Member Organization spotlight: Member Organization Growth & Impact Summit

Last year, HAEi launched a pilot initiative, the Member Organizations’ Impact Growth Summit (MOGIS), which brought together Member Organizations (MOs) from South America and Mexico for a working meeting in Brazil. On stage to discuss what participants gained from the MOGIS meeting were Alejandra Menendez of HAE Argentina, José Ignacio Contreras of HAE Chile, and Ana Cristina Rojas of HAE Colombia. The session was entirely in Spanish, with simultaneous translation provided via the Wordly app.

HAEi RPA Fernanda de Oliveira Martins, the session facilitator, asked the assembled MO leads about their motivation for taking part. Alejandra said that she believes that no single country has the solution to all the problems we face. She said: “Coming together is always a learning experience, not only to pass on years of experience but also to hear about other realities and see how we can collaborate to resolve issues.” For Ana Cristina, the draw to attend was the opportunity to strengthen their association and learn from others, just like Alejandra.

‘It’s very important that we stand united so our voice is stronger and we can continue to have access to medications. All the visibility we can achieve in South America is very important. The industry helps us scale up and gain greater visibility and a stronger voice.’

– José Ignacio Contreras, HAE Chile

The most valuable aspect of the meeting was the next subject for discussion. Ana Cristina felt that, in addition to the exchange of experiences and collaboration, the feedback inherent in the meeting structure enabled her to see her own organization from a different perspective.

José was pleased to see how similar the needs were and how connecting with other organizations helped. A key learning from the meeting was how to really embrace the tools offered by HAEi, such as HAEi Connect. Meeting in person with Fernanda, as well as Michal and Fiona, meant a lot to Alejandra, as it gave time for a full discussion of all HAEi support available.

A key element of the meeting was each organization’s creation of a 12-month roadmap. This was valuable for Ana Cristina as it provided clear objectives, priorities, and defined plans of action. This ability to precisely define the organization’s priorities was similarly valuable to the other MO leads on the panel.

The need to build in flexibility was top of mind for the whole panel. External factors can cause things to slow down, Ana Cristina felt, leading to a need to reorganize and restructure. With a long-term plan in place, you can adjust to changing circumstances, a sentiment with which José agreed.

Global Perspectives covered the MOGIS meeting in an earlier edition. You can read that article here.