What Our President Does

Without a doubt the first concern of the president is to maintain a smooth running organization, using the membership for support and counsel-also called delegating. The Chapter Operations Manual provided by the Mended Hearts national office covers this in more detail and includes annual reports to National and staying up to date with National policies.

The manual says the president presides at meetings, but it doesn’t say what to do when I arrive at the meeting 15 minutes early and discover the food hasn’t arrived yet. Chapter 179 is unique in that the President needs to be aware of the hospital procedures. Rooms need to be reserved 12 months in advance, food needs to be ordered two weeks in advance. These involve hospital staff and the president needs to identify key administrative staff members for support in case things don’t happen as expected.

Each month I write the “President’s Message” for the newsletter and the agenda for the executive board meeting, and then run the board meeting, where the business of the chapter is conducted. The membership meetings mostly involve welcoming and then turning it over to the speaker.

It is very important that the president be involved as a volunteer in the cardiac rehab facility. Space at Jersey Shore is scarce, and the space given to the chapter for the visiting program equipment and the newsletter mailing is protected by the volunteer activities that run parallel to the Mended Hearts needs. Sometimes it’s hard to separate the work for Mended Hearts from the work done as a volunteer. It’s important to maintain good relations with cardiac rehab at all levels of administration-in case anything needs top-level attention.

The President should also be a patient visitor, attend training meetings, and understand all of the necessary procedures to accomplish this. The president should also represent the chapter at American Heart Association activities, particularly the heart walk.

One job I do that’s not part of the president’s duties is folding and labeling the chapter newsletter for mailing, including maintaining the mailing lists of patients who have been visited and hospital administrators. Chapter members help, but I take charge because that’s the only way to be sure it gets done. It’s one job that hasn’t been delegated.

The president’s library should include a copy of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum.