Academic Medicine Open Forum

A recent Harvard Business Review article, "Fighting Loneliness on Remote Teams," resonated deeply with us as virtual community managers. In it, author Rachel Montañez credits the Stanford Social Innovation Review for this powerful definition of "community":

Community is not a place, a building, or an organization; nor is it an exchange of information over the internet. Community is both a feeling and a set of relationships among people. People form and maintain communities to meet common needs.

This AAMC virtual community exists FOR you. We encourage you to feel comfortable and engaged in this space. And we challenge you to be more intentional in building this community with and for each other. Over the next few weeks, try taking one action from the suggested list below to build your connections with each other:

1. Upload (or update!) your profile picture
2. Fill in your bio info (let your peers know who you are and why they should connect)
3. Update your notification preferences (no one wants a million emails!)
4. Connect directly with someone in this community
5. Attend a monthly open office hours (first Thursday of every month)
6. Complete the member spotlight form
7. Volunteer to become a community champion (or explore other volunteer opportunities through our Volunteer Manager program)
8. Welcome new members in the "Weekly Wednesday Welcome Wagon"
9. Answer someone else's question or respond to someone's discussion post
10. Become a Mentor (or a sign up to be a Mentee!)
11. Search the "all communities" listings and find other spaces you may want to join (not seeing a topic you're interested to dive deeper into? Let us know!)
12. Cross-post in two different communities
13. Upload a resource (attachment) to one of the community libraries
14. Make a recommendation for the resource bundles
15. Share the community link with your peers
16. Download an event listing (and attend the event!)

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Penny Schnarrs she/her
Director of Community Relations and Strategy
Association of American Medical Colleges
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