Welcome to Summer!  It will officially be here on Thursday, but I think many of us have already experienced summer temperatures and storms.  I hope that you have plans for some fun and relaxation during the summer months.  We all need to recharge ourselves to better serve our members!  Send us some pictures of your summer fun!  

Summer time is also a time to catch up – catch up with friends and family – and time to catch up on projects.  NCHN is catching up on some annual housekeeping tasks and we need your help!  Thanks to the 43 members that have submitted your 2013 dues assessment form.  If you that have not yet submitted the form, please do so today, so that we can mark that off our summer to do list.  Thanks a bunch!  

Also, Committee sign-ups are still open – we need you – so please take a few minutes to sign up for a committee and become involved with NCHN and your peers through committee work. 

And I know – we are surveying you all a lot, but we really need the feedback as we continue making plans for activities and events for 2013-2014, so please take a few minutes and complete a couple more short specific surveys and give us your feedback:  

• Coffee/Tea Chats Survey – we would love to hear from you about your preference of time and day: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2013-2014CoffeeTeaChats  
• Membership Benefit Survey – we are also seeking input about NCHN Membership Benefits:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2013MembershipBenefitsSurvey 

We really appreciate your input.  Thanks for taking the time to let us know your thoughts and needs.  

The HCAHPS Webinar Series started on June 11.  The session was excellent!  If you have hospitals as members of your network and you have not taken advantage of this program, I encourage you to take another look at it!  It is a wonderful educational series on HCAHPS and how to assist the hospital to increase their scores.  You can read more about the program here or give me or Christy a call at 540-352-2529 if you would like to discuss. 

This month we have also welcomed a new organizational member – TORCH (Texas Organization of Rural Community Hospitals).  We are happy to add TORCH and David Pearson, CEO to the NCHN Community. You can find out more about TORCH here.   For those of you that were able to participate on the Quarterly Informational Call on Monday, you heard from David about the work that he is doing with his members in the area of advocacy and education.  David shared with us the 6 T’s of why he feels advocacy work by network leaders is important and what it brings to your network organization - Visibility, Credibility, Loyalty, Security, Stability, and Affordability.  For those of you unable to make the call, we will be distributing Maggie Elehwany, NRHA slides, along with a summary of Dave’s comments. 

Maggie invited rural health networks to create a unified message – “An investment in rural health:

• Protects patients;
• Protects the rural economy; and
• Protects taxpayers.”

Some highlights or facts that Maggie shared with us about rural health are:

• 62 million Americans rely on rural health providers
• 20% of the population lives in rural America, yet they are scattered over 90% of her landmass
• Only 9% of physicians practice in rural America
• Health care is the fasting growing segment of the rural economy
• In most rural communities, the hospital is the first or second largest employer
• The Federal investment in rural hospitals benefits both the rural patient and the tax payer.  In fact, rural hospitals provide care for 18 percent of all inpatient, outpatient and long-term Medicare patients, yet receive only 15 percent of Medicare expenditures. 

NCHN will be starting a grassroots advocacy group, Champions for Rural Health Networks, to look at implementing some of the strategies suggested by both Maggie and David.  If you are interested in participating in the group please let me know.

New fiscal year, new beginnings, that’s the cycle NCHN just entered!  In 2011 we changed our fiscal year to May – April, so this is the first month of our new fiscal year for 2013-2014. The beginning of a new year brings lots of activity – new Directors and Officers, dues assessments, reformation of committees, new work plans, and new partners. We are very excited about our new partnership with Custom Learning Systems, which is providing the HCAHPS Breakthrough Webinar series to NCHN members at a huge discount. I'm anxious to hear from you about that! The announcement went out last week and there is still time to sign up for the program. 

A special thanks to the NCHN members that stepped forward to serve as officers and directors for 2013.  The Association is grateful for their leadership and willingness to lead us over the next year.  The Board held their annual retreat and reviewed what has been accomplished in the past three years and made plans for the upcoming year.  This group of Directors decided to implement a short, one-year work plan with some specific outcome measures for our accomplishments this year.  Of course, they will lead the charge to continue some of our established activities, such as the Annual Educational Conference, Leadership Summit and formation of a new Leadership Learning Community, Coffee/Tea Chats, Executive Coaching, and Quarterly Informational Calls to name just a few. 

