When Amber Patrick arrived at the American Society of Human Genetics in April 2021 as an administrative coordinator in the executive office, nobody could have predicted what her role would become by the start of 2024—not even her. That role is senior specialist of meeting operations, a truly unique result for someone who had never worked on meetings before coming to ASHG.
After just six months at the association, the leadership team saw Patrick’s ability to create more-efficient processes and gave her several operational responsibilities in the five-person meetings department. To start, she used her graphic-design background to modernize and simplify the web pages for the 7,500-attendee annual meeting, resulting in fewer member questions that required staff responses.
Next, Patrick changed many of the questions on the event’s registration form “to focus on getting the types of data we need the most,” she says. And with the retirement of ASHG’s chief operating officer in early 2023, Patrick saw the need for other changes to happen.
At that time, “a lot of institutional knowledge had just left the building, and much of what we do was not written down or it wasn’t clear,” she recalls. “So, we figured out better ways to do things and documented all of that for future use. This saves us a lot of time over the course of the year, letting us focus on the things that are most important to our members and supporters.”
Further, the biggest change Patrick initiated in 2023 not only improved the member experience but also ASHG’s finances. Working with her tech vendors, she built an entirely new event-housing system “that prevents us from holding back too many hotel rooms, which now causes less stress for everyone” while saving the association nearly $60,000 a year.
Selling Change to Others
“In college, I was a psychology major in addition to graphic design, so I can be a pretty good salesperson when I need to be," she says. "The most important thing is to understand where someone is coming from and use the conversation to meet them there. If you know what someone is afraid of and why they might resist doing things differently, you can explain exactly why the change you’re making won’t bring the problems they’re worried about. And if someone asks me whether I have considered some aspect of an issue, I make sure I’m prepared enough that I can say yes.”
Also, there’s one thing Patrick repeats whenever she’s discussing a change with a team member: “If we just keep doing things the same way, we are going to fall behind the curve—and that could really impact our event attendance.”
Finding Ideas for Change
“I try to read as many articles as I can, and there’s a Facebook group for planners that I check on a lot to see who is trying something new," Patrick says. "I always want to know what other people are doing in their work because if you just stay in your own bubble, you're never going to grow.”
