Newsletter: July 2023

Welcome to the July 2023 chapter newsletter.  Mark your calendars! The AMWA North Central Chapter will host an in-person event Wednesday, August 16th at 5:30. Please join us at Quang Restaurant (2719 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408) for a dinner and panel discussion on the habits of highly effective medical writers. 

Chapter Advisory Council Update

By LeAnn Stee, North Central Chapter Representative

Mission of the Chapter Advisory Council (CAC) 

The CAC serves to maintain a connection between chapter leaders and the AMWA Board of Directors by advising the AMWA board on the organization’s strategic direction as it affects the chapters and acting as a sounding board about issues that have an impact on chapters and the national organization.

Second Quarterly Meeting of 2023

The AMWA CAC meeting scheduled for May 2023 was not held because of a death in the family of one of the council leaders.

The information that follows was taken from the meeting agenda.

Updates from the AMWA Board of Directors: Jen Minarcik

1. Initiative Update: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

   • The Diversity and Inclusion Task Force completed its charge and submitted a comprehensive list of recommendations to the AMWA Board of Directors

   • The Board of Directors is reviewing the recommendations

2. Chapter Trends Report

   • All chapters submitted activity reports by March 1, 2023. The information is compiled into a Chapter Trends report (more information is below)

3. Recipients of the 2023 Alvarez Award and the 2023 McGovern Award have been chosen and will be announced in the coming weeks

Updates From AMWA Headquarters: Sharon Ruckdeschel, director of membership and systems for AMWA

1. AMWA Membership

• AMWA membership continues to increase: as of March 31, 2023, membership was 4,767

1. Spring Chapter Compliance

• Chapter activity reports were due on March 1, 2023

• All chapters were in compliance

• Support checks were mailed to chapter treasurers in late March

1. Fall Chapter Compliance

• Fall activity and financial reports are due August 1

• Chapters must comply with the following requirements

  • 3 Board of Director meetings

  • 4 education or networking activities (minimum of 2 in-person)

  • 1 membership meeting

  • All officer positions must be filled

  • Websites need to be updated and include past and current events, officer information, and contact information for the chapter

1. 2023 Medical Writing & Communication Conference: registration will open in June

AMWA Essential Skills Certificate Course: Thoughts and Observations

By Adam Fix

They say English is one of the hardest languages to learn. But you don’t know the half of it until you’ve clawed your way through the AMWA Essential Skills Certificate course. I recently took the course myself, and here are some thoughts on Part 1.

Every weird quirk of our language is discussed. Did you know that “the number” takes a singular verb but “a number” takes a plural verb? For example:

• “The number of patients has increased.”

• “A number of patients have reported positive results.”

Every potential grammatical pitfall is exposed. Here’s a puzzler: What’s wrong with the following sentence?

• “Surgery was recommended based on the test results.”

If you said that the participial phrase “based on the test results” lacks a noun to modify, good job! Participial phrases (phrases that begin with a verb form, in this case “based”) can only function as adjectives. In this form, this sentence does not include the modified noun. We might rewrite it as follows:

• “The recommendation, based on the test results, was surgery.”

Here, “based on the test results” is clearly modifying “recommendation.”

All in all, I learned more about language and grammar from this course than from my entire Ph.D. program curriculum. My brain feels like a wrung sponge.