MSSOP Recruiters will have the opportunity to ask questions to MSSOP staff and Membership and Recruitment Committee (MRC) members regarding their upcoming Spring Recruitment plans. MSSOP staff will be available to answer questions about the benefits of AMA membership, incentives, commission and other topics. MRC members will provide support to MSSOP staff, as well as address concerns about recruitment, ideas for events and more.

Register today for MSSOP and MRC Office Hours on Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. EST.

Encourage the first-year students to join the AMA by leveraging the incentive (Netter's Anatomy Flash Cards or Rapid Review Pathology, free with a four-year membership), and promote the member benefits that are useful in all years of medical school.

Host events and meetings throughout the spring to keep the students engaged. Share upcoming AMA Medical Student Section opportunities, including the Region Meetings and AMA Medical Student Advocacy Day, March 5 – 6 in D.C.

Reminder: All sections are eligible for funding through the Section Involvement Grant program to support recruitment, retention, community service, section development or educational events.

Some event ideas include:

• AMA recruitment social–Host an event for the first-year students and encourage current members to bring a non-member. Invite upperclassmen so the first-year students can learn how the AMA has helped them succeed in medical school.
• Study break recruitment drive–Offer food and share AMA updates with the students and promote membership to the non-members.
• Skills learning lab–First-year students can have the opportunity to learn the skills of suturing, intubation, drawing blood and starting an intravenous access line.
• Medicine today speaker–Host a practicing physician speaker to discuss medicine beyond the textbook and how the AMA works for the issues facing medicine (make the request through your medical school, state medical society or the AMA).

Help your classmates stay informed! Share the following articles and post to your local section's AMA Facebook page.

Studying for USMLE Step 1? Watch out for these 4 mistakes.
Make sure you're not making one of the four common mistakes while preparing for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1. An expert from Kaplan Medical gives advice for studying smartly. Read more at AMA Wire.

Why I Joined the AMA – And why you should too.
Joshua Cohen, MD, MPH, a headache neurologist in New York City and an AMA delegate, explains why he thinks the AMA is still relevant and beneficial to physicians' interests. Read more at MedPage Today.