We will also look at expanding our Business Partners Program and bringing you more opportunities to interact and more frequent updates.  The Board also established three primary tasks that they are committed to seeing accomplished this year.  Those include:  the development, field testing and implementation of an on-line “Tools and Strategies for Managing Health Networks Tool Chest” which will also include an on-line Network Leader Handbook.; launching of the RHNR Consulting Group, which will provide experienced network leaders to provide individualized services to networks; and the development and field testing of Evidence-Based Outcomes for Networks.  We need baseline measures for evaluation and reporting the value, worth and importance of health networks to the overall healthcare delivery system.  The Board will be finalized the plan on their June call and details will be distributed to members later this summer.

So, stop reading and jump into the new NCHN year by doing the following (if you haven’t already):

• Complete your 2013 dues assessment form
• Sign up for 2013 Committees and Task Forces
• Look over our current Business Partners and if you have suggestions for different types of services or products that you need to manage your network and/or your members need, let us know.
• Complete your on-line profile – you will be receiving additional information about this. NCHN’s strength is in its membership and the on-line profile tool that was incorporated into our new website is a much underutilized tool – let’s take advantage of that tool and start making connections with your peers. 

Enjoy the rest of spring and take time to stop and admire the beautiful flowers at this time of year.  If you need anything, we are only an email or phone call away! 

Whew! Where did April go?  I know, finalizing the details for the 19th NCHN Annual Educational Conference – All that Jazz! In fact, some of you may be reading today’s eNews while waiting for your flight!  I left my house yesterday at about 5:00 AM to travel to New Orleans and am here waiting for you all! 

The Conference is going to be outstanding, again.  I would like to thank the members of the 2013 Conference Planning Committee for an outstanding job.  Under the direction of Chris Hopkins, NCHN Vice President, they have put together an amazing event. Watch for updates and photos from the conference on the National Cooperative of Health Networks Facebook page and Twitter feed on the NCHN website.  Christy will be keeping those of you that were unable to make it updated.

We also have a first for NCHN.  Thanks to our Silver Business Partner, Virtual Care Works, Inc., we will be broadcasting Jessica Lipnack’s keynote address live on Wednesday morning, April 17 at approximately 9:15 AM CT.  You should have received an invitation to listen in last week.  If you did not receive an invitation and would like to listen to the presentation, please download the flyer (pdf) for details.

The 2013 NCHN Awards will be announced on Wednesday during the 5th Annual Awards Luncheon.  Watch for an announcement later this week of the award winners. You can view past award winners here.

Safe travels to those of you traveling into New Orleans! 

Oh my, did you realize there are only 29 days until we meet in New Orleans for the 2013 NCHN Annual Educational Conference – All that Jazz!  If you haven’t registered already and secured your room, I recommend you hop to it!  Thanks to Christy, details are provided elsewhere in the eNews or you can access directly at the NCHN website. Also, if you have not taken a look at the 2013 Conference webpage - please take a minute to do so.  It includes lots of information to assist you in preparing for your journey to New Orleans, along with a listing of our Conference Sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers. These companies and individuals help make the annual event possible.  

I would like to thank the members of the 2013 Annual Conference Planning Committee, under the direction of Chris Hopkins, NCHN Vice President for the great work they have completed in putting together an outstanding conference agenda!  We are so excited to have Jessica Lipnack, CEO and co-founder of NetAge, as our opening session speaker.  NetAge provides expertise and tools that allow their clients to collaborate more effectively in virtual teams, cross-boundary organizations, and networks. Watch for a special email notice about Jessica and her presentation in New Orleans. 

Also, I would like to encourage you to register for the pre-conference workshop that will be on Tuesday, April 16.  There are still a few spaces left in “Got Outcomes? What’s Your Evidence?”  session. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their own examples during the second half of the workshop with individualized assistance from the presenters, Dr. Gwen Martin and Becky Melzer.  Martin and Melzer have collaborated on numerous projects over the past eight years. They bring energy, insight, and common sense to the often-misunderstood elements of program evaluation and research. We all know that networks have outcomes and after participating in this workshop, network leaders will be creating and incorporating appropriate evidence-based outcome measures for their organizations. 

