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Volunteer Spotlight
Our editor caught up with Stan Langhofer, President of the National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA) to gain his perspective as a volunteer leader of an association undergoing a change in professional management. His straightforward responses should provide solace to other volunteer leaders contemplating similar transition related challenges. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The NRAA was founded in 1977 and is the leading professional association for the managers of freestanding and hospital-based dialysis facilities in the U.S. They represent the interests of all dialysis providers including those in both rural and urban settings, for-profit and non-for-profit, freestanding and hospital-based. The association has as its mandate an ongoing commitment to ensuring the provision of the highest quality of patient care through the professional and clinical education of managers, and to representing those facilities and their interests to the industry, Congress and to the American people.
For more information on the NRAA visit their web site at www.nraa.org
Q. The decision to move the association’s headquarters after six years with your former management must have been difficult for the Board of Directors. Can you share with us the major factors that influenced that decision?
A. Our associations’ former executive director resigned and yes this was a difficult and critical time for our Board. A team of people headed by our President, Andree Gardner (now our past president) researched the options for retaining an association management company with the resources to handle our growing needs.
Q. Once the Board was in agreement that a change had to be made for the long-term good of the association, you moved forward by posting a Request for Proposal on the Association Management Company Institute (AMCI) web site. What was the most challenging aspect(s) of the entire search process?
A. Yes we did and that site was extremely helpful. We realized that the world of association management companies was very organized. The challenge was evaluating the many companies and finding the right fit for NRAA.
Q. As the search committee reviewed a variety of written proposals from association management companies of varying sizes located throughout the United States, what, if anything, stood out that assisted the committee in making their final selection?
A. We liked the process of management companies also evaluating us to determine if this was an association they wanted to be involved in and felt qualified to run. As we started looking at the proposals that came in (and we had plenty to analyze) we looked for a large, well established company that had solid in-house resources.
Q. You were President-Elect throughout the search process and took over as President at the start of the physical transition of NRAA records and supplies into Fernley & Fernley, Inc., was this an anxious time for you?
A. Yes it was. I had enjoyed a good working relationship with our former executive director and his company, so I wasn't sure what to expect. To make it even more exciting, the transition to Fernley & Fernley came at the time of our large annual conference in Huntington Beach, California. In hindsight, that was actually the perfect time for our new management company to "get to know" us.
Q. It is now five months into the NRAA’s partnership with Fernley & Fernley, Inc., can you point to one or two immediate improvements in the daily management of the association that now exist?
A. The most important thing I'd like to point out is that we never missed a beat. Our members were not affected and the transition was transparent to them. As far as daily operations go, I am very pleased with the methodical approach Fernley’s associates take with everything. Fernley’s in-house resources are valuable. Shortly after the transition, we held a Board retreat in the Philadelphia home office to prioritize our goals for the upcoming year and they handled it beautifully.
Q. What advice can you offer to other volunteer leaders facing challenges within their non-profit organizations who may be contemplating a major change in management structures?
A. Use the AMCI web site to begin the process. You and your search committee team will be very pleased with the information shared there and the coaching you receive to go through a management company transition.
Q. What would you like to accomplish during your term as President of the NRAA?
A. I would like to see our membership grow and become even more empowered to speak-up for our patients and the high quality care we want to deliver. I would like to see dialysis providers "catch-up" to the rest of healthcare and get an automatic update mechanism for our reimbursement. Finally, I would like to see the NRAA’s financial condition continue to improve in order to insure our long-term viability.
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Stan Langhofer RN, CNN, is currently the administrator and CEO of Kansas Dialysis Services (KDS). They are headquartered in Topeka, KS and operate 5 outpatient and 5 inpatient kidney dialysis units in NE Kansas. Stan has been with KDS for its entire 21 year history and enjoys working in the dialysis community because we truly do "make a difference". He has been married for 28 years to Theresa and they have 2 children, Jessica and Samuel. In his spare time he enjoys playing bag pipes and reading history.