Mike, I appreciate everybody having me. And Denny, as I used to say in the 60s, man, that was heavy. So I'm going to try to bring everybody back up. We've had, you know, contracts, kind of, yeah, and then we went back up, Seth, and I'm going to, so I'm going to get us back up because I want everybody not to go back to the hotel. I want us to go drink a beer and have fun after this. So anyway, my, my mission is, say, I had to get involved with Anna, which I've been immersed with. You know, I'm going to talk a little bit about the Learning Center, a little bit about Doc Matter. So I'm going to give you kind of a smathering of how things go. I'm in Richmond, Virginia, just to give you a little background. I thought this talk should be how to say yes. And I know that kind of goes away from Denny's talk. We didn't even compare notes and that just happened. So I think that's the interesting thing about this is I didn't compare notes with anything, but these are common themes that you're going to see through all our talks, which is awesome. I've got disclosures. We don't really have much to do with what is today. This is kind of how things went for me. You know, I started as a resident just like many of you guys. I joined Anna as a resident. I had a, you know, kind of a goal. I said, gosh, arthroscopy was really cool. And I saw that in medical school and I said, well, I'm going to join as a resident, which may be odd these days. And I was a lab instructor. My first as a fellow at the OLC course, we don't allow fellows to instruct anymore, but Buddy Savoy brought me on and I got to teach even at the OLC. So this was just so cool to me. I was like, oh my gosh, wow. I was starstruck just like Brian said in the beginning. And then I became a reviewer for the Arthroscopy Journal. So all these were just stepping stones, which opportunities where people gave to me and I said, God, this is great. All these people are, they're giving me opportunities. They trust me to do this, which was unbelievable to me at that point because I was like, well, I'm a fellow. You know, what do I know? I'm reading, you know, journals and I'm telling people, oh, you should correct this. Then I became a committee member. I was like, this is so cool to sit around and talk about problems within the organization and help solve them. And then obviously I became a lab instructor at the OLC when I was in practice. So all these were great ways to kind of get my foot in the door. And every time I got my foot in the door, I was like, gosh, I just want more. I want more in this. I enjoy the people I was working with. And then this is kind of how things went. You know, I began to publish in the journal, arthroscopic techniques came along, published a lot in that. Then I got to be on a committee and task for it. I got to lead those. Then you become a master instructor at the OLC where you get to kind of call the shots. And then obviously you do instructional course lectures. You can work on self-assessment exam, on and on and on. I mean, really, if you keep showing up and obviously they'll keep giving you more incredible things to do. So the first things are things that I encourage residents and fellows to kind of get involved, but it's endless. It really is. As you see guys who I've watched and, you know, the whole way through still sticking around at the meetings, which is amazing. So what do I like the best at ANA? And, you know, a lot of people ask me that, you know, particularly fellows and residents because I'm heading a fellowship and obviously they say, well, gosh, is it the educational benefits? Is it the meetings? Is it the online education? Is it journals? You know, is it teaching the labs at the OLC? Is it committee work? I mean, there's so many aspects of ANA. And I tell them, I said, these are all great attributes of ANA, but it's really the camaraderie. I mean, that's what I enjoy. When I thought about coming to Nashville and it'd been a while since we had in-person meetings, I was like, I can't wait to see these people. I can't wait to have a beer and hang out with these guys at the receptions. So that's what I've really enjoyed about it. And, you know, I feel like I'm a kind of halfway through as some of these guys are kind of on the end of it. Some of you guys are just beginning. I feel like I'm kind of in the middle. You may look at me and say, mate, you're at the end, buddy. But I feel like I'm at the middle of the journey. But so the things I like about ANA, I think that would kind of tell you guys to help you advance. It's an equal opportunity organization. You know, coming in there from private practice, you know, I don't feel like I need to be a chairman. Some of these organizations, they, well, gosh, if I'm not a chairman of a huge university in New York or L.A., you know, no one listens to me. That's not true about ANA. ANA will take everybody. And if you were listening to the, you know, the cocktails webinar the other night, Jeff Abrams was a prime example of this, and they talked a lot about him, and he's a great mentor. And he, you know, came out of a private practice setting and has done wonders for ANA. You know, they reward people who put in the work. You know, if you'll head the committee and you'll make progress with it, you'll get rewarded. You'll get to do more. So I think that's the beauty of it. It doesn't really matter who you are, as far as that goes, that, you know, you start at the bottom and work your way up. And the purpose of that, just as like you're in business, is really to learn from the bottom up. You can't go to the top because you don't know where the people are coming from. So I think that's important. The whole process is one big learning experience, and, you know, you've got to start at the bottom. That's the way it is. The willingness to volunteer is contagious. I mean, I still see guys who've been presidents of ANA still showing up for OLC courses, which is amazing. Still seeing guys trying to sneak out of lectures, you know, that have been here forever. You know, no doubt about it. And younger voices are welcome. You know, a lot of times I would be afraid to speak up in committee meetings and stuff like that. And people would be like, yeah, we want to hear what you think. And I'm like, really? You want to hear what I think? So I love that about ANA, I really do. You check your ego at the door. You know, just like I said, just the way Brian said it when he came up, you're scared to talk to a lot of these people. But when you really meet them, you're like, these guys are regular, everyday guys, just like you are. And they just want to have fun and share and educate. So that's the beauty of ANA, I think, opposed to some of the other organizations I've had experience with. Pick a mentor. I think this is really important, and I'll go