As I reflect on our many successes for 2012, I am honored to lead HARDI into a new and promising year. 2012 brought exciting development to HARDI and I’m confident that with your help, we will not only accomplish our strategic goals for 2013, we will exceed them. The HARDI leadership is busier than ever assuring that our efforts are continuously supporting your competitive advantage. Now that everyone has returned back to work, it’s time to look ahead and shift our focus on achieving our planned initiatives for 2013.

If you have been an active member, the HARDI leadership and I truly appreciate your efforts and participation. If not, just a little effort goes a long way. Remember this is a member-driven organization and just by standing up for your needs in the industry, you determine the course of action for your region and the rest of the membership. We are expecting a greater deal of member participation this year for the networking events, HARDI’s education and training university (HEAT.U), and the continuously improving industry benchmarking reports. These programs and resources are designed to encourage industry growth and collaboration while addressing your professional development needs. We hope to see more members utilize these resources and share their experiences with HARDI staff and fellow members.  

As you transition into the new year, we encourage you to utilize HARDI’s member-only resource, the healthcare reform planning tool found within the Advocacy section of the HARDI website at www.hardinet.org/healthcare-resources. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the 2012 elections, the United States healthcare and business communities are preparing for multilateral structural transition. Within the provisions, strict implementation guidelines targeted at small businesses are outlined in order to achieve future objectives. Awareness and education are imperative to ensuring a methodical transition in this changing economic and political environment. As always, HARDI is fully committed to providing you with the resources you will need to navigate this ever changing environment.  

As you begin planning your agendas for this year, we encourage you to register for the 2013 networking events. Get to know your counterparts and fellow members around the country. Of course, the HARDI Icebreaker prior to the AHR Expo is the first and one of the best networking events of the year. Further, registration is now open for the new 2013 Focus Conferences hosted by the respective regions. The focus for these conferences will be marketing optimization, HR & organization management, strategic leadership, and sales optimization. These events will feature extremely valuable programs lead by some of the finest speakers whom we’re confident will provide true professional development to those who attend. The registration deadline is right around the corner for the marketing optimization conference hosted by the Western Region in Laguna Beach, California. If you’re unable to attend, we encourage you to send your marketing executives to this meeting so they can benefit from the content. To register online before the deadline, visit the networking & events page on the HARDI website.

I look forward to seeing you in Dallas.