Message From CSMA President
Nancy Lizon, CMA (AAMA)
July 2020
Hello to my fellow California Society of Medical Assistant (CSMA) members.
This past year has been a difficult year for many, if not all of us, with COVID-19 and all else that has occurred whether affiliated with COVID or not. If you’ve lost your job, been cut back on hours, or worse, tested positive or had a family member test positive, I am truly sorry and my thoughts and prayers have included you. I would like to thank you for allowing me to help forge CSMA’s way to, I hope, a stronger presence and force within our career choice and state.
Any organization/group is only as strong as its members. My goal/hope is to get more of you interested and involved in working together to make our certification and expertise the only one employers will be willing to hire and pay a competitive wage for. Some of us may not get involved because life is busy with work, family, and other obligations. California is a large, spread out state and often we don’t even know who around us is also a CMA (AAMA) with like educational background and to perhaps have the opportunity for comradery and communication. CSMA is open to suggestions and comments on how to accomplish making us a better organization/resource for our members.
With COVID-19 cancelling group meetings/gatherings we will most likely be looking at most things occurring virtually. We have a committee checking more into our options for making it more widely available. This is where perhaps many/most of our younger members are anyway, but for those of us that are older this is a learning experience. This year got me introduced to Zoom and come to find out it wasn’t difficult at all and is much faster than a ton of emails between multiple people.
California has 500+ CMA (AAMA) members and unfortunately, for whatever reasons, we had very few take part in our virtual annual meeting. We need your voice to help us make the best choices for all members. I want to be a true representative for what our members want or need. Our National Conference is coming up in September and we’ll need to vote for what we feel is best for our state members on issues presented by AAMA. Please help us to be a true representation for our members. Feel free to email any of our officers and/or committee chairs with any questions or suggestions. The updated contact information should be on our website very soon but you’re always welcome to email me anytime at: csma2019president@gmail.com.
Thank you for striving to be the best and I wish all a better year. I hope to hear from you.
Nancy Lizon, CMA (AAMA)
California Society of Medical Assistants President
Addendum: I was just notified that the National Conference in Florida has been cancelled. I just wanted to let you know in case you were contemplating going.
April 2020
First of all, CSMA hopes you have been able to keep your distance and keep healthy in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know many may have been impacted by school closures, layoffs or other work changes. Please stay alert and do all you can to avoid exposure.
Our State meeting has been cancelled for the time being. Many other states have had to do the same thing and are in the same boat. We are working on other options so we can do the Society’s needed business. You will be contacted again when we’ve been able to make an arrangement that fulfills our bylaw requirements.
Please also check our website, csma-medassist.org, periodically for any new updates. If you have any other questions of if I can be of help, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely
Nancy Lizon, CMA (AAMA)
CSMA 2019-20 President
Csma2019president@gmail.com
CSMA President’s Corner
Spring 2020
I hope everyone had a good Holiday season. Now that the holidays are over it’s time for everyone to get back on track and plan for the rest of our year. I hope this finds you well.
I’m looking forward to our State Society meeting April 17-19 in Ontario, California. I am hoping to see and meet as many of you as can get to the meeting. We’re having some great speakers and topics to assist us in getting the CEUs necessary for each of us to recertify when the time comes. Please try to send in your registrations as soon as possible to take advantage of the discounts for earlier registration.
Our Society is what we, as members, make of it. I encourage all to please feel free to ask questions, speak up, and take a step of faith by becoming involved. There are many committees that one might look at and volunteer for to allow you to see and learn how our Society works. To work your way up in the Society requires taking part on committees and then chairing a committee for periods of time, as specified for each position in our bylaws. The committees available are: Annual meeting, Audit, Bylaws and Resolutions, Certification, Credentials, Membership, Minutes and Webite. Feel free to contact me and let me know if you’re interested in working on one of these committees for the next year. My hope is to have a short synopsis of what is expected of each committee member posted to the website. If you don’t find it there, please contact me and I can give you the information by phone or email.
We’ve had some challenges as a Society this year, but we have tried to work through them together as a team. With help from each of you we want to build our Society to be a reckoning force. We hope to see many of you willing to step up in the direction it takes to become a leader of our Society. Feel free to contact anyone on our Executive Board.
If I can be of help with anything, please feel free to contact me at:
csma2019president@gmail.com
Again, I hope to see you in Ontario in April.
Nancy Lizon, CMA (AAMA)
2019-2020 CSMA President
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4/2019 Presidents Message
Hello and welcome to our California Society of Medical Assistants’ website and what I’ve decided to call the President’s Corner. My name is Nancy Lizon and I am our 2019-2020 President.
I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I became a medical assistant a bit later in life than most. I graduated with my Associate degree in Medical Assisting in 2002 in Modesto, California. I utilized a temp agency for employment right after graduation (it’s a great way to get your foot in the door of some employers) and was placed at Kaiser. After 2-1/2 years Kaiser hired me, I will celebrate my 14th year with them in June. I’ve been in dermatology for all but 4 months of that time and love it! I’ve been active in our state society since graduation.
We held our state conference this year March 29th-31st in Mountain View. Those attending were able to attain up to 14 CEUs and we had some great speakers covering current and interesting topics. It was good to see many first-time attendees that I hope will take an active part in our society.
The Southwest Regional Meeting will be July 26th-28th in Colorado Springs, Colorado at a castle. At least two of us from California are planning on attending, that I know of. If you might be interested in also attending please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance.
The AAMA National Conference will be in Greensboro, North Carolina September 13-16th. National is a great way to meet and network with other medical assistants from all over the U.S. This year we have three delegates and one alternate attending. We are always happy when we run into other members from California that we didn’t know were coming. If you should decide to attend please connect with us.
Our society has 478 members, we had a little over 30 at our state meeting. About 30 people decide issues for all of our state members. It’s going to take all of us to reach out and try to get the 440ish to take an interest and a more active part in our society. Our numbers drop each year as some don’t see the value in paying for and accumulating CEUs and maintaining our certification to keep up with what’s going on and coming up in our field.
My hope is to encourage all of you to be proud of your accomplishments and skills and to take an active interest and part in our society. Please let us/me know how you would like to be involved and how I/we can be of assistance. We strive to be transparent and are more than willing to share our knowledge of our society and field of work with anyone. We also hope you will share your strengths and knowledge with us to help our society and the medical assisting field to grow stronger. We want to promote our certification to employers and the public as the “Go To” certification to look for in the medical field.
Please check our website periodically to keep up with what’s happened and what’s happening. We also have a Facebook page.
If I can be of help with anything, please feel free to contact me at:
csma2019president@gmail.com
Nancy Lizon, CMA (AAMA)
2019-2020 CSMA President
CSMA, Inc. | At the ♥ of Healthcare
PO Box 1869, Walnut, CA 91788-186
csma.medassist@gmail.com
PO Box 1869, Walnut, CA 91788-186
csma.medassist@gmail.com