From the President
A Challenging, Rewarding Year
By Gary Bailey, MSW
 Over
the course of the past year it has been my honor and privilege
to represent you, the more than 152,000 members of NASW. It has
been a year filled with excitement and challenge, energy and,
sometimes, exhaustion. I have always felt good about being a professional
social worker and could not imagine a better, more rewarding job
than to be president of our association. I expected this to be
a great job. I didn't know it would be magnificent.
One of the most satisfying aspects of my presidency is that I
have been able to experience first-hand the vast diversity of
social work, in terms of geography, philosophy and the wide array
of social work organizations. Impressed by the effects of geography
on social work practice, I experienced the similarities among,
and differences between, rural and urban regions.
The similarities among social workers across the nation include
the core values of self-determination, social justice, nondiscrimination
and equity — these are universal. I had the opportunity to be
in Topeka, Kan., during this 50th anniversary year of the U.S.
Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. I
stood in the legislative halls in Massachusetts as "separate
but equal" was being struck down by the Supreme Judicial
Court ruling that same-sex marriage is a right under the state's
constitution. And I stood on the spot at the University of Alabama
in Tuscaloosa where George Wallace barred African Americans from
attending classes. So much has changed, and social work was present
in all of these instances.
Presented with the opportunity to represent our profession in
what are traditionally called the "halls of power,"
I have been to the United Nations four times, meeting with Secretary-General
Kofi Annan on one of those occasions. I have met with the Congressional
Black Caucus and with the Coalition for 100 Black Men. In February,
I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at the National Association
of Black Social Workers' Chicago Chapter conference. In April,
I attended and participated in the March for Women's Lives in
Washington, D.C., where I spoke with people I could never have
imagined meeting, like Gloria Steinem, who discussed her deep
respect for social work — feelings rooted in her years as a student
at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.
It has become increasingly clear to me that it is not necessary
to be a "mega chapter" to make a "mega difference."
In Rhode Island, the state's lieutenant governor addressed the
chapter's annual meeting. In Oklahoma, the state's attorney general
spoke and was presented with an award at the chapter's meeting
for his work on palliative care. The territorial governor of the
Virgin Islands — who recognizes the serious nature of our work
and respects NASW and the social work profession — convened his
commissioners to discuss with me the state of social work in the
U.S. Virgin Islands territory.
During the coming year, I plan to travel to more small chapters,
to meet members who do not often have the opportunity to meet
their association's president. I want to reach out to the chapters
most in need of encouragement, to shore up the troops.
The Social Work Public Education Campaign and NASW's 50th anniversary
will provide us with the means to reconnect and recommit to the
mission of our association and our profession. I also hope that
these events will enable us to continue bridging some of the divides
between social work organizations so that we may find ways to
work together and support each other whenever necessary, thereby
unifying the profession. At the same time, it will be important
to acknowledge the issues on which we differ and to agree sometimes
to disagree, to have different centers of attention.
I want to note my appreciation to Betsy Clark, the NASW national
office staff and particularly Doreta Richards in the Office of
Governance for their support. Simmons College and Dean Joseph
Regan have made an enormous contribution to NASW by allowing me
to be on the road almost every week of the year. My partner and
extended family, who have coped with crises while I was essentially
"missing in action" and made my job as NASW president
possible, also deserve my gratitude.
This year has been rewarding, but it has not been easy. There
are times when I am aware of the mental and physical toll of constant
travel, with little "down time." I have logged more
than 51,000 miles in the air, visiting 17 states, 37 cities, three
U.S. territories and one foreign country. Despite my jet lag,
I never forget that this is a contribution I want to make
— I would not have it any other way.
I encourage each of you to consider how you can support
your profession and the work being done by NASW. The Public Education
Campaign is a good place to begin, particularly because of the
invaluable insight and data about the social work profession it
is already generating.
As social workers, we tend to be hard on ourselves as a profession,
and often on our association. We don't always appreciate how significant
we are to society, but I have seen personally that others do
take us seriously. I have seen how powerful we are — and how powerful
we could be — if we own and embrace our significance in the world.
I want to infuse that sense of pride in our individual members,
in our profession and in our association.
All things are possible when you are part of a 152,000-member
organization. Just imagine what we will be able to do when we
are double or triple this size. Over the past year, one message
more than any other has been in my mind, a message I would like
to pass on to all of our members and to all professional social
workers. To paraphrase James Brown: "Say it loud: I am a
social worker and I am proud."
To contact Gary Bailey: president@naswdc.org
For NASW Social Work Public Education Campaign information:
www.naswfoundation.org/imageCampaign/
From June 2004 NASW News. © 2004 National
Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. NASW News
articles may be copied for personal use, but proper notice of
copyright and credit to the NASW News must appear on all copies
made. This permission does not apply to reproduction for advertising,
promotion, resale, or other commercial purposes.
|
About
NASW