Abstract
I
Three of my own highlights as President include the 2015 publication of a Letter to the Editor in the New York Times, 1 ABM's meaningful participation in the 2016 Women Deliver global media session in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the engagement of key health leaders, including the new Surgeon General of the United States, at the 2017 9th Annual Summit in Washington, DC. For ABM as an organization, these 2 years have been nothing short of transformational.
Every President must have an effective infrastructure and team to function. ABM's includes engaged Founders, an experienced Executive Committee, a dynamic Board of Directors, and a hard working management team. I would like to personally thank each person who has served as a leader during my term and to remember again the two Founders we lost in 2016. Drs. Audrey Naylor and Miriam Labbok continue to be missed; their legacy is profound and inspiring.
ABM has a strategic plan and we've been following it closely. 2 The current 5-year plan is for 2016–2020, so we are now nearly half way through it. The plan has seven major areas of focus that align well with our key committee and subcommittee structure. Importantly, effective cross-committee collaboration has been essential for successful implementation.
(1) Membership: We are collectively invested in increasing the size, diversity, and engagement of ABM membership worldwide—and we are doing just that. Membership is up, both in absolute numbers and in numbers of countries represented. We have a robust recruiting strategy and are constantly considering innovative ways to attract new members and also retain current ones. We've conducted a membership survey this year, the preliminary results of which were presented at the Annual International Meeting last month in Atlanta, to inform future initiatives. For our members, we've systematically created a series of pipelines to various committees and leadership roles.
(2) Protocols: We have streamlined the production, translation, and maintenance of one of our signature products—clinical protocols—while preserving quality. As evidence, look to the number of protocols published each year in this journal and note that all of our protocols have been translated into Spanish and many into several other languages as well. Be proud of the evidence-based impact that certain protocols can have on topical issues such as our Supplementation Protocol to objectively address the Fed is Best Foundation's important concerns about the potential for and impact of infant starvation.
(3) Communications: We have developed enriched, state-of-the-art tools for internal and external communications. With the guidance of external consultants from Emergence and the significant work of ABM staff throughout 2017, we're now completely rebranded. I hope that you like both the updated look and function of the website and ABM communications, prominently displayed in our new journal cover.
(4) Education: We have conferences and summits, a journal and educational materials, and policy statements and position papers galore. A dedicated subcommittee continues to clarify, for both the board and our members, the strategic rationale and best means of certifying physicians as breastfeeding medicine specialists. Currently, our education tools are available to members and nonmembers worldwide as we seek to educate healthcare providers with the most up-to-date peer-reviewed information.
(5) International: We've made important strides in deepening and broadening our global identity. Consider our now eight regional network coordinators working in close collaboration with the International Committee to provide coordinated continent-specific engagement with our members. We've renewed our partnership with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and work closely with them and several other organizations with shared goals. We've had increasing success with regional meetings around the world—especially in Europe and Asia. In 2018, we will add a meeting in Australia.
(6) Finance: We are by no means a wealthy organization, partly due to our steadfast commitment to avoid working with companies whose products might decrease breastfeeding initiation, duration, or exclusivity. Instead, we continue to gradually build the financial strength of ABM through membership growth, success with external grant funding, and donations. For 2018, ABM's Board of Directors will be making high-impact decisions on how best to align existing budgets to support our evolving global identity. And we have a renewed commitment to and engagement with the Maurice Rosefelt Scholarship Subcommittee.
(7) Governance: Many people work tirelessly to ensure effective governance and management of our organization. The board and the management team articulate their different but complementary roles through resources and trainings and facilitated sessions. We have a very smooth election process and have amended the bylaws in 2017 to expand the board to include trainees in 2018.
I anticipate that the next 2 years are going to be just as exciting for ABM as the last two. If you have not already, please renew your membership for 2018 so that you can continue to experience the momentum first-hand. 3
ABM is increasingly well positioned to have a significant positive impact on maternal–child health around the world. I would predict that our organization's next challenges will be different from the ones we've previously tackled and will focus mainly on the delicate balance between our global identity and our local and regional ones. This is a great new challenge for our incoming leaders to have, a direct result of our collective success with the first half of our strategic plan.
In closing, my thanks to each of you around the world, both for your individual commitment and dedication to breastfeeding medicine and for your support of my own contributions to this shared cause. It has been an extraordinary privilege, the opportunity of a lifetime, to have served as President of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.