Organizations

[ultracet]

I was just wondering what organizations were popular at various schools? Do ya'll have a lot of them or just a few?

We seem to be having problems in the recruiting process in most of ours. When do you sign up new members (mainly fall or spring)?
How do you let the p1s know what each one is about?
We have tried many different things including all organizations speaking to the 1st years all on one day and a "fair" where you can stop by booths.

Is any other school having this problem (we had no p1s in NCPA nor AMCP).

On a side note: do many of your schools have PLS, if so what do they do around campus?

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[jdpharmd?]

I was just wondering what organizations were popular at various schools? Do ya'll have a lot of them or just a few?

We seem to be having problems in the recruiting process in most of ours. When do you sign up new members (mainly fall or spring)?
How do you let the p1s know what each one is about?
We have tried many different things including all organizations speaking to the 1st years all on one day and a "fair" where you can stop by booths.

Is any other school having this problem (we had no p1s in NCPA nor AMCP).

On a side note: do many of your schools have PLS, if so what do they do around campus?

I didn't THINK that we had those problems until I read your thread. What's AMCP? What's PLS? We have APhA, ASHP, and NCPA.

 

[ultracet]

I didn't THINK that we had those problems until I read your thread. What's AMCP? What's PLS? We have APhA, ASHP, and NCPA.

AMCP- Academyof Managed Care Pharmacy
PLS- Phi Lambda Sigma- pharmacy leadership society-- you have to be involved in other organizations and be a leader and be invited.

We have ASP (apha for students), ASHP (ours is ALSHP b/c its actually a state organization), AMCP, Kappa Psi, Rho Chi, Phi Lambda Sigma, SnAPHA (for minority students), CPF (Christian Pharmacy fellowship), NCPA.

We have considered that part of our problem was having too many organizations. but the membership is falling in EVERY one of them not just one.

 

[ultracet]

BUMP

Ok request that this be moved to the Pharmacy Students Forum........



Now on to the reason i'm bumping.....

I'm thinking of doing my 4th year research project on organizations/leadership in pharmacy school and some of the reasons its falling off at my school.

Do you have organizations?

Are you all in organizations?

Do they have a lot of participation at your schoool?

Are just a few people the leaders of everything?

Thanks!

 

[Trancelucent1]

I think it's very much a few people running the show. That being said, I'm at a distance campus with about 140 students distrubuted over 3 classes. We have about 48 in my class (1PD's) and there are just a handful that are involved. At the distance campuses we have Student Council, ASP/APhA, FSHP (Florida Society of Health System Pharmacists), CPFI (Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International), Rho Ki, and Kappa Epsilon. I believe that the main campus has a few more (SnAPHA and a few others). I am actively involved in Student Council (student rep), V. President elect for FSHP, and a member of ASP/APhA. There are only a few of us 1PDs that are involved but those of us that are, are pretty active. I'd say there are about 10 of us 1PDs that are really active. One thing that I really like is that they just started this thing called SOAR last year. It's the Student Organizational Annual Retreat. It's where officers and members of different organizations all meet in one of the cities (we have 1 main campus and 3 distance sites) and we talk about our organizations and we have workshops on how to get involved. We had a lot of fun when we were in Jacksonville in January. I really like how UF has tried to get all of the campuses organizations to interact.

 

[ultracet]

I think it's very much a few people running the show. That being said, I'm at a distance campus with about 140 students distrubuted over 3 classes. We have about 48 in my class (1PD's) and there are just a handful that are involved. At the distance campuses we have Student Council, ASP/APhA, FSHP (Florida Society of Health System Pharmacists), CPFI (Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International), Rho Ki, and Kappa Epsilon. I believe that the main campus has a few more (SnAPHA and a few others). I am actively involved in Student Council (student rep), V. President elect for FSHP, and a member of ASP/APhA. There are only a few of us 1PDs that are involved but those of us that are, are pretty active. I'd say there are about 10 of us 1PDs that are really active. One thing that I really like is that they just started this thing called SOAR last year. It's the Student Organizational Annual Retreat. It's where officers and members of different organizations all meet in one of the cities (we have 1 main campus and 3 distance sites) and we talk about our organizations and we have workshops on how to get involved. We had a lot of fun when we were in Jacksonville in January. I really like how UF has tried to get all of the campuses organizations to interact.

Thanks!!!
do you think the reason people don't participate is because of school work? what about demographics of your class? Are the older or married people involved?

 

[Jeddevil]

I will add my opinion of the situation, at least how it relates to me. At my school we have most of the clubs you mentioned, I think. At least I get their spam email all the time. I am older, 30, with kids, and have no motivation to join any type of club that may take more time away from me and my family. At this point in my life, I don't care about the supposed "networking". (we are getting pharmD's in an economy that needs them, for the most part, just apply and get the job, you don't need to know someone.)
They do a lot of "do-gooder" stuff which is cool and all, but not when it takes time away from my family. I stay very busy with school, and any time I have time not at school, it is allready scheduled for family, work, etc. Therefore, due to time constraints, I have no desire to join any club that is going to take more of my precious free time. (sorry, but I would rather use it to golf and unwind at this point then be tied to some group using up that time.)