And, lastly, related to the conference, but also an exciting first – NCHN is offering a small lodging scholarship to a first time attendee at the 2013 event.  Details are included in this edition – so if you have never attended a NCHN conference and was thinking about attending this year and need a little extra incentive and support, this is for you.  Deadline to apply for the Lodging Scholarship is Friday, March 29, so be sure and apply today!  We thank our conference hotel, Omni Royal Orleans for providing this assistance. 

Other upcoming NCHN membership activities to be aware of – watch for details about the 2013 Annual Membership Meeting and election of Directors to the NCHN Board. Members that are unable to attend the Annual Membership Meeting can still participate in the process by returning your proxy voting instrument that will be included with the notice for the Annual Membership Meeting.  These will arrive to NCHN members in a separate email.  Also, coming soon to NCHN members’ email box – your organization’s 2013-2014 dues assessments. As a reminder, NCHN changed its fiscal year to May – April, so dues assessments will be sent out by the end of March.  2013-2014 dues will be payable after April 1. 

See you in New Orleans! 

The National Cooperative of Health Networks Association is pleased to accept nominations for the 5^th Annual NCHN Awards Program. The Awards Program is designed to honor outstanding individuals and organizations in the field of health networks. The 5^th Annual Awards Luncheon will be held at the 2013 NCHN Annual Educational Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Act now to nominate your favorite health network leader and/or organization so that that they might be known and honored nationally for dedicating their professional life, expertise, time and talent to providing and improving the health services of their network members. Entry deadline is March 15, 2013.

Any NCHN member can submit nominations for the NCHN Awards Program. You can nominate yourself or a colleague. If you have any questions about the NCHN Awards Program, please contact Rebecca J. Davis at rdavis@nchn.org or 970-712-0732.

Awards presentation and recognition

NCHN will host an Awards Banquet Luncheon in honor of the NCHN Award winners at the 2013 NCHN Annual Educational Conference. At the luncheon, the awardees will be recognized before the conference participants, which will include their peers, government officials and guests. The 2013 Awards Luncheon will be at The Omni Royal Orleans Hotel on Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Awardees will receive the opportunity to make a three-to-five minute acceptance speech. The Award winner will receive one guest banquet luncheon ticket. Additional banquet passes can be purchased at the rate of $50.00 each. Awardees will receive coverage in NCHN e-News and a plaque or award appropriate for display. Additionally, a national press release will be issued by the NCHN announcing the winners. Awardees and their organizations are requested to respect the right of the NCHN to be the first to announce program winners.

Award categories

Outstanding Network Leader of the Year

The NCHN’s Outstanding Network Leader of the Year Award recognizes a network leader for leadership in managing a successful health network organization. The Network Leader Award is meant to be inclusive of all types of health networks, alliances, collaboratives, and consortiums. The network leader must have been in the position for at least five years.

Factors taken into consideration include:

• providing outstanding leadership,
• involvement of the network members,
• long-term sustainability of the network,
• active participation in the networks’ service community, and
• lasting contributions to the overall health care system of the area.

The nominee’s work should expand beyond the local community and have a demonstrated effect on health networks at state and national levels.

Outstanding Health Network of the Year

The Outstanding Health Network of the Year Award recognized any network or entire network organization that has improved access to health services in its service area and coordination of resources for network members through innovate, comprehensive approaches.

Factors considered include:

• coordination of services with other health care agencies to avoid duplication of services,
• networking and collaboration with other health care entities to achieve common goals,
• innovation in development and implementation of services, 
• leadership, outreach, education, quality and efficiency of care,
• strong network support from members served, and
• lasting impact on populations and areas served by the network.

Outstanding New & Emerging Network Leader of the Year

The Outstanding New & Emerging Network Leader of the Year Award recognizes extraordinary leadership activities demonstrated by a new network leader/director in the field of health networks (network leader less than five years). Candidates nominated for this award will have displayed a vested interest in improving health networks and will have demonstrated an ability to work towards this improvement.

Efforts may include:

• developing and implementing new program services for the network members,
• educational or promotional activities of the network,
• significant achievements in network development,
• unique approaches to identifying or meeting needs of network members, and
• commitment of time/effort to the sustainability and long-term viability of the network.

Friend of NCHN

The Friend of NCHN Award is given to recognize an individual, program, institution, or agency, that has advocated for or provided extraordinary support to the Association.

