“A group of sea otters is called a “raft”. There could be anywhere from a few dozen to even 1,000 sea otters floating together in a single raft. Sea otters prefer sticking close to one another, as predators are less likely to target a cohesive group. More sea otters also means more lookouts and a better chance of spotting potential threats quickly.”
About 10 years ago I received a phone call from a past president of RJOS. I’m embarrassed to tell you all, I had never been a member before this. I was overextended in my society work and had no business taking on another volunteer job. I had 3 kids under the age of 8, and I was trying to learn how to say no.
Well, clearly I did a crummy job of saying no to RJOS. A new committee, the professional development committee, was being formed and I was tasked with chairing it. Those were the days we were still managed under the umbrella of the AAOS, and resources were even tighter than they are now. I was slated for a 3 year term, but resigned after 2 because of conflict of interest requirements for the AAOS board. But I’m not going to lie, I was challenged in my RJOS work. Although our management team was a great group of people, there was simply not enough FTE resource for us, and I became frustrated at the ideas my committee and I had without the ability to implement.
Then I went out into the world of society work, which was semi controlled chaos at times. I did my best to represent the women of orthopaedics, and I quickly learned that I could not even hope to understand the diversity of women in our field. I watched Bonnie Simpson Mason win the AAOS Diversity Award for her creation of Nth Dimensions. Lisa Latanza and team brought pipeline brilliance with The Perry Initiative. I watched the birth of BWOS, and Orthopride. I attended Gladden and AALOS. IODA (International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance) and WOW (women of orthopaedics worldwide) The women of AAHKS came together. Erica Taylor brought us the Orthopaedic Diversity Leadership Consortiume. I co founded SpeakUpOrtho. I sat on the now defunct Womens Health Initiatives Advisory Board and on the Diversity Advisory Board to the AAOS.
All of this is to say, this all feels clear as mud to me. One thing rises up, I think, as a theme through all of these groups working to make orthopaedics a better place. Paying it forward. Make a space in our profession so that our patients get to have Orthopaedic Surgeons that are like them, with the opportunity for concordant care. No pulling the ladder up behind us.
So here is what I propose for this next year that I get to spend thinking about, perseverating about, RJOS. Let’s operationalize all of this.
If you have received a scholarship of any kind from RJOS, a grant, a mentor, a hand on your back, a sponsor, please commit to an actionable way of giving back. I just completed the tetris that is known as the “committee on committees.” And I have to be stern for a moment. The volunteerism among active members, among attending physicians, drops off. I would like us to all commit to one another, when we award a scholarship or a scenario of help to bring up those coming into our amazing field of orthopaedic surgery, I would like a promise to not only stay active in membership, but to pay back with the time of active committee work.
Let’s acknowledge something… all of these organizations that I mentioned a few moments ago, we are all in existence because we need to be. Let’s remember the women who paved the way for us, and in their honor let’s keep our feet on the gas pedal.
It is my great honor to serve this membership, to work alongside the women in the PL during my time, from Dr. Mary Mulcahy, Dr. Christen Russo, Dr. Corinna Franklin, Dr. Anna Rosenblum, and now Dr. Lizzie Lieberman.
I’ll end by saying this… my late father, Dr. Andrew Weiss, was the chair of orthopaedics at UMDNJ for many years. My mother, his wife, Madge Weiss, is with me tonight. My dad used to brag about the number of women in his residency program, and in a weirdly irritating way he would count them out loud. In a legendary moment, my mom looked up at him and told him he could shush up with his counting, because his job would be done when he didn’t have to count us anymore. Lets keep working toward that day when we neither have to think about a raft of otters OR have to count ourselves anymore.
