I look forward to the challenge of APPO president because I love the APPO and what it stands for: that is, humanitarian and charitable outreach through the offering of free medical care here and abroad, and sponsoring a scholarship fund to deserving medical students in the Philippines who are too poor to fund their medical education. We also offer CMEs to our members through the sponsorship of the Ohio Medical Association.

Locally, we are in partnership with the North Coast Ministry, which provides free medical care to the uninsured and underprivileged under the leadership of medical director Dr. Phillip Tomsick. The lifeblood of the APPO is our yearly medical-surgical mission to the Philippines, through which we provide free medical and surgical care to the poorest of the poor.

I was eager to accept the challenge of serving as your President because I want to strengthen and revitalize APPO and save it from future extinction. We are currently in the midst of a leadership and membership crisis. Since APPO has been in existence for such a long time, most of our members are, although it is sometimes hard to admit to ourselves, getting older. Yes, it is true, many of us have graduated to “senior citizen” status and although we are aging gracefully and our spirits may be youthful, and our bodies may not be. Some of us may not have as much zip as before, and without new and younger members, the APPO may begin to fade. So let’s rejuvenate the APPO by mixing young blood with the old blood.

We can energize and rejuvenate our organization. For a start, we need to support and further encourage young leaders who are actively involved in our organization, like Dr. Jan Bautista our superb President in the past, or our incoming young leader Vice President Dr. David Tolentino, and our young elected members of the board of trustees. So I urge you, senior members, to actively campaign to recruit new members. New members need not be full blooded Filipinos, but honorary Filipinos by affinity like our great past President Dr Phil Jones. My hope and dream is that new members will be our leaders of tomorrow to perpetuate the APPO.

To attract younger people to be leaders of the APPO, I feel that we need to change the structure of the organization. The new generation of Philippine-American physicians has a different agenda and they are busy creating their future, raising young families and building their medical practices. To remain attractive to them and to serve as a leader of the organization, I propose we hire an executive secretary to help run the day in and day out activity of organization, especially with respect to our fund raising events. We the old guard should be open for a new change, for a change that creates new opportunity.

Another change I propose is to create an APPO foundation that will be an attractive vehicle for donations and for any funding raising events, to establish the name of APPO in perpetuity, and to serve the charitable purpose of APPO. I have also proposed some changes to affiliate with the Allied Medical Professionals to make our organization stronger and bigger and enhance its reputation. Another proposal is to create a council of leaders from the different Philippine-American organizations, a meeting of the minds to coordinate, plan, and execute civic and humanitarian projects for the good of others, particularly to the Philippine American community.

I hope I can count on your support so that the agenda I have proposed can be realized and I can hand over leadership to a new generation of Philippine-American physicians of APPO when my term expires.

Sincerely,
German L Neri MD FACP
APPO President 2010