LAMA Lines

LAMA President’s Corner

President's Message - October 2007

LAMA’s Mission

LAMA advances the laboratory animal management profession through education, knowledge exchange and professional development.

(1999 Strategic Plan)

In Jim Collin’s Good to Great and the Social Sectors, he writes about the Hedgehog Concept for organizations through an illustration of three interconnecting circles. Circle one is the passion of understanding for organizations in terms of what their mission and core values are. Circle two is recognizing what organizations are best at and how they contribute to society. Circle three understands what best drives the resources that organizations have in terms of time, money and reputation.

Applying the Hedgehog Concept to LAMA yields some interesting insights about where we have been and where the organization is going. In the early 1980’s, the need for supervisors, managers, and directors to freely share information on a wide variety of management issues facing animal facilities provided the momentum behind LAMA’s creation. The sharing need for information exchange is still critical for the successful management of facilities today. Our members’ willingness to share and assist others freely in both formal and informal situations is demonstrated through our members presenting at our annual meeting and other professional meetings, contributing articles to The LAMA Review, through the large number of members that volunteer to serve in leadership positions, volunteer time in our booth displays at meetings, etc. On April 3, 2008, members will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the development of our new strategic plan and if our core values should change over the next four-to-five years.

In terms of what LAMA is best at, The LAMA Review, our Annual Meeting and LAMA Lines that has been replaced by our website have evolved overtime to meet the changing management conditions that are being faced in animal facilities today. Over the years, we have conducted membership surveys and our members have consistently provided us with valuable information that can be shared in the lab animal community. Many of our members have been involved with ILAM and CMAR as they both have developed over the years as managerial training programs for the lab animal community. One intangible aspect of LAMA has been our networking and leadership development opportunities for our members.

In terms of the last circle, our resource engine that drives LAMA, we need to not only recognize that it is our weakest circle but to focus on identifying solutions in the development of the next strategic plan that will strengthen it. The reality is that many of our members are already overcommitted with work and personal life responsibilities. Volunteering time to LAMA may not be an opportunity that they can pursue, so LAMA needs to look at ways that we can provide membership benefits and services without being dependent on a large volunteer pool to tap into. Institutions and corporations are imposing more financial restrictions on our members’ abilities to not only join us, but to provide corporate sponsorships, in-kind donations and to participant in our programs as either speakers or attendees are huge warning indicators for concern with LAMA’s future. How are we going to meet these new financial realities and will they force us to change our core values and what LAMA is best at?

Ending on that questioning note, enjoy the fall.
Kim
Kimberly.Edgar@Dartmouth.edu

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