and nominees be section members. • Submitted a by-laws amendment to the ASA Committee on Sections which was approved and included on the 2018 election ballot. The amendment provides guidance on conflicts-of-interest. It was approved by section members. • Identified and approved a new newsletter editor. • The Chair (Jane McLeod) and Secretary-Treasurer (Danielle Bessett) worked with ASA Director of Finance (Les Briggs) to review the investment structure for the Donald Light Award for Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology and for other section accounts. • Organized six ASA sessions: o Race, Racism, and Health: Patterns and Processes) o The Politics of Health o Sociology of Medical Education o Sociological Research and the Reduction of Health Inequalities o Health, Health Care, and New Technologies 1 o Roundtables • Partnered with the section on Sex and Gender for a co-sponsored session on Gender, Health, and Medicine. • Planned and held the section awards ceremony, awards dinner, and section reception. • With Council assistance, section members organized a tour of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Twenty two section members attended. As appropriate, Council members consulted via email on these and other matters. We held our annual Business Meeting on Sunday, August 12, 2018 from 9:30-10:10am. The agenda for our meeting is attached (p.2 of our Appendix), and the 2018 Council minutes and Council reports referenced therein follow (on p.3 and pp.4-25, respectively). Council Meeting Copy and paste below (or attach separately) the agenda and approved meeting minutes of all Council Meetings conducted between August 2017 and September 2018. Minutes must include a list of council members present and a summary of decisions made. Minutes are not a transcript of proceedings but a listing of what discussions took place and official actions taken. The Medical Sociology Section Council met on Sunday, August 12, 2018 from 7-8:15am. 12 current Council members attended, along with 5 incoming Council members and 1 affiliated section member. The agenda for our meeting is attached (p.27), and the 2018 Business meeting minutes follow (p.28-30). The Previous Year Describe section activities during the period between September 2017 and August 2018. • Membership recruitment and retention – What efforts did the section make to retain members and reach out to new members? What were the results of the efforts? Our membership chair, Corinne Reczek, worked tirelessly through the year to recruit and retain section members. She distributed messages to the section listserv, encouraging members to recruit new members and to offer student memberships. She contacted former section members who had not renewed their memberships to encourage them to do so. As a result of her efforts, we have kept membership very near the 1,000-member mark. • Communications – How does the section communicate with its members? Did it begin using any new technologies or strategies? If so, were they effective? Include links to the section website, newsletters, and any other electronic media used. The section communicates with members primarily through the section listserv and our newsletter. We send weekly announcements to members through the listserv. We publish four newsletters each year. We attach copies of the 2017-18 newsletters to this report. 2 • Mentoring – What, if any, mentoring opportunities does the section offer to students, early career faculty, nonfaculty, etc.? The section does not offer a formal mentoring program. We are, nevertheless, a welcoming section that encourages participation and engagement across our full membership. We have two regular student Council members who participate in our Council meetings, prepare student- oriented features for the newsletter, and organize a meet-and-greet with the recipient of our distinguished contributions award (the Leo G. Reeder Award). Our nominations committee has a student member who participates fully in crafting the election slate. Each year, our nominations committee strives to achieve a slate that represents the full range of substantive, theoretical, and methodological interests in medical sociology, and that includes faculty at all ranks and members who hold nonacademic positions. • Programming – Provide an overview of the section’s programming at the annual meeting, scholarly/ professional development activities outside of the annual meeting, development of substantive resources, partnerships with other sections or groups, etc. The section offered eight sessions at the 2018 ASA meeting, including: Race, Racism, and Health: Patterns and Processes The Politics of Health Sociology of Medical Education (2 sessions) Sociological Research and the Reduction of Health Inequalities Health, Health Care, and New Technologies A co-sponsored session (with Sex and Gender) on Gender, Health, and Medicine Our section roundtables session. As noted, we also held our annual awards ceremony, awards dinner, and business meeting. The section offered three other events at the annual meeting that may be of interest to ASA. Section member Monica Cuddy organized a tour of the National Board of Medical Examiners which was held on Monday, August 13th. Council member Katrina Kimport organized a panel on sociology in practice settings that was offered as part of ASA’s symposium on sociological practice. Council member Tom Mackie participated in organizing a pre-conference on policy engagement, with special emphasis on health- related research. Plans for the Coming Year Describe section plans for the period between September 2018 and August 2019. These plans should align with the 2018 budget and proposed 2019 budget below. • Membership recruitment and retention – What efforts will the section make to retain members and reach out to new members? What are the goals of the efforts? 3 We will continue our usual efforts to recruit and retain members. For the past several years, we have sponsored a section book raffle to raise funds for our student awards. The raffle appears to have outlived its usefulness (we still sell many tickets and receive outstanding book contributions but fewer and fewer people want to take books home with them). We plan to suspend the book raffle and, in its place, develop a new fundraising strategy. The funds will go to our student awards. Although not directly a membership recruitment effort, offering a vibrant set of student awards increases the attraction of a section membership to students. Fundraising campaigns also have the potential to increase commitment to the section among current members. • Communications – How does the section plan to communicate with its members? Does the section plan on using any new technologies or strategies? If so, how? We will continue our practice of weekly listserv announcements and quarterly newsletters. In addition, our webmaster has created a “members update” page for our website that members can use to update each other about significant development in teaching, research, and service. • Mentoring – What efforts will the section make to mentor students, early career faculty, nonfaculty, etc.? We do not have current plans to expand specific mentoring activities. • Programming – Provide an overview of the section’s upcoming plans for programming at the annual meeting, scholarly/ professional development activities outside of the annual meeting, development of substantive resources, partnerships with other sections or groups, etc. In line with the theme of the conference (Engaging Social Justice for a Better World), the Medical Sociology section will offer a session entitled, “Health equity, social justice, and social movements.” In addition, we will host the second of two joint sessions