More Than the Sum of Its Parts
— By Tate Kauffman, MD, FAAMA, AAMA Board of Directors
“What is that point for?” is a question that I’m often asked by my more inquisitive patients as I place needles. I give the best explanation that I can, but the question misses that a well-thought-out treatment, no matter the paradigm, should be more than the classical or neuroanatomical functions of the individual points. Perhaps that point also sets the N-N+1 needle balance, opens a curious meridian, or focuses an energetic treatment. Surely the points are important and powerful, but in the right company they can be so much more.
Current and prospective members often ask some variation of, “What can the AAMA do for me?” It’s a fair question, I suppose, especially as some professional organizations resemble large, impersonal corporations providing a range of services and being a member feels more or less like being a customer. The AAMA does, of course, provide services like advocacy, journal access, and CME. Arguably, however, the opportunities that the AAMA provides are more important.
The AAMA was founded nearly 40 years ago by four ambitious physician acupuncturists who wanted something more for themselves and for the practice of medical acupuncture. The AAMA was a path to that goal of something more, something better, something bigger than themselves. Their vision, their hard work, and the work of those who followed led to the journal, the symposia, the CME, the advocacy, and the friendships that we now enjoy.
Medicine is in a strange place, and we are physicians who know that it can be better than this. The current state of medicine poses challenges for us and for our organization. We’re square pegs in round holes, but we’re really interesting and capable square pegs, and we’re just what many patients want and need, now more than ever.
The AAMA is here to support us, but we’re not just customers of the AAMA. We are the AAMA, and the organization is an opportunity to be more than the sum of our parts. It’s not just about paying our annual dues (though please pay your annual dues), but about engagement, about truly being a part of this organization, this family.
To paraphrase JFK, “Ask not what the AAMA can do for you…” Perhaps service on a committee is your preferred method of engagement, or perhaps board service? Maybe at this point it’s simply Symposium attendance and letting your colleagues who are not yet members know what we do and why they should be a part of it. We face challenges, but we face opportunities as well, because we have remedies for much of what ails our patients, our profession, and our society as a whole. Like those first four physician acupuncturists in 1987, we have the opportunity to be more than the sum of our parts.
