2007 Sharon Connor excellence in chapter leadership development award.

Greater Milwaukee Area Chapter

Milwaukee, WI

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Greater Milwaukee Area Chapter of AACN (AACN-GMAC) has a strong history of grooming local, regional and national leaders. In its 35-year history, GMAC members have gone on to serve as work group members, chapter advisers and directors on the national board. Despite this history, the chapter began to have increasing difficulty recruiting and developing quality leaders. Drawing from the AACN Strategic Plan and the Board Learning Partner program, the GMAC leadership team has succeeded in implementing a plan to recruit, develop and maintain strong chapter leadership.

AACN-GMAC began a focused succession plan in 2004 with the implementation of Board Learning Partners. Part of the plan included broadening the board makeup to include members from several area healthcare systems rather than just one or two. In two years, there had been a successful transformation, and the board includes nurses that practice at four healthcare systems and a major university. Job descriptions, role responsibilities and time commitments are posted at the bimonthly meetings, as well as in the chapter newsletter. This method was so successful in 2005 that a senior nursing student served as a Board Learning Partner her first year as an RN and filled an elected position in 2006.

AACN-GMAC has many long-term members who continue to support educational programs and serve on committees. Outgoing and incoming board members, committee chairs, lifetime members, learning partners and other long-term members attend the annual Strategic Planning meeting. AACN-GMAC continues to be a successful chapter in many ways, because of the revitalization of its leadership development approach. The visionary chapter leaders have re-created a chapter whose membership grows because of the ways the leaders and members support one another in living the AACN mission, vision and values. back to top