For the last fourteen years, Seth Gordon has headed up our Association as President/CEO. At this point, he has decided to change career directions and take on different challenges. For that reason, Seth will be leaving the Association on September 28, 2012. We wish him well in his future endeavors. Attached please find his Farewell Message to the Members. A Search Committee has been formed to locate our new Executive Director. In the interim, Stephen Ferrara will serve as Interim Executive Director and handle any necessary duties, as approved by the Board of Directors. If you have any suggestions of candidates for this position, please feel free to contact the NYS NPA.

Please read below a letter from Seth Gorton:

 

FAREWELL MESSAGE TO THE MEMBERSHIP

As I reflect upon my time spent with the Association, I realize how hard it is go say good- bye to the many friends and colleagues I have met along the way. In 1999, I was invited by the Association’s Board of Directors to assist the leadership in strengthening our organization and advancing the profession. As the NPA’s first full time Executive, I was fortunate because past leaders of the Association had done an excellent job in building a solid foundation. While there are problems and challenges to overcome in any transition, there was always one important variable the Association could count on: its membership.

At the time, one of my immediate priorities was to establish an office in Albany and hire a professional staff. I will never forget the wonderful plant our Long Island Chapter had sent over with their good wishes. That plant was young and vibrant, just like the Association. While in our conference room just the other day, I noticed that this very same plant has grown quite big and strong, now over 8 feet tall! I could not help but think what a perfect metaphor to describe the contrast between then and now!

At the time the plant arrived, we just moved into our (then) new offices. Financially, our income did not meet our expenses and there were major start-up costs associated with opening an office and hiring staff. Today, the NPA has grown accustom to operating with not only a balanced budget, but an operating surplus and has more than doubled its operating revenues since that time. Our cash reserves have grown by a multiple of over six (6) times and we have the ability to pay off any debt nine (9) times over (commonly known as the acid ratio). That first year, approximately 360 members attended our Annual Conference in Lake George, NY. Today, that benchmark stands at approximately 550 registrants and counting!

Back then public relations consisted of a display booth. Today, it consists of appearances with major television networks and news media outlets throughout NYS including YNN Capital Tonight; Public Television (Upstate and Downstate), Newsday and others!

Like that plant, our membership has substantially grown as well by over 1,000 to today’s all time high of over 3,000 total members!

Through the efforts of our Board of Directors, past and present, we grew and prospered under a series of Strategic Plans: Vision 2000, Vision 2005 and the current New Horizon’s Strategic Plan. We are well known and importantly, well respected within the state and national nursing and advance practice community. We no longer are told at the end of a legislative session that no one knows why our legislation died in Committee because we have raised the standard of accountability commensurate with our current mission and vision! We now also have a PAC with annual available assets of over $30,000 compared to one with nearly no assets to draw from when I had started years ago.

In closing, I am extremely proud of all these accomplishments and all the honors the NP Community has conferred upon me throughout the years. I will surely miss all of those individuals I was fortunate to have worked side by side with to achieve them. They are far too numerous to mention. However, a special thanks to all our highly dedicated NPA professional staff with their many talents and skills, as well as everyone else throughout the organization that assisted the NPA to blossom into what it is today. Please know that I am personally grateful to all of you for your support and for all that you have meant and done for this organization.

Fourteen years ago, together, we embarked upon a new journey that would take the Association and profession to a new level! Now it is time for me to change course and heed the calling toward new and exciting challenges and important endeavors ahead.

It’s been a long and personally rewarding journey for me and I thank all of you for the privilege. In the words of the Apollo Astronauts returning from their remarkable journey to the moon, allow me to say:

"Houston. We’re at stable one. The ship is secure. This is Seth Gordon signing off."

Seth M. Gordon, MPA