Hi everyone, MDS in Hawaii is right around the corner and we’ve been working on young members group events. I’m currently leading the Young Members Group Steering Committee so I wanted to hear any thoughts and suggestions to make the MDS exciting for young members through our group’s events.
Networking night: We’re not doing the speed networking this year like the one we did last year to give everyone a break and make it a “every other year” format. Working on a hula session with the Allied Health Professionals group though, so hopefully we’ll have a joint event for the networking night.
Business meeting: We’ll probably share the updates on what our group did this year and upcoming plans for next year but those meetings are usually very low attendance and it’s hard to get engagement going, open for any suggestions (also come out to those!!!).
Pavillion session: We’re planning for a casual interview about the “MDS through time” with 2-3 senior MDSers, any burning questions you want asked?
Non-MDS webpage: Last year I put together a casual, informal google site webpage to highlight young member sessions, recommendations about the city, things to do where to eat etc. MDS cannot make recommendations on restaurants, attractions because it may impact their accreditation I think, so it was not an official webpage. Not sure if you came across it, as we tried to spread the word ourselves but no clue how many people it reached to. I’m thinking of doing it again this year, but open for suggestions and if anyone has any insight on how to better spread the word so more people can benefit from it, please share!
Leadership meetings: The chair & co-chair of the young members group steering committee gets to be a part of a couple leadership meetings where we share young members needs and feedback. I always have my opinions and share what I hear from other members too, to push the senior peeps to support us and create more opportunities for us. But, I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you feel like MDS is doing something good or falling short for young members? Let me know please!!!
Hi Ece!
Thanks so much for sharing this — I have to admit I’m not super familiar with the Young Members Group yet… but I’m dying to be a part of it.
Everything you mentioned sounds amazing, especially the idea of the joint networking event with the Allied Health group — I think having something fun and informal like a hula session could really help break the ice and get people talking. The pavilion session also sounds great — maybe one of the questions for the senior MDSers could be about how they navigated their early career challenges or what they wish they’d known when they were in our shoes?
Count me in for helping however I can — and I’d love to get more involved in the group moving forward!
Warmly,
Ana
So glad you’re interested Ana! I’m noting down the pavillion question right away and looking forward to meeting in person there!
Honestly LEAP is the gateway to a lot of things for young members at the MDS. But, it’s also not that giant of a program and not every awesome young member gets in (I applied like 8 times maybe and didn’t get in, even though I eventually got the chair role for the Young Members Group and also am involved with a bunch of other committees). So you don’t necessarily have to only rely on LEAP, but it’s definitely a great start, and honestly a really good program too. We don’t get trained for leadership skills typically so getting that structured training & mentoring in that program really benefits peeps. If you really want to get involved with MDS young members group leadership or other committees, you just have to be an active member, network, and apply constantly. I get rejected pretty frequently, but apply to everything I think I can do something for, it eventually brings opportunities. Once you’re in a committee, you have to continue staying active too, speak up, volunteer for tasks or bring new ideas to discuss. Just agreeing to things or showing up at meetings without saying much doesn’t get you far, I know it’s intimidating to speak up in a group you may not be too familiar with or surrounded by all these famous seniors, but it truly is the only way to make an impression. For instance if you’re interested in some specific committees, you should seek out the chair & vice chairs at the MDS and ask about the committees. They open applications every 2 years, we just passed the application term this year, and it’s the chair & vice chairs that typically go through applications and select new members. So if you make it very clear you’re interested and trying to get in by asking them about how to get in, if you can get involved etc they’re probably gonna remember you during the application season. Also at times we do additional groups within committees and open applications outside of the typical term, we got a bunch of young members for social media editorial board and the clinical outcome assessments training and education committee for a project for instance. So if you had already expressed interest to chair & vice chair they might reach out with such opportunities too. The groups in general need people that are willing to do the work.
I personally really benefited from the MDS groups as it gave me so much connections and friendships. It’s volunteer work on top of what you’re doing so it may not be appealing to some, but for me it’s been worth it. It wasn’t like I knew a ton of people right off the bat either, I had to build my own network and carve out my own space in the field so MDS really opened some doors for me through the groups and networking. I even found my first postdoc position through their job postings 
Thank you so much for your amazing reply, Ece!
I really liked what you said about “I get rejected pretty frequently, but apply to everything I think I can do something for”. I believe this to be true about persevering: we need to apply a lot, we will be rejected a lot, but eventually we will get there!
I will surely use your advice! Thank you again so much for sharing your experience and tips. 
I am eager to meet you there