One of the cornerstones of member engagement within the American Gastroenterological Association is its committees, which provide a platform for AGA members to network, effect change at the institutional level, and obtain leadership positions. For many within the AGA, exposure to these committees occurs during training. Both of us were first introduced to the possibility of serving on an AGA committee by faculty members at our institution. Each year, applications for available committee positions open in the fall and are due on Nov. 1. While you can be nominated by other members, self-nomination is common and encouraged. Truthfully, neither of us was quite certain what committee membership would entail. However, we both applied to several committees because we knew that it would be an excellent opportunity to network with leading gastroenterologists across the country and to have the ability to become involved in key AGA programs.
Dr. Peter S. Liang
We were selected to serve 2-year terms as trainee members on the Government Affairs and Publication Committees, respectively, which gave us a deeper understanding of how an organization with both a full-time professional staff and group of volunteer members functions. A unique feature of the AGA is its Trainee and Early Career (TEC) Committee, which mainly comprises trainee members who serve on other committees. By virtue of our roles with the other committees, we also became full-fledged members of the TEC committee, which is dedicated to enhancing the experience for trainees and those who are within 5 years of graduation.
One of the most innovative programs developed by the TEC committee is Career Development Workshops, which is a webinar series focused on important topics not covered in fellowship, such as different career paths, personal finance, and how to increase the number of underrepresented individuals in the field. The predecessor of the Career Development Workshops was the in-person Regional Practice Skills Workshop, and we both took on the responsibility of planning and organizing separate workshops. For one of us (Stephanie), that involved enlisting our fellowship program to host the event. For the other (Peter), it meant collaborating with our local gastroenterology society to cosponsor the workshop. It was extremely rewarding to organize the workshops, which allowed us to work closely with AGA staff and local gastroenterology faculty, as well as our peers, to bring the events to fruition. For both of us, the success of the Regional Practice Skills Workshop was one of the highlights of our tenure on the TEC committee.