Application Process

An application form must be completed and returned to NCHN by March 15, 2013. The applications will be reviewed by the Selection Committee, which is comprised of former NCHN Award winners.  

For more information, contact Rebecca J. Davis at rdavis@nchn.org or 970-712-0732. 

Link: Complete the Nomination Form online

To know where we are going, sometimes we have to look back over where we have been and review what we have learned along the way.  Everyone says that 2013 is going to be a year of change for the healthcare industry...more change than what we have seen and experienced over the past couple of years? 

For NCHN, we are looking at change and considering how we can do it in a positive manner and for the betterment of the Association. Sometimes we can and sometimes we just have to accept the change and move along.  As Network Leaders, you are also dealing with change and I am reminded of the saying,  "The only thing that is for certain is that there will be change!” We must constantly adapt.

So, today I would like to share some changes here at NCHN.

First of all, we are discussing the option of moving the NCHN Weekly Digest to a biweekly publication vs. the weekly you currently receive each Tuesday morning.  In reviewing the history of why we started the Weekly Digest, it ties directly to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.  We were receiving numerous notices and updates about the new law and we were passing them along so often that we started hearing "Enough is enough. Quit sending out so many emails each week – put them into a weekly report or something!”  We listened and thus on August 9, 2010 the NCHN Weekly Digest was launched.  Over the course of the past two years the readership of the Weekly Digest and month eNews has averaged about 25% of the folks receiving it actually opening it. Of course, we don't know who is actually reading it!  We started tracking the open rates by groups and are happy to report that since October 2012 the open rate among NCHN members has increased to an average of 37.3%. 

So, tell us: is it time for another change with the NCHN electronic publication?  Would you the members and our guests that read the Weekly be just as happy with a bi-weekly publication?  And maybe a quarterly eNews vs. the current monthly eNews publication?  Is this a change that NCHN should make, or should we leave things the same?  You tell us – please send your comments and thoughts to either Rebecca or Christy. We would love to hear from you!  And we might even buy a cup of coffee or tea for someone that sends us their thoughts.  

Other changes in 2013

Board of Directors:
Each year, a number of seats on the NCHN Board of Directors are open for elections. This year we have four Director positions that are open for elections.  Board Directors are elected by you the membership!  But in order to be elected, folks must submit their name and the required information that is discussed later in this newsletter.  We are looking for a few good Network Leaders to step forward and submit their names for consideration to serve as a Director of NCHN.  Please take a minute and think about who would be a great Director for leading NCHN into the future – and if it is you, please do not hesitate to nominate yourself today! 

Challenge to you for a change in 2013
Each month, NCHN offers a Coffee/Tea Chat with Dr. Chess.  I challenge you to reserve and protect this time on your busy calendars and begin participating in this membership benefit in 2013.  This is your time – do it for yourself and for the good of your network.  This is the one opportunity, once a month, that you can connect with your peers across the nation, share you successes and challenges, ask for support, comfort and feel the love of other Network Leaders for the work you are doing.  Take advantage of this opportunity. The next Coffee/Tea Chat is on Wednesday, February 13 @ 12:30 PM ET.  More details are so located below. 

Two More Changes in 2013: 
After much discussion and research on membership dues of other comparable national professional membership organizations, review of finances and long range planning for the Association, the NCHN Board of Directors voted to increase NCHN dues by 10% for the 2013-3014 year.  Over the years - almost 19 now - NCHN membership dues had only increased once before and that was in 2005.  The new dues policy approved by your Board of Directors is as follows:

• The NCHN network membership dues will increased, effective May 1, 2013 by 10% across the three current dues categories for our current members, resulting in the following dues structure:
  • Less than $250,000 – increased from $500 to $550
  • $250,000 - $500,000 – increased from $750 to $825
  • Over $500,000 – increased from $1,000 to $1,100
• Any new members accepted will follow the new dues structure and their dues will be prorated for the remaining months of 2012-2013 fiscal year.
• NCHN fiscal year is May – April and the 2013-2014 dues assessments will be conducted in the spring of 2013. 
• New process for determining dues:  “NCHN annual dues are determined by the member organization’s most recent fiscal year’s operating expenses, as reported on their 990 form and/or other Internal Revenue Service reporting format, including expenditures for all programs, services, including programs supported by grant funds, and any additional companies that are under the management of the parent organization.” 

