Speaker Message #5: Results of the Governance Structure Evaluation

Date: July 10, 2008
Message Priority: High
To:

House of Delegates

HOD Core Function: Governance (Processes for Governing the Profession)
From: Marsha Schofield, MS, RD, LD, Speaker
Subject: Speaker Message #5: Results of the Governance Structure Evaluation

What Do You
Need to Know?

 The HLT has identified a plan for addressing the representation of DPGs within the House of Delegates.
What Do You
Need to Do?		 Understand the plan and next steps so you can respond to member questions/concerns.


Background

  • Following the completion of the HOD electronic dialogue in May 2007 related to HOD governance structure, the HLT identified a plan for proceeding. The HLT took into consideration the dialogue comments from the Fall 2006 HOD Meeting, the feedback received to a survey of current and past delegates, DPG chairs and affiliate presidents conducted in January 2007 and the comments posted during the electronic dialogue conducted in May 2007.
  • The HLT concluded that three common themes re-occurred from the feedback gathered from fall 2006 through spring 2007:
    1. Communication between delegates and members continues to be a challenge.
    2. There appears to be a lack of understanding of various delegate roles.
    3. Rather than create a new structure, the HOD should focus on refining the current structure.
  • In June 2007, HLT established a plan to refine the structure related to PIDs and their relationship with the DPGs. In the past, PIDs were assigned to one or two DPGs depending on previous experiences with a DPG and/or DPG membership. This resulted in some PIDs being assigned to a DPG where they were not familiar with the group or the specific DPG practice issues. In some instances, there was dissatisfaction for the PID and/or DPG which did not foster a collaborative working relationship.
  • The HLT plan focused on no longer appointing PIDs to represent specific DPGs. Rather, the three PIDs for each of the practice areas (clinical, community, consultation and business practice, education, management and research) were asked to collaborate in working with the DPGs.
  • In addition, this refinement was designed to allow DPGs and PIDs to focus completely on mega issues to be discussed by the HOD and to ensure that the content for each issue reflects the knowledge and concerns for various areas of practice.
  • It was agreed that in order to determine if this plan was effective, the PIDs and DPGs were asked to complete two evaluations.
  • These evaluations were conducted in December 2007 and May 2008. The evaluations were designed to identify the impact of the plan.

Results of Evaluations

  • The HOD Leadership Team discussed the May 2008 evaluation results during its June 11, 2008 conference call. As we reflected on the result from this evaluation and the mid-year evaluation conducted in December 2007, HLT realized that the changes in governance structure implemented this past year have had mixed success.
  • HLT also understood that change takes time and new processes often need to be refined in an effort to meet the desired outcomes.
  • Ultimately, the HLT agreed that this current structure does not meet the needs of the House of Delegates, PIDs and DPGs.
  • Therefore, a workgroup within the HLT has been formed to develop a new proposal for DPG representation within the House of Delegates.
  • The workgroup consists of Ethan Bergman, Speaker-elect, Jody Vogelzang, HOD Director (previous PID and DPG chair) and Rita Grandgenett (previous PID and DPG chair).

Next Steps

  • This workgroup will present its ideas to the full HLT by September 2008. Based on our discussions, a new plan for proceeding in the future will be shared with you in October or November 2008. Please keep in mind that any changes to the governance structure will need to be discussed and approved by the House of Delegates prior to implementation. Also, any approved changes may take several years to fully implement.
  • At present, HLT will continue with the current governance structure and will be promoting more opportunities for interaction and collaboration between the PIDs and DPGs. While HLT examine different representative structures, we encourage the PIDs to continue their efforts to robustly represent practice in the House of Delegates.
  • Watch for further updates in the coming months.
For More Information or Assistance
Contact Marsha Schofield at mschofield@schd.org or 330/926-5661 or Harold Holler at hholler@eatright.org or 800/877-1600, ext. 4896.