Spotlight on Chapter Services

It is the members and leaders of each local chapter that make the NYSCHP what it is. The more of us there are, the larger the impact we can have. And good news… we’re growing! There are more people like you joining the Council every year – As of September 2017, there were 1,766 members in our great organization, a 20% increase from the same time last year. Thank you for all your hard work! A large portion of our membership is composed of student-members. Our leadership has made a concerted effort to better tie students into the Council: they are now being integrated into all NYSCHP committees! Not only are they serving on Council committees, but they now have a committee of their own. We are confident that this will not only help to actively engage students in the Council, but will also positively impact what we do as an organization. Students are, without question, our organization’s future.

The NYSCHP’s membership committee recently collaborated with the Council office to establish geographic boundaries for the nine local chapters. This initiative was undertaken to help the local chapters better understand the regions they serve and to help current and prospective members identify where they can best connect (see http://www.nyschp.org/chapters). While we’ve been drawing barriers, the CCC has been busy breaking them down through their distance learning initiatives: they are striving to provide “cross-chapter” online continuing education programming to all NYSCHP members. This should help us better serve our members, particularly those that reside in the more rural areas of New York State. This may also help us reach individuals in those regions that were previously unable to connect with the Council.

In an effort to improve new member recruitment, the Council added an institutional membership option this past year. This program, which provides all the benefits of active membership at a reduced cost on a per member basis, has been a great success! If you’d like more information, please contact the Council office at [email protected]. The Council also expanded eligibility for the pledge membership to permit pharmacists who have not been an active member for the past three years, and to permit those that held resident membership during the past year, to join via this route. These changes were made to give previous members an opportunity to experience the “new and improved” NYSCHP and to provide pharmacy residency graduates with a low-risk avenue to experience all the Council has to offer first-hand. It is our hope that this initiative will improve recruitment of future leaders to this organization. If you know someone who used to be a member, or if you interact with Residency Program Directors and/or pharmacy residents, please pass the news along – thanks! That said, recruiting new members is great, but we are striving to provide value to our current members so all have a reason to remain a member year after year. If you want to better connect with the Council, or know someone who does, ask your local chapter leadership about the NYSCHP Ambassador Program – this is just one way we are trying to provide you, as a member of the Council, with what it is you’ve told us you want.


Bill Prescott
Director, Chapter Services