THE FUTURE OF CVMA: PERTINENT VALUE TO CANADIAN DOCTORS OF VETERINARY MEDICINE : CVMA Committee weekend: Marketing Strategy Workshop — Executive, council and committee meetings

Fifty-eight CVMA members, including council, executive, and committee members, met over the weekend of March 28–29, 2003 to conduct CVMA business. The following is a brief overview. CVMA Marketing Strategy Workshop The CVMA council nominated a Task Force in November 2002, consisting of Drs. Jeanne Lofstedt, Duane Landals, Deb Stark, and Claude Pigeon, to work with a consulting group to develop a marketing strategy to increase CVMA membership satisfaction and numbers. One element of the process was a member, nonmember, and commercial partner survey conducted by the CVMA in conjunction with Delta Media. The survey, which was sent out with the February issue of The Canadian Veterinary Journal (CVJ), elicited more than 1300 responses. Some preliminary outcomes from survey questions were as follows: What does the average survey respondent consider to be an important reason to be a member of the CVMA? (Only the top 4 are listed.) Important for veterinarians to have an effective national voice in Ottawa, and be able to influence public policy (98%). Be part of an association that advances the cause of animal welfare (97%). Be part of a national effort to promote veterinarians and services they offer (97%). Participate in shaping the future of the profession (94%). The survey confirmed that the CVMA is most recognized for its work in conjunction with animal welfare and government relations, as well as for the tangible membership services provided, such as the CVJ, the Annual Convention, and the annual Directory. However, survey results indicate, as well, that there is room for improvement within the provision and promotion of these 5 core services. The survey results also clearly show that the CVMA needs to communicate more effectively with veterinary students — an important undertaking, given the estimate that more than half of the veterinarians who will be practising in the year 2018 have not yet even entered a veterinary college program. It appears that new CVMA services, such as the CVMA National Benchmarking Program, the membership Web site, and the public Web site still need more promotion to encourage members to test their value. The survey results highlighted the varying needs of the different member groups; namely, veterinarians who have been in practice for 6 to 20 years; large animal practitioners; and nonprivate practising veterinarians; as well as students. This may lead the CVMA to consider customizing some products and services to meet the needs of specific membership segments. After the CVMA committees met on the 1st morning of the committee weekend, all committee participants, council, and executive took part in a marketing strategy workshop held in the afternoon. Moderated by Bernard Gauthier, managing partner of Delta Media, the workshop included an overview of the survey itself, as well as the findings. Breakout groups were then assigned the task of discussing the strategic directions proposed for the various member segments and developing possible implementation tactics for those strategies. What are the next steps? The feedback from the Marketing Strategy Workshop will be incorporated in the current analysis. After the Task Force completes the analysis, it will provide strategies to the CVMA executive. Council will review executive's directions at its July meeting. These directions, based on what has been heard from CVMA members and partners, will help to shape the CVMA's long- and short-term plans. Future articles in the CVJ will keep members up-to-date with more details when they are available. CVMA council and executive update On the last morning of the CVMA committee weekend, committee members headed back to their agendas, while the CVMA council and executive held their own discussions. Committee chairs presented a summary of individual committee deliberations during brunch, just prior to the weekend's official closing. Listed below are some highlights of the discussions and decisions made by council and executive. The CVMA's president, Dr. Jeanne Lofstedt, nominated Dr. Bernard Vallee, effective immediately, as chair of the National Issues Committee, and Dr. Bernhard Pukay as chair of the Pet Food Certification Committee, effective January 1, 2004. The CVMA would like to thank the departing chairs, Drs. Rob Ashburner (National Issues) and Lynn Webster (Pet Food Certification) for their dedication and invaluable work. Dr. Alan Hoey has been nominated as host committee chair of the 2005 CVMA Convention in Victoria, British Columbia. Council honoured numerous individuals with awards. Their achievements will be celebrated during the CVMA Annual Convention, specifically at the Awards Presentation Luncheon on Saturday, July 12, 2003, in Winnipeg. Council named Dr. Dan Hurnik as the representative on swine issues and on the Canadian Pork Council. Council approved the following animal welfare position statements: “The Keeping of Native or Exotic Wild Animals as Pets” and “Pest Control.” These statements will be available shortly on www.canadianveterinarians.net Council approved that the CVMA, in conjunction with the national Companion Animal Coalition, create a Code of Practice for Cats. The 2003 Canadian Veterinary Summit will be held on Thursday, July 10, 2003, in Winnipeg. The Summit is the annual meeting of the leadership of the veterinary profession in Canada: it includes the presidents, registrars, and executive directors of the provincial veterinary medical associations; the deans of Canadian veterinary colleges; the CVMA council members; senior government veterinarians; and international guests. The theme of this year's Summit is “Veterinary Education and Lifelong Learning... Focussing on Solutions.” The Summit will be chaired by Dr. Duane Landals, CVMA president-elect. The CVMA has scheduled to launch a student Web site early this summer. CVMA National Benchmarking Program The CVMA is a partner in the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI). Mr. Howard Rubin, Chief Executive Officer of the NCVEI provided a “Train the Trainer” workshop during the committee weekend. With the goal of increasing the amount of data on the CVMA National Benchmarking Program, and, in turn, of making that program more useful to members, Mr. Rubin gave participants a crash course on how to explain the opportunities and benefits of participating in the program to other practice owners. During a plenary session after lunch on the 1st day, Mr. Rubin also presented the potential impact of benchmarking under the theme “Quality patient care requires a sound economic foundation.” More than 4600 veterinary hospitals in the United States and Canada have used the benchmarking and pricing tools. As more Canadian veterinarians use these tools, the more valuable the tools become. Log on to the CVMA Web site at www.canadianveterinarians.net and explore these on-line business tools. The CVMA National Benchmarking Program is scheduled to include tools for equine practices by the fall of 2003, with tools for food animal practices following shortly after. Outcomes of the “Skills, Knowledge, Aptitude, and Attitude” (SKA) study conducted by the NCVEI, which identifies and produces competencies in veterinarians to ensure their economic well-being, will soon be released. Congratulations... An exiting moment of the weekend was the announcement that 2 CVMA members, Drs. Denna Benn, Gordon Doonan, and Gilly Griffin, from the Canadian Council on Animal Care and a member of the CVMA Animal Welfare Committee, had been awarded the Queen's Jubilee medal for their work in animal welfare. CVMA would like to congratulate all 3 for their outstanding dedication to animal welfare. (by Jost am Rhyn, Executive Director, CVMA)

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