HoG Board of Directors Holds Annual Retreat and Meeting
By Trish Dominic, CEO
The agency’s Board of Directors, Junior Board and management team held its Annual Retreat and Board Meeting at the Legacy Lodge and Conference Center at Lake Lanier. This year’s retreat began in the early afternoon of Friday, January 9th and ran through the late afternoon of Saturday, January 10th. Mr. Bill Charney, Charney and Associates, spent Friday afternoon discussing with the group the topic of “Board Governance” and how it works. Bill, who has been attending these retreats for the past 11 years, trained and continues to support the Board’s use of a Governance Model, which the Board put into place in 2003. Each year, the Board uses the Retreat as an opportunity to refocus on the model: a model that moved them from monitoring the daily operations of HoG to expanding their focus on the big picture and making important decisions toward that end. The Junior Board has been involved in this event for the past two years.
Friday evening, the entire group met with Helen Sloat and Stan Jones, the organization’s lobbyists from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. Stan and Helen talked about the election results in Georgia and the Governor’s focus for the coming year: transportation and education. Saturday morning, both Boards received a number of presentations from various staff on some of the new projects and programs that the HoG staff are making happen. Dr. Christine Kempton, Director of the Emory/CHOA Comprehensive Bleeding Disorders Center, stopped by to talk about the new clotting factor products on the market with an extended half-life, some of which have been released and others that are still in the pipeline. The Junior Board delighted everyone with a presentation that not only included their past year’s accomplishments but also their plans for the future. Each Junior Board member went on to share why and how he or she became involved with HoG.
Saturday afternoon, the HoG and Junior Boards separated in order to hold their respective Board Meetings. One topic of discussion at these meetings always includes plans for the coming year. HoG’s Board elected new officers at their meeting. Dan Maddock, from Hawkinsville, GA and former President of Taylor Healthcare Group, was elected HoG’s new Chief Governance Officer (CGO). Tom Singh, Senior Vice President, Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch, was elected Vice CGO, and Amy Greene, Vice President of Brown & Company Jewelers, was elected Secretary. Joining the Board for his first year of a three-year term was Andrew Wurtzel, Administrator, Clinic Operations, Department of Surgery at Emory Clinic. Andrew and his wife recently moved to Atlanta from Massachusetts. Andrew knows all about hemophilia and bleeding disorders through his work at Marc Associates, Inc. in Washington, DC. From 2002-2007, he worked with Ellen Riker, the lobbyist for the National Hemophilia Foundation, on issues related to bleeding disorders.
The HoG Board developed a work plan for the coming year. In addition to their annual monitoring of Board policies and ends reports, the main focus of this year’s plan is not only to hire a new CEO for HoG but to help the new CEO launch a very successful career at HoG (with the Board’s support). The Junior Board set their volunteer agenda for 2015 and discussed forming committees to help garner an even greater number of young adults actively involved in volunteering and supporting HoG and its mission. They also began planning new fundraising ideas for 2015 and discussed the types of training they will need to become better leaders within the community.
As you all know, this is my last year at HoG and I’m looking forward to my retirement. On Friday evening, the Junior Board presented me with the gift of a book entitled, “Thank You.” The book is a compilation of quotes from famous people expressing thoughts of what we all have to be thankful for as we walk through this life. The opening page starts the first section of the book and is entitled, “Thank you for Believing.” On that page, the members of the Junior Board wrote expressions of their thanks for our “believing” in them. I will cherish this book forever and will read and reread its messages. However, the gift that I will truly cherish is the Junior Board: a group of young leaders who, through their individual experiences with HoG, chose to take time to give back to this organization. This commitment and dedication is the culmination of my career – creating programs and services that generate a desire by individuals to say, “I want to help in any way possible because what you do is so worthwhile.” My deepest thanks to the Junior Board for fulfilling my lifetime dream!