President’s Message

Annual Leadership Retreat

By Shirley Gentilini, MSW, LCSW

In June, board members, regional and unit leaders, members from the New Professional Network (NPN) and I attended the annual Leadership Retreat held in San Francisco. At this yearly event social workers come together, socialize and share success stories as well as concerns and challenges for those in leadership roles.

With the goal of providing excellent services to members, outgoing leaders and current leaders shared their experiences with the incoming leaders. These newly elected leaders also shared their concerns and discussed what is important to them in their region. They sought advice on what they could do to improve participation from members. Seeking advice from others is a great opportunity to network and learn new techniques on how to make leadership run more smoothly.

You, as a member, may want to inform the leaders in your area of any ideas that you have to improve NASW. In addition your questions and concerns can also be shared with Janlee Wong. Janlee has been the California chapter Executive Director for 19 years; he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and understanding of NASW and keeps the members informed of the expectations of the National chapter of NASW. Janlee is always readily available to speak with members and answer their questions and concerns. He has a very capable staff who can provide information to members.

Janlee interacted with the participants and gave a very informative slide show presentation which demonstrated how the California chapter works with the National chapter. When Janlee showed a map of the various regions, we saw how each region has its challenges. Some regions are very large and reaching out to members can present a challenge. One method of providing contact in a particular region is through the local unit meetings or workshops. However, many regions cover a large territory and attending unit meetings or workshops may be difficult.

Another way to reach members is using Facebook and the NASW webpage and newsletter to inform members about events happening in their locality and ways they may choose to become involved.

One topic which always seems to surface is membership. Leaders would like to learn how to reach out to current members and encourage them to become active in their local unit or regional activities. Another concern is how to enlist social workers to become NASW members?”

As we know, social workers who are employed in a variety of fields join NASW for a number of reasons. I joined because I wanted to belong to NASW — an organization that professionalized social work. Starting at the local unit and later serving on the board gave me the privilege of meeting social workers from all over California. I learned more about the various areas of social work from them and appreciated and valued their expertise and experience.

Coming from a variety of positions, we social workers like to share what we do in our chosen field of work. To name a few, some of us are educators, some are clinicians, and others work with children. Some work with the older population. Others work in the medical field.  Some social workers work in the legal field and others dedicate their skills to advocacy, policy and research.

As a profession, social workers bring knowledge, training, and determination and enthusiasm to their work. However, often they may find themselves stressed as they work to advocate for their clients who face many challenges and difficulties. In addition, heavy caseloads often contribute to stress.

At the retreat we learned some techniques on how to recognize stress and how to take better care of ourselves. One highlight of this retreat was the guest speaker, Ron Culberson, MSW, CSP. After working several years as a hospice social worker and manager, Ron began a new career as a speaker, coach, humorist and author. He shared how to use humor to lighten the difficult work that social workers may be involved in on a daily basis. He emphasized that there is more to humor than a punchline and that, when coupled with a foundation of excellence, humor can help us manage stress, reduce conflict, become more creative, improve problem solving and ultimately achieve a higher level of productivity and contentment in life and work. Ron has written three books. One is Do It Well and Make It Fun. His website is www.RonCulberson.com if you would like to learn more about his work.

Members who attended this retreat shared how they enjoyed having the opportunity to learn, have fun, and meet new members as well as reconnect with former colleagues. At the board of directors meeting we said goodbye and thanked those members leaving us. It is always bittersweet to say goodbye to those who are leaving. As board members, they have worked hard and may feel sad to leave. However, usually once board members have held a leadership position, they often return in another capacity where they bring their experience and dedication to NASW. For example, Catharine Ralph, president-elect; Joni Diamond, vice president of membership; Jennifer Tinsley, secretary; and Kurt Wellman, Region E director, were former board members who will now serve on the current board.

For those of you who want to become involved and have ideas of ways to improve the organization, I encourage you to let your leaders know. Having once been new leaders, they may understand your hesitation but will be glad to have your help. Maybe you want to volunteer on the local or state or national level. NASW will benefit and grow stronger as social workers bring their knowledge and experience to the organization. You may be the one who is needed. This is especially true to our newer professionals; your ideas, input, values and expertise are needed and will be appreciated.

Remember social work’s core values are advocacy and service. NASW is our professional organization, and a strong membership gives us power to fight for those issues we social workers believe in for a better society. We need a resilient organization that can support professional development and develop sound social policies.