Maybe, with the aging demographic entering pharmacy school, my reason may be similar to others? Maybe others who are older like me with a family also have more important things to do with their time than spend it with some club? Just my two cents.

 

[ultracet]

I will add my opinion of the situation, at least how it relates to me. At my school we have most of the clubs you mentioned, I think. At least I get their spam email all the time. I am older, 30, with kids, and have no motivation to join any type of club that may take more time away from me and my family. At this point in my life, I don't care about the supposed "networking". (we are getting pharmD's in an economy that needs them, for the most part, just apply and get the job, you don't need to know someone.)
They do a lot of "do-gooder" stuff which is cool and all, but not when it takes time away from my family. I stay very busy with school, and any time I have time not at school, it is allready scheduled for family, work, etc. Therefore, due to time constraints, I have no desire to join any club that is going to take more of my precious free time. (sorry, but I would rather use it to golf and unwind at this point then be tied to some group using up that time.)

Maybe, with the aging demographic entering pharmacy school, my reason may be similar to others? Maybe others who are older like me with a family also have more important things to do with their time than spend it with some club? Just my two cents.

That is very helpful. At my school we have club meetings during breaks at school.

 

[rxgal8]

I go to a 3-year pharmacy school where we go to classes for the first two years and the last year includes rotations only. During the last year, we're pretty much never on campus since most students tend to get their rotations done near home (to save on rent, build connections for jobs near home, etc). Thus, since we only have the first 2 years to join clubs/organizations and get involved, the P1 students probably tend to be more active than the ones at your school, bbmuffin. I think the P1 students at your school might feel like they need to focus on studying right now since they will have plenty of time to get involved in the next few years.

The older P1 students do tend to be less involved since they have families and find it hard to make time at my school as well.

Well that's just my opinion, I think P1 students tend to focus more on studying instead of joining clubs at other schools because they can always get involved during their second year and onwards.

As for myself, I joined most of the clubs mentioned (well, the school paid for all the P1 students' membership fees for APA/ASP, CPA, CSHP). But we didn't seem to have a hard time recruiting P1 students for other clubs.

 

[crying moo]

I'm a P2 and here's an explanation why I haven't joined any orgs so far:
I remember my first year they did presentations and fairs to get us to join, and they threw so many acronyms at us: ASP/APhA, VSHP, bunch of greek letters, some more greek letters, SNAPHA(?)... i'm still sorting them out and trying to figure out what the point of each is. (And I get all their "spam" too) And I'm not the type of person to just join up randomly with everything just for the heck of it. Some people just like some time to figure things out, and in my case it takes a while before I start trusting an organization. (It didn't help that the dean and upperclass officers held a meeting a few weeks after school started, "scolding" us in a way, telling us there wasn't enough class participation. As if we were supposed to jump at the opportunity and sign up for everything possible?)

Next year I'm hoping to get into Rho Chi (honor society).. and that means a lot to me personally because it will give me a sense of accomplishment and an opportunity to help out w/ tutoring. I'm also testing the waters with ASP/APhA by going to the Orlando meeting. If I like what's going on, then I'll join. I'm hoping I do.

Well the point is, I'm not joining an organization until I know what exactly it is and if it interests me. It hasn't happened much since my first year. I guess the orgs need to work on their personal outreach instead of bombarding everyone with impersonal emails. Next year (3rd year already!) I might be ready to start joining some.

 

[dgroulx]

We have ASP, FSHP, SNPHA, CPFI, KE at our campus. There are others in Gainesville. I'm an older student with a family, but joined ASP my first year. I don't think there are many older students that participate in any of the organizations.

We rely on 1st & 2nd year students, because you leave on rotations midway through year 3. This year, we had a very active incoming class compared to my class. They are big on participation. The 3rd year students that were not ASP members tend to join right before rotations, to get the free liability insurance. They aren't active, but we get their money.

 

[OSURxgirl]

At my school, we have ASP-APhA, AMCP, SSHP, Kappa Psi, and SNAPhA. The only one of these that is really big and really active is ASP. AMCP and SNAPhA are both really hurting for members. A lot of our first year class is involved in ASP. About 40 students in our class of 115 are going to the national meeting in Orlando. I think the lack of involvement is due not only to the demands of pharmacy school, but also poor leadership and faculty advising in the groups that aren't faring so well. ASP is well organized, has regularly planned activities and good faculty and student leaders. This week, for example, there are 3 different ASP events planned. Groups like SNAPhA and AMCP meet sporadically and rarely have events. I don't know what the solution is, but I'd like to see more people involved at my school.