9/10/09 2nd GM Minutes

AMSA Fall 2009-Week 2 General Meeting Minutes (09/10/2009) 

Introduction of the Membership Ladder 

The way it will work is each event is worth some points, as broken down below:

1. General Meetings/Action Committee Events

2 pts each

2. Community Service events

3 pts each + bonus points for staying at all-day events (e.g. Relay for Life)

3. Kaplan events

3 pts each

4. Conferences

5 pts

5. Joining/active participation on the Board or in Action Committees (Max: 2 ACs/person)*

10 pts/officer position, 5 pts/committee

*Officers/AC Chairs do not get more than 10 points for the “Board/AC” category, even if they participate in one or more ACs

Prizes awarded at the end of Spring 2010! 

The rankings are based on point accumulation. Cut-off for each level is as follows (play the Super Mario Bros. tune in head):

Surgeon General: highest # pts earned

Chief-of-Surgery >55 pts

Physician: 40-54 pts

Resident: 30-39 pts

Med Student: 20-29 pts

Pre-Med <20 pts

Prizes range from UCSF scrubs, shadowing a physician, and to the Surgeon General, a scholarship.

So ALWAYS remember to sign-in for every event! 

Action Committee Newsflash 

There are five committees. To obtain an application, please email the chair of the committee of interest or download it from amsa.berkeley.edu. Members are welcome to join more than one committees!

Community & Environmental Health/Global Health AC Chair is open to members. The application was distributed in hard copy during the general meeting but can still be obtained from our website. The due date is Mon. September 14^th and interviews will be conducted the following day. Email any questions and completed applications to sstramotas@gmail.com.

Guest Speaker: Dr. Isaac Yang. 

Advisor and Mentor for our chapter, who is currently Chief Resident of Neurological Surgery at UCSF.

His background:

Undergradute studies at UC Berkeley; convoluted path to obtaining his double major. Initially, Dr. Yang was pre-business􀃆 MCB􀃆 Social Welfare􀃆 MCB/Social Welfare majors

UCLA for medical school + served in the admissions committee

UCSF for Internship and Chief residency

Highlights of the talk:

Overall, it was a marvelous talk, colored by some honest “self-deprecating” humor. To get the full experience, one had to be there (that’s why one shall not miss general meetings >.<).

Topics:

Why become a doctor?

Are you a people person?

To make a difference, not to earn a salient salary (which in most case, will not happen, well, immediately anyways. Be a lawyer or a venture capitalist or an engineer of some sort if you want this)

Quickest way to succeed (in this context, medical school success), one needs a mentor, a true inspiration to motivate oneself in reaching certain goals. Dr. Yang described this through the breakthrough of the four-minute one mile run. After Bannister’s achievement, twelve other athletes managed to run a mile under four minutes 􀃆 fueled by inspiration. A mentor can do so.

The obvious: need good GPA, MCAT, personal statement, interviews, letters of recommendation/extra-curricular

The AMSA plug: AMSA’s national status is an advantage to an applicant because the organization’s origin and mission are sweetly familiar to the admissions committee􀃆 good to commit self to AMSA (not in the Mayan way…)

Success comes from a series of unfortunate events (not plugging Lemony Snicket’s series. Suggested book by Dr. Yang was actually Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success)

If anyone has any questions for Dr. Yang, please feel free to email him at getINconsulting@gmail.com 

Closing Points 

Introduction of Tiffany Gee, Vice President of Membership to the members’ crowd.

Membership applications were accepted. The last time to do so is our fourth general meeting, which tentative date is September 24^th, place TBA.

We are still awaiting the Office of Registrar’s room assignment for our third general meeting. There is a possibility that this will be postponed due to Office of Registrar’s inability to accommodate our request, and for that matter, many other organization’s requests. We sincerely apologize if this were to happen.