Proposed Changes in AGS Committees Approved by Board of Directors

Proposals to reclassify various AGS advisory groups and committees, standardize committee sizes and update their mission statements, and other measures recommended by AGS' Committee Restructuring Task Force won the approval of AGS' Board of Directors in February.

"The proposals we put forward were designed to align the AGS Committee structure with the Society's new strategic plan," explained Todd Semla, Chair of the Task Force, AGS President, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with the US Department of Veterans Affairs Pharmacy Benefits Management and an associate professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "We sought input from existing AGS Committees during the November Board and Committee meetings before putting a final recommendation before the Board."

The Board established a Steering Committee for the Committees that will be chaired by the Secretary of the AGS (currently Dr. Cheryl Phillips). Steering Committee members will be the Chairs and Vice Chairs of AGS Standing Committees and the mission of this group is to coordinate activities across committees in order to avoid duplication of efforts and promote efficiency among the individual Committees and to facilitate communication between Committees and the AGS, ADGAP, and FHA Boards. The Committee will also serve as a deliberative body in planning for work on areas that cut across individual committee focus areas.

The Board also approved major changes in the function and roles of the Clinical Practice and Health Care Systems Committees. The Clinical Practice Committee will expand its focus to include models of care. Now known as the Clinical Practice and Models of Care Committee (CPMC), its mission is to ensure every older American receives high quality patient centered care through identifying, developing and disseminating best practices in clinical care. The Health Care Systems Committee has become the Health Economics and Technology Committee. Its mission will be to ensure every older American receives high quality patient-centered care that is affordable, adequately financed, and uses available technology to insure efficiency and safety.

The Task Force also considered Board Advisory and Work Groups and recommended to the Board that these be restructured - a recommendation that the Board approved. The Public Policy Advisory Group and Quality Ad Hoc Work Group will both become Standing Committees (Public Policy and Quality Performance Measurement Committee). In recognition of the progress that the Society has made in appointing interdisciplinary AGS members to Committees and the Board, the Geriatrics Interdsiciplinary Advisory Group (GIAG) is being dissolved. Both the Society and the GIAG are confident that the interdisciplinary membership is well represented on committees and among Society leadership, and the board and the advisory group agreed it was appropriate to disband the group after seven years of highly effective service. Finally, the Practice Management Advisory Group will become an editorial board. "This last change," noted Dr. Semla, "reflects the enormous amount of work that group puts into the Practice Management Tool Kit" (available on MyAGS).

The Society's Fixed Function Committees (e.g., the Annual Scientific Meeting Program Committee and the Professional Education Executive Committee) and its Councils were not changed.

"These changes are intended to standardize and update the functions and operations of our Standing Committees to better reflect the needs of the Society," explained Dr. Semla. During the May 2007 Committee meetings, Standing Committee members will consider and prioritize projects that will help us to advance our goals as well as identify subcommittee members who will work on specific projects.

For more on AGS Committees, see the "About Us" section of the AGS Web site. If you would like to volunteer to serve on a subcommittee, please be sure to complete our subcommittee member interest form.