And now, a change that I am not looking forward to in 2013! 
Synernet, one of our founding members, has provided NCHN with Administrative Assistant Services since our inception back in 1995.  I am sad to report that at the end of this month that arrangement will be ending.  What this means to NCHN as an Association and to you as members is that Debbie Comeau will no longer be working with NCHN. I, along with the NCHN Directors & Officers thank Debbie for her service and years of dedication to NCHN.  We wish her the best and will miss her at NCHN events! 

Rebecca J. Davis, Ph.D.
Executive Director

This post was originally posted in the January 2013 issue of the NCHN e-News.

NCHN is a membership organization and thus is governed by a Board of Directors that is elected by the membership. Serving as a Director of NCHN is an excellent opportunity to expand your leadership skills, interact on a regular basis with your peers, and give back to the Association!

In preparation for the 2013 NCHN Annual Membership Meeting, which will be held during the 19th Annual Educational Conference in New Orleans, LA, April 16-19, 2013, we are seeking nominations and recommendations of persons interested in serving as a Director. At the Annual Membership Meeting, the membership will be voting on a slate of directors. The term will be for three years, April 2013 - April 2016. The current number of board members is nine (9) and up to four (4) directors will be elected.

The By-Laws state that “Each director shall be a natural person and shall be an employee of or otherwise affiliated with a Voting Member and that no compensation shall be paid to directors by the association.” The powers of the Directors are also outlined in the By-Laws, “Except as reserved to the members by law, by the Certificate of Incorporation or by these Bylaws, all business of the Association shall be managed by and be under the direction of the board of directors, who shall have and may exercise all of the powers of the Association.”

The Board meets approximately four times a year: two - three times by conference call and once or twice face-to-face. The face-to-face meetings are held before, during and/or after the Annual Educational Conference and maybe in conjunction with another national meeting during the year. Arrangements are made for Directors that cannot attend the face-to-face meeting to participate by conference call. The conference calls are approximately 90 minutes. The 2013 Annual Board Retreat will be held before the beginning of the 2013 Annual Educational Conference, on Tuesday afternoon, April 16, 2013 from 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM. All potential Directors listed on the 2013 ballot must attend the 2013 Board Retreat in New Orleans on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

The Board of Directors approved eligibility criteria to serve on the NCHN Board in March 2010. If you meet the following criteria and are interested in being considered as a candidate for a Director’s seat on the Board, please send the following to rdavis@nchn.org

• an email expressing your interest in serving NCHN as a Director that includes the following information:
  • a brief description of your network experience and your service to NCHN, e.g., Committee Service, Annual Conference and/or Leadership Summit attendance; presenter at Conference or Summit; presenter and/or participant on membership and special interest calls; responses to questions posted on the list serve; participation in Executive Coaching Program; member of the BULLS or Transformer Leadership Learning Community, utilization of Business Partners, etc.; and
  • a statement of why you are interesting in serving on the Board of Directors that includes any special skills, knowledge or ability that you would bring to the Board.

Eligibility criteria for candidates seeking election to the Board of Directors:

• Network organization must have been member of NCHN for at least two (2) years
• Candidate for a Director position must have served at least two (2) years on NCHN committee(s).
• Acceptance of the Vice President position should be considered a commitment to moving up to the President’s position the following year
• If the current President does not have time left on their term; they will serve as an ex-officio director of the board in the position of Immediate Past President

Letters of interest with the above outlined information should be received by the end of the day on Friday, February 15, 2013 and should be sent to rdavis@nchn.org

Fall is in the air – I’ve gone from sleeveless tops to long sleeve t-shirts for our daily morning walks with the girls.  And for those of you that don’t know who the girls are, that Hattie and Lacey our two Great Pyrenees.  On the Coffee/Tea Chats, Dr. Chess, urges us to take time and care of ourselves, so that we can go about doing the work of networks.  Since instituting the daily early morning walks with the girls, I will have to admit that it has helped me in many ways – it gets me up and moving and helps me log 15-20 minutes of walking every day; fresh air and beautiful scenery is a great way to start the day; and love the great company – my husband and dogs!  One of the biggest joys each morning is watching Hattie (left) and Lacey (right) express their excitement as they run through the house for the front door to get their leashes on to go for a walk!  I hope all your board members react that way when it comes to their involvement in your network! 

