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"Now that we are organized, what do we do?"

There was a comic poster in the 1980’s that was very similar to the above vignette and with the same caption. It obviously pokes fun at associations in search of leadership.

Nguyễn Quyền Tài, M.D.*

Every organization has its original raison d’être. The Vietnamese Medical Association of Florida (VMAF, Hội Y sĩ Việt Nam tại Florida) was founded by alumni of the Saigon University School of Medicine in 1988 to provide to its members a sense of belongingness and fellowship that they could not find in other American professional organizations of that time. The majority of these physicians came to the United States as refugees after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 to Communist invaders . They spent a number of years in so-called re-education camps and suffered as a result many hardships. After their release from these forced-labor prisons, they endured in their quest for freedom unimaginable dangers at sea and deprivations in South-East Asia refugee camps. Because of their rather late arrival in the US, Florida was only one of the few states where they could continue to practice medicine. With so many common ordeals and shared memories, their bond to each other was very strong. There was a genuine sense of camaraderie among members of the organization.

Starting with 49 founding members, the VMAF rapidly gathered most of the Vietnamese physicians practicing Florida, and its membership, all in good standing, hovered around 100. The Association provided testimony for its members as to their competency in their job applications or with hospitals’ regulating agencies. In 1989, it sent a delegation to the convention of Vietnamese physicians in the US to contribute to the formation of the Vietnamese Medical Association of the United States (VMA-USA, Hội Y sĩ Việt Nam tại Hoa Kỳ). Certain members of the Executive Committee of the VMAF were also instrumental in the founding of the organization the Vietnamese Community of Florida (Cộng Đồng Việt Nam tại Florida). Members of the VMAF came to the aid of people in Vietnamese refugee camps in Indonesia and the Philippines. This close collaboration culminated in the organization of the 1993 Convention in Orlando of the Association of the Vietnamese Physicians of the Free World (Hội Quốc Tế Y Sĩ Việt Nam Tự Do, the largest gathering ever in the free world of Vietnamese physicians, dentists, pharmacists.

In 1992, The VMAF open its membership to all dentists and pharmacists of Florida and changed its name to “The Vietnamese Association of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists of Florida (VAPDPF, Hội Y Nha Dược sĩ Việt Nam tại Florida), as it is presently known. With the influx of new members from Dentistry and Pharmacy, the Association showed a new vigor in formulating new programs, such as the scholarship program for students in Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy schools. Subsequent administrations however encountered more difficulties in recruiting new members and keeping old ones, as a number of the older members retired, moved or passed away, and as the younger generations have not yet well settled in their practices to participate in the organization.

Starting with the 2006-2008 administration under the leadership of Dr Nguyễn Phi Yến however, there is a sense of rejuvenation. We have seen members of the younger generations, trained in the US, entered into positions of responsibility in the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. People believed, wrongly as it turned out, that the younger health care professionals, because of the diversity of their alma maters, because they have not shared the same kind of hardships and faced the same professional challenges, do not have the same kind of solidarity as between alumni of Vietnamese schools, and therefore they not have any reason to belong to the same Vietnamese professional associations.

These health care professionals of the younger generation, raised and educated in the US, with very little experience of the Vietnamese society of their motherland, have however found good reasons to join our Association. They may have common interests, such as socializing among their peers. But, as Harvey Cushing, the father of modern neurosurgery, said in a commencement speech:

“.. interest does not bind men together: interest separates them; there is only one thing that can effectively bind people, and that is a common devotion”

Professional associations are formed to serve foremost the individual interests of their members and the common interests of their professions. Vietnamese professional associations do not have as its major goals the protection of any profession’s interests. These goals are assumed more effectively by American local and national organizations. Personal interests that usually bring individuals to the associations are few and simple: Socializing, enjoying traditional food and entertainment, meeting personal friends, etc. People came for the social and cultural events, but have no other strong reasons to support and maintain the organization.

The Vietnamese people (as many societies in the past) have traditionally great respect for the medical professions. Doctors are considered the best educated section of the society; they rendered much needed services, and they are believed to hold the most honest profession. Good doctors are compared to loving mothers (“lương y như từ mẫu”). In order words, the common people look up to their doctors. What better goals then for our health care professionals than to uphold this honorable position by truly serving the people, in rendering needed services to our communities?

Alexis de Tocqueville remarked in his famous book “De la Démocratie en Amérique” after his trip to the Unites States in 1831:

The citizens of the United States are taught from infancy to rely upon his own exertions in order to resist the evils and the difficulties of life [...]. In the United States associations are established to promote public safety, commerce, industry, morality, and religion. There is no end which the human will despairs of attaining through the combined power of individuals united into a society¹.

The Vietnamese people came from a country where governmental authority, under the past as well as the present regime, regulate and impose upon all societal activities. People expect orders and largesse to be bestowed from the higher-ups (“ơn mưa mốc”). In the American tradition, on the contrary, people form associations to take care themselves of challenges they are facing.

This devotion to common goals, not individual interests, is what will maintain our bond and makes our Association stronger.