Benefits For Your Profession:

Volunteer opportunities are listed in the following categories:

1. Communities of Practice Facilitators
2. Component State Association and Local Associations
3. National Committee and Task Force Appointments
4. National Elected Positions and Nomination Forms

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) strives to reflect in its membership and leadership the diversity within the United States, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, special needs, and other diverse populations. The Association encourages the celebration and promotion of diversity through education, mentoring, recognition, leadership, and other programs. Volunteers are expected to disclose conflicts and dualities of interest.

1. Communities of Practice Facilitators: AHIMA launched the Communities of Practice in October 2001, and it is the latest in technology for member networking, interaction, sharing of information, and access to resources and references.  Please visit www.ahima.org , login to myAHIMA and click on CoP often.

   Get involved in this exciting expedition by being a Facilitator.  Volunteer for the CoP you frequent the most or propose a new CoP.  If you are interested in an existing Community or would like to propose a new Community, consider being a Facilitator.

   Are you?:

   • Proactive
   • Responsive
   • Self-sufficient, yet willing to use resources when available
   • Flexible
   • Personable

   A Facilitator’s main job is to monitor activity within the Community, encourage member participation, and organize Community events (whether virtual or face-to-face), by viewing the page every few days. Several facilitators can share facilitator responsibilities.

   Some of the duties of a Facilitator are:

   1. Starting discussions—whether you know of an issue and post it, start a new thread that's important, or add to the discussion from time to time, it’s the Facilitator’s job to keep things interesting and moving. You’ll also monitor discussion threads and contact Community experts to respond to messages (when necessary).
      
      
   2. Polling Community members—here’s your chance to draft and pose the questions, and set schedules for polls.  Members love to participate.  (They have opinions, too, after all.)  And they’ll submit ideas to you for their own polls.  All in all, it will make your page more interesting.
      
      
   3.  Ensuring up-to-date content—is there a news item that’s come and gone or an event that has changed its agenda?  It’s the Facilitator’s job to make sure the page is current.
      
      
   4. Keeping an eye on Community Links—you will need to verify accuracy and review appropriateness of links submitted, noting that links should be information-based and not promotional.  (The Facilitator is the ultimate judge.) Plus, as a key Community expert, the Facilitator searches for appropriate Web site links to add.
      
      
   5. Making sure member questions are answered—not every question posted in the discussion forum is answered by another member.  The Facilitator needs to keep an eye on the questions and contribute answers and comments, especially if no one else has done so.
      
      
   6. Coordinating member communication—by sending e-mail blasts, recruiting experts to answer questions, moderating chats, and so one
      
      
   7. Identifying and utilizing experts—within the field covered by your Community, there are well-known “official” experts as well as highly knowledgeable individuals (certain to be members of your Community) whom you will come to know. Make a list of these experts and have it ready to consult in handling special questions, in making quick replies, and generally keeping your Community lively and on track.
      
      
   8. Scheduling and hosting chat sessions—you can do a lot to make the Chat With Peers function of the Community web page productive and engaging.  This sometimes means picking topics, scheduling when chats will take place, and hosting. Without your “priming,” chatting may become inactive.
      
      
   9. Managing and organizing Community Resources—when these documents come in from members, it ’s the Facilitator ’s job to view and approve before publishing them..
      
      
   10. Planning face-to-face Community events—though many Community events will take place on the Internet (for example, a busy chat session), others will involve face-to-face meetings between members requiring organization by Facilitators.
       
       
   11. Collecting Frequently Asked Questions—Collect from members and develop answers. This may include using other functions to collect FAQ questions and answers.

   If you are interested in becoming a Facilitator for an existing Community of Practice, please contact Pam Garcia, at pamela.garcia@ahima.org, or if you want to be a Facilitator of a Community that has not been suggested yet, please use the icon on the tool bar “Suggest a Community” and complete the electronic form.

2. Component State Association (CSA) and Local Associations:

   Your CSA has opportunities on the state and local associations. The full range of elected and appointed positions, such as president, directors, delegates, and project coordinators are just a link away.  Most of the terms of office start July 1 through June 30.  The list of CSA contacts are located at http://www.ahima.org/directory/csa.asp

3. National Committee and Task Force Appointments:

   Most national appointments are made on an annual basis by the AHIMA President-elect and may have one year or multiple year terms. These appointments are generally made in late Summer for the next calendar year.  The names of volunteers that are not appointed to national committees or task forces during a given year will be kept on file for other opportunities and future appointments. If you are interested in any of the following units, please send your name, area of expertise, interests, and resume to Pamela Garcia:

   pamela.garcia@ahima.org or fax: (312) 233-1462. 

   • Annual Convention Program Committee - Develops the national convention program.
   • Community of Practice Advisory Task Force - Establishes and oversees policy for Community of Practice operations.
   • CSA Advisory Task force - Strengthens the federation model, ensure succession of volunteer leadership and implement CSA profile and next affiliation agreement.
   • Fellowship Review Committee - Committee reviews fellowship applications and designate individuals for fellowship/distinguished awards and candidacy.  Volunteer must be an AHIMA Fellow.
   • FORE Board of Directors - Facilitates the gift program, corporate donations, and research initiatives.
   • FORE Research Committee - Defines the Association research agenda and determines available grants and scholarships.
   • FORE Triumph Awards Committee, members are appointed during the Winter Team Talks (selects the recipients of the Triumph Awards.)
   • HIM Education Strategy Committee (recommends strategic direction to further the goal of a strong academic base in HIM)

   • Practice Council:  Clinical Terminology and Classification - Monitor the changes related to clinical terminology and classification that are going on in today’s healthcare industry.

   • Practice Council:  Electronic Health Record - Advise and provide AHIMA with expertise related to health information practices in an electronic environment.

   • Practice Council:  Health Information Exchange - Advise and provide AHIMA with expertise related to best practice of health information exchange.
   • Practice Council:  Long Term Care - Advise and provide AHIMA with expertise related to best practices of health information management roles and functions in long term care environment.
   • Practice Council:  Personal Health Record - Advise and provide AHIMA with expertise related to best practices of health information management roles and functions in personal health record.
   • Practice Council:  Physician Practice:  Advise and provide AHIMA with expertise related to best practices of health information management roles and functions in physician practices.
   • Practice Council:  Privacy and Security -Focus on the knowledge and skills needed by HIM professionals in the area.
   • Practice Council:  Quality Initiatives and Secondary Data - Advise AHIMA of the issues and HIM best practices and functions in the quality domain. 
   • Professional Ethics Committee - Interprets the Code of Ethics and reviews ethic complaints against members and credentialed nom-members).
   • Virtual Lab Strategic Advisory Committee - Oversee the development and ongoing maintenance of the AHIMA Virtual Lab.
4. AHIMA Elected Positions and Nominations Forms -Application to Serve