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About ACRM

Message from ACRM President, Pamela Roberts imge

 

Dear members and colleagues,

As we approach this year’s annual Conference, 24 – 29 September, 2021, I write to share with you an overview of ACRM’s tremendous growth and accomplishments. It is striking to me that despite the adversity our industry has faced in the times of COVID-19, ACRM has worked harder than ever to serve our membership and to truly improve lives.

While ACRM has been a virtual organization for more than a decade, this year we have worked to enhance our online and virtual member/attendee experience in ways we expect will provide lifelong benefit for you, our members.

So, organized by our Six ‘M’ Model, here are some of the highlights I hope you will find useful and rewarding.

 

MEMBERSHIP

ACRM Membership - imageWe launched a new, state-of-the-art membership system last year, which has allowed for significantly improved access, record keeping, and customization.

As a result, access to our membership grew from just over 10,000 to now more than 82,000 members since January 2021 which includes our new eMember category. I am happy to report that our paid membership has also grown during a time when 94% of all other associations are seeing their memberships shrink.

  1. Please click here to see our new and expanded paid and free membership benefits
  2. Please click here to upgrade to a paid membership

 

MARKETING

In ACRM’s nearly 100-year history, we have never done more to market, advertise, and promote ACRM members, speakers, authors, Community Groups, events, and activities. As a result, we are hearing very positive feedback.

ACRM 2021 VIRTUAL Annual Conference video - click image to playBelow are some links to some of the videos I hope you will find both entertaining and informative.

  1. ACRM 5th Annual Women in Rehabilitation Science
  2. ACRM Leaders Invite You
  3. ACRM Purpose — Why Rehab Matters
  4. ACRM Early Career Development Course from Brian Downer
  5. ACRM presenter and member leader Julie Faieta
  6. ACRM Plenary presenter Claire Kalpakjian
  7. ENGAGE! ACRM 2021 Virtual Annual Conference
  8. ACRM SPECIAL Presenter Melina Longoni previews her Brucker symposium
  9. Featured Session: Mind & Body presenter, Trisha Meili
  10. Hannes Devos Special symposium preview

 

MANAGEMENT (Launched New 365 Sales Team)

I am very proud and grateful for the entire management team for all they have done to manage costs, secure government funding via several COVID-19 programs, and quickly make infrastructure investments to further our mission globally and virtually — all while retaining as high, or higher, service and benefits to our membership.

History teaches us that oftentimes opportunity can be born from a crisis. For ACRM, this opportunity is our new 365 Sales Team.

We quickly became aware our vendor community, heavily dependent on presenting at in-person meetings, was hit especially hard by the pandemic.

So, we created an entirely new way of helping our vendor community sell directly to ACRM membership and to more than 1,000,000 contacts in the rehabilitation space. From e-blasts and webinars in support of a product or a research project, to sponsorship of conference sessions and RehabCast (the official podcast of ACRM) to innovative digital and print offerings, the 365 Sales Team is customizing solutions to meet your needs. Please take a minute to look at the summary video, website, and prospectus links below.

  1. Summary 365 Video
  2. http://ACRM.org/sales
  3. http://ACRM.org/prospectus

We created an infographic and presentation to help explain ACRM operations: “ACRM 6M Model — Radar View.” This was made into a video presentation by CEO Jon Lindberg & web page.

 

MISSION

2021 has been an amazing year for ACRM’s mission. Here are some quick highlights, with many more updates to be provided at this year’s annual Conference.