NCHN’s network organizations are only as strong as the leadership – and you are the leader!  If you do not have a routine in place to take care of yourself, then I encourage you to develop one, make it a habit, and share with us what you are doing, along with some photos for the website. I think all of the regular participants on the Coffee/Tea Chats have a mental image of one member that is always moving during the chat!

Speaking of taking time for yourself and taking care of yourself, if you have not considered attending the 2012 NCHN Leadership Summit next month, this would be a great place to begin taking care of yourself!  The Leadership Summit will be the one place where you can meet with your peers and colleagues from across the country and feel at ease discussing your most pressing leadership challenge and/or sharing your best leadership strategy.  There is still time, barely, to get your room reservation at the special NCHN rate – and register for the Summit. 

The 2012 Leadership Summit Committee has prepared an outstanding event.  Details are included within this newsletter and are also posted on the NCHN website.

• Encouragement to those of you that have not completed your profile on the new NCHN website. If you haven’t visited the site, please take a few minutes to explore the resources available to you as a Network Leader. One of the new components of the site is the network profile section. This is an excellent networking tool to help you better connect with your colleagues. 
• The formatting and editing of the submissions received to the call for “Best Practice Models/Success Stories/Lessons Learned are underway and will soon be available for viewing on both the NCHN website and the RAC (Rural Assistance Center) website.  Watch for details on how to access these learning tools in a September Weekly Digest. 
• Second Orientation Call – Thursday, September 6 – details are included in this newsletter.
• September Coffee/Tea Chat – Wednesday, September 12 – looking forward to a great discussion about the responsibilities of your network boards and how you go about setting goals for the board and tracking their progress.
• The 2012 Network Leader and Salary Survey Report was recently released.  Thanks so much to the 36 NCHN members that participated in the survey. We are in the process of administration of the survey to non-NCHN members.  If you have network s within your state that are not currently members of NCHN, but that you think would be interested in participating in this survey, please let us know.   
• Plans are underway for the second National Rural Health Day, scheduled for Thursday, November 15.  Watch for suggestions for activities and programs that your network may want to offer or participate in to become a part of this national celebration of rural health.  The event is coordinated by our partner, NOSORH (National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health). 

In other news this month, we are so happy to welcome a new member, Virginia Telehealth Network and Edie Bowles as the Network Leader. We look forward to working with Edie again and welcome VTN to NCHN!

I hope to see you in Kansas City for the 2012 NCHN Leadership Summit in September! 

Rebecca J. Davis, Ph.D.
Ph: 970-712-0732

From the Executive Director: July 31, 2012

Can you believe that it is already August!  The summer is certainly flying by – this time last month we were waiting for the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA); now it seems that folks are moving into the presidential election waiting game. What impact will the election have on health care?  Can we afford to wait to see or should we keep moving forward with implementation of provisions of the ACA that directly impacts health networks and those that networks serve? The majority of your peers I talk with are moving ahead, exploring options with their members on how to best deliver quality healthcare services to the patients within their service area.  NCHN will continue to monitor the implementation of the ACA and keep you informed of any potential opportunities for health networks. 

The NCHN Board of Directors and staff wish Eileen Holloran, Public Health Analyst with the Office of Rural Health Policy, the very best in her upcoming retirement.  Eileen has been a strong supporter of health networks and NCHN activities and we will miss her presence at our Leadership Summit and annual Conference.  See a final interview with Eileen below. 

A number of NCHN activities were announced during July and some will be continuing into August.  I encourage you to continue your participation and involvement.    

