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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

Thank you for a very

successful year

By Sheldon Gross, MD, 2018 BCMS President

dear Colleagues,
My year as President of bexar County Medical Society has gone job as Alliance President and has been a joy to work with.
by very quickly. As it is coming to a conclusion, it seems appropriate I must also commend the members of the Executive Committee
to reflect on what has transpired over the past year. and board or directors of the bexar County Medical Society.
Firstly, I must comment on a group of individuals that have been These are individuals who have willingly donated time to serve our
marvelous to work with. Our Executive director, Stephen Fitzer, organization. I remember a quote by Coach Greg Popovich of the
is one of a kind. Not only has he shown tremendous leadership Spurs who said, “All of us are smarter than one of us.” That is cer-
and management skills regarding the staff of bexar County Med- tainly true for bexar County Medical Society. The input from our
ical Society, but he has also ensured that our organization is on very physician leaders have resulted in wiser decisions and better ideas
solid financial footing. We discussed many things during our Ex- than we would have ever had otherwise.
ecutive Committee meetings. However, we never had to discuss We hosted a very successful meeting of the Texas Medical As-
how to handle financial disaster or crisis because that never arose. sociation this past spring. The meeting at the JW Marriott was a
We should all be indebted to Steve for the outstanding job he has complete success. It gave us a chance to demonstrate the wonderful
done. He has enabled the Executive Committee and the board of aspects of our city. I very much look forward to the next time that
directors to focus instead on new projects and ideas that can make the Texas Medical Association meets in San Antonio.
us a more effective organization. I have the highest regards for all I have extremely high hopes for dr. Adam Ratner who will serve
of the staff at bexar County Medical Society. as next year’s President. He is a man of tremendous energy, judge-
I started the year off with two broad strategic goals for our Med- ment, and enthusiasm about our organization. I see several avenues
ical Society. I wanted to start a leadership program for those indi- for enhancing our effectiveness in the city. I am hopeful that we
viduals interested in accepting leadership positions in our can play a larger role on both a city level as well as county level.
organization as well as other medical organizations. I have been I will continue to have great expectations for dr. Alex Kenton
elated to see how well things have gone with our leadership semi- as he assumes more and more responsibility within TEXPAC lead-
nars. I had no idea how effective our faculty from Trinity University ership as well as dr. Jay Shah who is our newest San Antonio mem-
would be in discussing various aspects of leadership. I also under- ber of the board of Trustees of the Texas Medical Association.
estimated the enthusiasm that was demonstrated by the participants dr. david Henkes continues to do an outstanding job as Chairman
in this program. Upon reviewing the critiques of the course, the of the Texas delegation to the American Medical Association.
only real critique was that it was not long enough! People wanted In conclusion, it has been one of the great honors of my lifetime
to spend more time discussing different aspects of leadership. I am to serve as President of bexar County Medical Society. I am more
very optimistic that this group of 21 physicians will be future lead- convinced than ever that there is tremendous human potential
ers in San Antonio and will do a superb job largely as the result of within San Antonio. It remains the job of bexar County Medical
skills they acquired during this seminar. Society to capture as much of that human potential as possible and
My second strategic goal was to strengthen the bonds between use it to make us the strongest County Medical Society in Texas.
the Medical Society and the Alliance. I am very pleased to say that Thank you again for this great privilege.
I see that relationship getting stronger. I am looking forward to
having many joint projects with the Alliance and having significant Sincerely,
Alliance involvement in many different aspects of our Medical So- SHEldON GROSS, Md
ciety and how it functions. Jennifer Shepherd has done a wonderful President, bexar County Medical Society

8 San Antonio Medicine • December 2018