MMS NEWS: Letter from the Executive Director

Oct. 26, 2016

Dear SCMA, MMS and MLCMS Boards:

This month I am celebrating 25 years with SCMA . . . time certainly does fly when you are doing what you love. So many years, projects, dinners and events, publications, challenges, changes, achievements and meetings—so many meetings! I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with these amazing organizations for many years, and for the privilege of collaborating with many wonderful, dedicated physicians. I believe I’ve had the best job ever, and thought I would be the executive director who didn’t know when to leave. I imagined the boards would have to draw straws to decide who was going to tell me it was time . . . .

But here I am telling you it’s time. I’m leaving for the best of reasons though—I’ve accepted a position as practice manager for a new solo practice in Santa Rosa. My son, Cuyler Goodwin, gradu- ated from the UCSF psychiatry residency program this summer and opened Sequoia Mind Health with a promising future. I am profoundly honored to have this opportunity to help Cuyler, and humbled to have been asked. My last day with SCMA will be Dec. 31, 2016.

While I am looking forward to a new career, I am sad to be leaving. It has been an extraor- dinary privilege to work for you. I’ve been honored by your faith in my representing both your interests and those of your patients. Thank you for the opportunity, and for trusting me with that precious responsibility. I have learned much from each of you, and I greatly admire your dedication to your patients, to our communities, to collaboration and to the principles of organized medicine.

Your SCMA staff is without question the best. Every day they demonstrate what loyalty and dedication truly mean, and I could not have achieved half of what we’ve accomplished without their help. I will miss this extraordinary team.

I want to thank each of our past presidents, all of whom helped guide me for these past 16 years as your executive director. I’d like to especially thank Dr. Paul Marguglio, who was president in 2000 when SCMA was informed it was being shut down with a bankruptcy filing imminent. I will always be in debt to him and the board of directors for believing in me and giving me a deeply appreciated, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help rebuild and grow the organization. In 2007, SCMA began providing executive director, administrative and operational services for the Marin Medical Society, and in 2009 for the Mendocino-Lake County Medical Society.

Also, I would like to acknowledge those who served on the three boards of directors during my term—thank you for your support and commitment to your societies.

I close with best wishes for the continued success of your practices and our medical community.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Melody
SCMA Executive Director
1991-2016

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With the resignation of our long-time executive director at the end of 2016, the boards of directors for the Sonoma, Marin, and Mendocino- Lake County medical societies have planned several meetings to look at current organizational structures and consider options for 2017 and beyond. Updates will follow in the monthly News Briefs newsletters.

•  Regina Sullivan, SCMA President • Peter Bretan, MMS President • Karen Tait, MLCMS President