  1. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has made substantial progress, not the least of which is the further development of a committee, with several subcommittees, and record participation for a new committee in ACRM. The ACRM leadership is working with the DEI leadership on a Vision Cast to roll out later this year. In addition to participating as guest presenters in established ACRM committee meetings, such as the Communications Committee, the DEI Committee provided valuable input to the ARCHIVES of PM&R Call for Papers on Systemic Racism and Bias in Rehabilitation.
  2. Cognitive Rehabilitation Training Manuals + Virtual/Online Training has set new records this year, reaching more people than ever. If you would like to sign up, please have a look here: http://ACRM.org/cog
  3. Our flagship journal, the Archives of PM&R supported the ACRM Communications Committee to facilitate the publication of 15 Information/Education Pages (IEPs) in the 2021 calendar year, with 10+ more in the pipeline.
  4. The Ad Hoc Committee on Vetting, Branding, and Dissemination is developing a comprehensive amendment to the Policies and Procedures document with additional input from the Partnership Committee.
  5. The Evidence & Practice Committee targeted three new practice advisory/guideline projects and reached out to several ACRM community groups to develop them. The committee is also in the process of formulating ideas and examining feasibility for two additional practice guidelines.
  6. The International Networking Group grew to Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group (ISIG) Level.
  7. We have a new ACRM community group forming, the Behavioral Health Networking Group.
  8. We created an orientation for the ACRM Committee and Community Group (ISIG & Networking Group) Chairs, Chair Elect, and Past Chair and we integrated the Chair Elects of each group into the New Chair Orientation program to prepare the Chair Elect to better support the Chair and learn of the role they will soon step into.
  9. We created a New Committee Chair Orientation program to support ACRM members in new leadership positions.
  10. We initiated a series of Vision Cast meetings per Community Group (which will continue after the Annual Conference) to focus on the growth of our membership within each Community Group, ISIG and Networking Group.

 

MEETINGS

During this pandemic, ACRM has been working full-speed ahead to develop its own, world-class, ‘virtual’ meetings.

This year’s Spring Meeting, held virtually this past March, was a record-breaking meeting with nearly 500 registrations. One of the highlights was ACRM’s first DEI event with the film Picture a Scientist made available to each and every one of ACRM’s members. Here is a link to the movie in case you missed it: https://ACRM.org/pas 

The 98th Annual ACRM Conference, getting ready to kick-off on 24 September 2021, has been significantly enhanced with the very latest technology and techniques. Please have a look at the links below for additional information.

  1. Conference home page
  2. Event Online Program and entry portal
  3. New features this year
  4. Presenter preview videos
  5. Event collateral
  6. ACRM social media links by Community Group
  7. We established our first live-stream event channel for the Annual Conference.
  8. We created the option for attendees to create personalized profiles for better networking opportunities.
  9. We launched Matchmaking to enhance networking and peer to peer connections
  10. NonMembers take 15% off the ACRM Annual Conference - imageWe transformed the Gala to a FREE event, open to ALL, and we will have mixologist, Rachael Green and a celebration of the prestigious ACRM award winners
  11. We enhanced the Exhibitor Chat with Attendees
  12. We launched the first “ACRM’s Got Talent”
  13. We upgraded the interactive technology with the add-on of Spatial Chat

If you have already registered, Thank You & we can’t wait to see you at the event.

If you have not been able to register yet, please click here and if you’re not already a PAID member, then enjoy a last-minute extra savings of 15% off by using the code “laborday15” at checkout. If you are already a paid member, then you automatically receive the best rate when you register.

 

MEDIA

Last, but certainly not least, here are some quick updates on the exceptional progress we have had this year with ACRM’s media.

  1. The Archives of PM&R impact factor increased 28% to a record 3.966.
  2. Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation (ARRCT) was accepted to PubMed Central. It also received a 29% increase in the number of submissions.
  3. ACRM Journals are leading the way with fantastic discounts on Open Access Article Processing Charges (APC) for members. Watch out for new video about this is coming soon.
  4. ACRM has 75+ Social Media channels with 65,000+ followers exploding with posts, re-posts, tweets, re-tweets, and likes and shares of the work of amazing ACRM members.

 

Thank you for being an ACRM member and for ALL you do for the rehabilitation field and beyond. Hope to see you on screen at the ACRM Annual Conference!

Very kind regards,

Pamela Roberts signature block

Pamela Roberts, PhD, OTR/L, SCFES, FAOTA, CPHQ, FNAP, FACRM
ACRM President
Cedars-Sinai