Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you as president of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS). It is both an honor and a responsibility. I pledge to do my best to ensure that NACNS continues to reach broader audiences and does even more to advance the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) role. The NACNS has a strong leadership team, starting with the board of directors, committee and taskforce volunteers, and staff. Together, we work to strengthen our organization.

Serving as president of NACNS means a great deal to me because the CNS role is my passion. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have fantastic mentors who encouraged me to pursue my passion. These mentors nurtured my professional growth by encouraging me to serve at the state and national level. When I lived in New York, I had the opportunity to participate in the initial grassroots effort to obtain title protection for the CNS. When I relocated to Texas, I had the opportunity to serve as president of the Texas CNS Affiliate. At the national level, I first served on the board and now as president. All these experiences exposed me to great CNS leaders. I want to thank our immediate past president Anne Hysong for her mentorship over the last year. It has been and continues to be a privilege to work with her.

The NACNS provides many volunteer opportunities for members to serve. I hope you will consider serving on a committee, a task force, or in some other capacity when the opportunity arises. We are a volunteer-driven association. Our members are our strength.

I want to wish everyone a belated happy National Nurses Week! This annual celebration is an opportunity to reflect on our profession and why we chose it. You are an integral part of this association. NACNS wants to hear your thoughts and suggestions about how we can optimize and improve. As a member, please make sure to take advantage of the benefits of NACNS-webinars, social media discussions, and conferences-and encourage your colleagues to join you! The Board of Directors works tirelessly to promote CNS full scope of practice and to communicate the value of the CNS role in healthcare.

2018 was a year of great change for NACNS. Ironically, change is the one constant in our lives.

To quote John F. Kennedy, "Change is the law of life and those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future." So, NACNS will continue to change and evolve in 2019 and beyond. The road forward for NACNS is to continue our work-to advance the expertise and value of the CNS role, but to do so with a renewed sense of community.

To keep our mission moving forward, in 2019, we will focus on a few key strategies.

First, we are going to continue to stabilize the association operations. I think we're almost there. Then, we will shift our focus to optimization, leveraging the many resources that our management company, Virtual Inc, has to offer. Next, we need to identify opportunities to grow our membership. The current NACNS membership is 1424. With more than 70,000 CNSs across the United States, imagine the possibilities if all of them were members of NACNS! Let's make this happen.

Another strategy for 2019 is to continue to leverage partnerships with other companies like Abbott Nutrition, Medtronic, Cardinal Health, and so on. These partnerships help us create and launch new programs for you but can also result in growth of our membership and additional revenue to ensure our financial health. The future is bright for NACNS. I've never been more confident about that.

WELCOME 2019-2020 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Please join me in welcoming our new Board of Directors. I look forward to a great year of working together.

WEBINARS

Based on your feedback, the Board recently approved a motion to make our webinar series free to NACNS members. Please make sure to take advantage of this great new benefit of your membership. This series will include not only more webinars overall, but also several pharmacology-specific webinars, as well as topics such as antimicrobial resistance, vasopressors, early identification of sepsis: role of the clinical nurse specialist, pneumonia prevention, leadership mentoring, eating disorders, and a variety of mental health issues.

2020 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

If you have not already done, please mark your calendar for the 2020 NACNS Annual Conference in Indianapolis. NACNS will be celebrating its 25th anniversary! Linda Thurby Hay, Ludmilla Santiago-Rotchford, conference planning co-chairs, and the Virtual, Inc, Events Team are hard at work planning the agenda for this milestone meeting. I hope you submitted an abstract! I look forward to seeing all of you in the city where NACNS was created.

CNS WEEK IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER

September 1 to 7 is National CNS Recognition Week, a time when hospitals and healthcare systems pay tribute to and build awareness of the important role that CNSs play in healthcare. Please remember to check out our CNS Week idea guide and sample materials. There will be Facebook and Twitter posts (if you tweet, use the official hashtag #CNSWeek), newsletter articles, flyers, letters to the editor, and a proclamation so you can request official recognition of CNS Week from your mayor or other government official. Consider purchasing a CNS Week button or other logo merchandise. Plan and order early! And please share CNS Week photos of your celebrations and updates on social media using the hashtag #CNSWeek and tagging @NACNS on Twitter or post on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/clinicalnursespecialists.