Dear Medical Student:
I hope you will join the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS). Your membership will provide a plethora of opportunities for leadership, networking, community service, and political advocacy.
Being a member of the AMA and MSMS means being involved from the national level to your own medical campus. Your opportunities to participate range from leading bioethics lunch talks at your school to organizing a charity drive for the state to advocating for national policy change. At all levels, from your school to your county, state, regional, and national levels, you have the opportunity to network and form relationships with fellow students and physicians that will last long after your medical school career. Unlike other student organizations, you can remain a member for the rest of your life!
One of the most exciting ways to get involved in organized medicine is to attend a state or national meeting, where you can learn about topics in health care, debate the issues, and influence AMA/MSMS policy. You can even craft new policy yourself! Last year, many students from medical schools across our state of Michigan, including several M1s, wrote resolutions that were accepted as new policy at the state and national levels. These student resolutions go on and help direct our AMA/MSMS policy agenda and lobbying priorities. (As an extra incentive, resolutions also count as peer-reviewed publications!)
I can only begin to scratch the surface of the opportunities for our members. For only one payment of $88, you get a four-year membership to the AMA, the Michigan State Medical Society, and your county medical society. Even ignoring the benefits listed above, when you consider the free/subsidized travel to conferences, the scholarship opportunities, and the free subscription to JAMA (not to mention the Netters flash cards or Rapid Review Pathology textbook), the membership more than pays for itself!
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask! We look forward to meeting you at AMA/MSMS events!
Sincerely,
Tamara Roumayah
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Chair, MSMS Medical Student Section
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