• The new NCHN website was launched in July.  One of the new components of the site is the network profile section.  Seven (7) members completed their profile in time to receive the discount on the 2013 Conference Registration. Over the few weeks, Christy will be following up with members to assist them with questions about the website and to ensure that all NCHN members’ profiles are posted and up to date. 
• The call for Best Practice Models, Success Stories and/or Lessons Learned was issued during July.  The deadline to submit your story is Wednesday, August 1.  I am anticipating some great examples from NCHN members across the country.  If you haven’t already begun to work on your submission, please take a few minutes and do so today.  » Download the Submission Form (doc)
• NCHN Staff will be offering two orientation sessions.  The first session is on Wednesday, August 8 at 3:00 PM ET. (A second session will be repeated on Thursday, September 6 at 1:00 PM ET.) This is an opportunity for NCHN members to review their membership benefits, learn about NCHN programs and offerings and connect with your peers. Details for the orientations were distributed through a Save the Date emailing.  If you plan to participate in the August 8th call, please pre-register here.
• The NCHN 2012 Network Leader Salary & Benefit Survey Report will be distributed later this week to the members that participated in the survey.  Thanks to the approximately 65% of the current membership that participated in the survey. If you did not participate in the survey and would like to purchase a copy of the report, please contact me for pricing.     
• NCHN’s 2012 Leadership Summit – “Do What You do Best and Link to the Rest” is fast approaching and will be held at The Westin Kansas City at Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri on September 25, 2012. Deadline for room reservations is August 31, but I would encourage you to make the reservations as soon as possible to ensure that you receive the NCHN rate of $125/night. Lodging details are located elsewhere in the eNews! Registration details will be announced later this week through a special email. 
• The RHNR Consulting Task Force has been working for several months on the Health Network Consulting Group initiative and will soon be announcing a call for consultants. NCHN members are eligible to apply to serve as a consultant in the new program. 
• The August Coffee/Tea Chat will be held on Wednesday, August 15 at 12:00 PM ET.  This is your time to connect with your peers across the nation and discussion what is on your mind. 
• The Program Development Committee is working on a comprehensive membership survey and plans to release it during August.  Please watch your email box for the survey and take a few minutes to complete.  Survey results will be utilized for NCHN programming. 
• And the 2013 Conference Planning Committee is working on organizing and planning the 19th Annual NCHN Conference – “All that Jazz” which will be held in New Orleans April 17-19, 2013.  The committee will be conducting a short survey about possible pre-conference session(s) and other activities at the 2013 Conference later this month.  Please respond to the survey and provide your input to the Conference Planning Committee. 

In other news this month, we are so happy to welcome a new member!  Welcome to Southeast Oklahoma Rural Health Network and Stacie Pace.  I think this is our first member from Oklahoma. We look forward to working with Stacie and welcome you to NCHN! Also, Beverlyann Austin renewed as an Associate Member. We are glad to have Beverlyann continuing her relationship with NCHN and look forward to her participation as an Associate Member.

Enjoy August, if you are vacationing, we wish you safe travels and a wonderful trip.

Rebecca J. Davis, Ph.D.
Ph: 970-712-0732

Link: View the July e-News

Dear NCHN Member:

NCHN collects best practice models, success stories, and lesson learned to share with network leaders. These examples of the work that health networks are doing across the country also submitted for posting on the Rural Assistance Center Website. The example you submit could be a huge success your network enjoyed and celebrated or it could be a project you tried and it didn’t go so well – any activity, project, new program, etc.,  that you have implemented, expanded or tried and decided not to pursue since last year (January 2011 – June 2012) can be submitted.  

So, please think about the past year and share some best practice models, success stories, and/or lessons learned!  This is a great opportunity to not only distribute information widely about the great work NCHN members are doing, but it will also add to the public body of knowledge about health networks.  The models will be shared through NCHN’s website, as well as on the Rural Assistance Center’s site. 

If you haven’t visited NCHN’s networking section on the RAC website, here’s the link to the location that includes NCHN members’ Success Stories since 2007: link to NCHN Success Stories on the RAC website

Take a look at some of the previous Success and Lessons Learned stories posted by NCHN members and add your 2011-2012 stories today!  Thanks in advance for your assistance with this project, which is designed to expand our collective networking knowledge and experience!  Every NCHN member is encouraged to submit a story for 2011-2012 --- even if you have submitted a story before, please submit a new one!  Info about a new project/activity/program your network may have worked on since January 2011 is sought.

The NCHN Program Development Committee has assumed management of this NCHN project and the committee members challenge you to submit your story today – all success stories received by August 1, 2012 will be included in a drawing for a $15.00 gift card. 

If you have questions about this project, please contact Rebecca Davis at rdavis@nchn.org or by calling 970-712-0732. 

Thank you for your participation in this project!

2012 Program Development Committee Members

Download the Submission Form (doc)