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Presidents Letter
Sherry Bogar, CMA (AAMA), CN-BC
Hello TSMA Members and Friends of TSMA.
I hope this finds you doing well. First let me say as the President of TSMA and your colleague, I have been humbled and am honored to have stood next to many of you as we faced COVID head on and showed the world exactly how resilient we are as medical assistants!!!! Our practicing medical assistants stepped up and took on the task of caring for patients in all areas of healthcare. They filled voids when they needed to and served the front lines in hospitals at ICU's and nursing floors, phone centers, surgery centers as scrub techs, and some even served as It has been an honor serving this amazing society and profession during this pandemic. Our educators were challenged in ways they never imagined they had to figure out how to keep the future medical assistants engaged virtually while maintaining their high standards. This board did not take leading this organization lightly during the pandemic. We worked hard to adapt and adjust our standard practices accordingly. After all that's what medical assistants do. We have been taught by some of the best that as MA's we are flexible, and adaptable to changes in the healthcare world. As one physician told me once we are the "Masters of ALL".
As my term ends, I want to thank those that I have had the amazing honor to serve with for the last 7 years on the TSMA Board. My team has had some amazing accomplishments, Hurricane Harvey Fund Drive, partnering with Skills USA &an Educator for a sign off at a school in South Padre, being the host society for the 65th Annual AAMA Conference, taking TSMA to the electronic world and electronic payments and won many AAMA Excel Awards for all the hard work. I have had some failures too. One of the biggest was in 2020 closing the remaining TSMA Chapters due to lack of volunteers is something I will never forget. There were hardworking volunteers in each of these chapters that were dedicated but were tired. They had dedicated time and energy to trying to keep these chapters afloat and just couldn't' do it any longer. I knew it was a tough decision, but I needed their leadership on the state level, where we could pool our strengths and balance our weaknesses to keep TSMA going.
Personally, this organization has taught be so much, it has shown me the best in people and
the not-so-good in people; I have gained amazing friends and lost some ones that maybe weren't friends at all; I have encountered magnificent mentors; been shown some tough leadership love, and on occasion experienced some bullying,none of these experiences I would change for anything. All these experiences have caused me to continue to grow and become a better person. My passion for this profession and dedication to the AAMA/TSMA organization have only continued to grow and I thank you for that. I believe the most important lessons I have learned and will continue to learn with each experience is that to be a good leader
YOU MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT FAILURE AS PART OF SUCCESS; SHARE YOUR SUCCESS WITH THE TEAM BECAUSE WITHOUT THEM YOU ARE NOT A LEADER, AND INSPIRE OTHERS TO PAY IT FORWARD.
Please know that TSMA will forever be in my heart. Y'all took this Cali gal in, gave me a place to land and (almost) made me Texan, sorry still have my CA cell phone number. To honor what you have done for me, I hope to pay it forward like our leaders before me did. I plan to reach for the stars just my inspirations from Texas did before me. Judy Coleman (1964), Mildred Crawford (1969), Jean Mobley (1980), Josephine Estrada (1987-Life Member), Geneva Straughan (1994), Mary Dyer (2006) and Ann Naegele (2012-Life Member) and our newest Texan by way of Utah, Charlene Couch (2015), thank you for clearing the pathway and showing all of us to be better leaders and medical assistants. I will continue to lead the fight to take our profession and the AAMA into the future. I plan to continue for many years to help the AAMA get back to the top of leading the medical assisting profession and become a stronger leader in the healthcare industry.
In the meantime, I will support and encourage all leaders of TSMA from the back of the theater and I am looking forward to a new generation and philosophy of leaders taking us to new frontiers. Thank you to each of you for the most amazing 7 years and till next time....stay safe and never forget #TSMASTRONG, but #TSMAROCKS!
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