Message from the President November 2020

Dear Colleagues,

PCICS is now into its third decade of existence. The “purpose” statement of PCICS, which may be found on our website (https://pcics.org/about/history), was developed nearly two decades ago and has not been updated. PCICS today is now a much different organization. Instead of biannual meetings in South Florida, we now have annual meetings that vary in location. Our leadership team is now multidisciplinary in nature. Our membership has quadrupled. A half-dozen committees were created five years ago which are highly productive. We recently established several special interest groups and are actively creating a new committee on diversity. We have established formal partnerships with a number of other medical societies and academic meeting organizers and now have a new management company.

The world in which we live is changing and we are faced with unprecedented challenges, including but not limited to the pandemic, the environment, and renewed and overdue attention to social injustice. In this context, your PCICS leadership team has been faced with a growing number of opportunities and complex decisions. For all of these reasons, the Board of Directors decided it was now appropriate to revisit the Society’s “purpose.”

In early September, the Board convened for a 2-day virtual strategic planning retreat that was led by Marcy Cottle, an expert in strategy facilitation from IMI. After briefly reviewing the history of PCICS and the current challenges and opportunities before us, we participated in a series of large and small group discussions. These efforts led to the creation of a strategic map that includes our new vision, mission, and core values. These guiding principles will help shape our goals and objectives for the profession of pediatric cardiac intensive care, our members, and our organization in the years to come.

We are very excited to share our work product with you during our 16^th Annual (but first virtual!) International Meeting this December.

Best regards,