into that a little bit as we go through the talk. And then find an area of ANA that you really enjoy and work towards that, building ANA, making it better. And I think that's something that's really helped me learn and go through this process. So mentors. These were heroes. These are guys. This was like fantasy camp. This was my first set foot on the ANA kind of environment. These were guys who had built the place. They were still walking around the halls, but they were kind of at the end of the process. So these were guys who were writing books and teaching courses, and I was just like starstruck when I saw them. And obviously, most of those guys have passed through and passed on. And these were my mentors, and still, and the process that Seth mentioned as well. These mentors become your colleagues, and then they become your friends. You're scared to talk to them in the beginning, and then you're having fun with them in the end, and then you're going for a beer at the next meeting. So that's the way things have progressed, and I was lucky enough to have these people in my life, and they've really helped me a lot as I've gone through. The OLC. Let's switch gears. In case you haven't been to the OLC, it's a state-of-the-art lab right outside of Chicago, in Rosemont. It's about five minutes from the airport, so it's easy to get to. And obviously, I've been around long enough to watch this one get built and be at the old OLC, and this is amazing. Has a ton of lab space. Obviously, I'd encourage you guys to get started there. Certainly, it's a great place to exchange ideas. It's a great place to teach. Really, it's a great place to try things. Even though I go there mainly to teach, I always leave with something that I didn't know. The OLC is just an incredible time, and I've had some great moments there that I'll never forget. The classrooms are amazing. It's always a combination of didactics as well as lab, which I enjoy both parts equally. Certainly, you get to teach with your mentors. This was hugely exciting for me in 2015. I was almost like, you sure you want me to be on this? So you get to teach with guys that you really enjoy, and it's really an honor, and you'll never forget these things. Obviously, then your friends. You get to see guys time and time again, and these are guys that you'll know for the rest of your life and look for advice. That's been amazing. Obviously, if you work hard enough, just as Rick said, you'll get asked to participate in landmark research. This was amazing to even be part of this, and yeah, you say, I don't really want to spend my weekend in a lab, but obviously, we work hard, and then obviously, we play hard. So you get both sides of it, and I enjoy both. Not only the work, but also the camaraderie afterwards. It's a great place to really get to know generations of arthroscopists, really from the very beginnings all the way to meeting you guys when you come to the Learning Center. So I would encourage that as a big stepping stone for everybody to enjoy. I'm going to switch gears quickly and talk about DocMatter Community. This may be completely new to some of you guys, or some of you guys may be, it's obvious, I'm online with it all the time. So we've partnered with DocMatter, Anna has, and we've created a community, and obviously, this is an exclusive benefit for Anna members. So this is just for Anna members, you've got to be in there to be part of it, and obviously, it's really a partnership to really improve patient outcomes. It's a platform, a social media platform. You've got year-round access. Certainly, we can have webinars on this platform. We can talk afterwards and discuss about webinars. We can build advocacy. We can explore new technology. I mean, there's so many avenues that DocMatter offers. Networking, there's over 6,000 people that really can give opinions and you can keep in touch with. There's mentorship for the older guys to really advise some of the younger guys with cases, which is awesome, and for the younger guys to teach us new tricks. So I love all that. And then discussing cases. That was the main reason that I really wanted this platform, but it's offered so much more. So if you look at our traffic already, I mean, 85 post-monthly average is amazing, or 700, I guess, and then you've got at least 70% of Anna already on there, and this has just been started within a year. So really join the discussion if you guys have not gone online because this is going on behind the scenes and it's really incredible. If you ever need a second opinion on a case, you've got 6,000 people really to ask. So that's great. Every member of Anna has their own profile already established on the website. You just have to activate it. They've got clinical help on the website to help you, unlike other websites, they'll help you load cases, they'll help you do your profile, you can put your CV on there, you can really connect as far as that goes. This is a recent case that I posted on there, and look at that. I mean, that was over 7,000 views. They're even bigger. Jeff Abrams had one that was over 10,000 views, and then there are 22 posts. So these are ongoing conversations, which are amazing to me, and I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for this platform. I'm going to show you just briefly how this is the Anna website, and as you scroll to it, obviously it's easy to get to, and you just click on the doc matter, scroll down a little bit, and right, it boots you right to that platform, and most of the time you're already logged in, which is great. It's also available on your phone. You go to your profile, and you see everything you post is right there, which is nice to your homepage. There's your profile. They load all your publications, all your videos, whatever you want on there for you, and then you can really see the cases that you've put on there and the responses. So you can really customize this to how you want it. So it's amazing, and I urge you guys to really get on board. So looking at doc matter, you can network with your Anna members, you can collaborate on individual cases, build consensus, which is awesome, advance your knowledge, educate your colleagues, and critically evaluate the literature, and then ultimately we're going to improve patient outcome with this platform. So I hope to see all you guys online as you get involved in Anna. In summary, just say yes to Anna, meetings, cadaveric labs, online education, committee work makes you better, certainly a better doctor for me, global networking, and then really lifelong friends. I think that's the theme that I want to leave you guys with, what I've developed in my short tenure here, and I welcome you guys to kind of take this path. Thanks for your attention.

Anna organization

resident

lab instructor

equal opportunity

OLC