We held a 1 1/2 day meeting in September 2005 that, as far as anyone knows, was the first one exclusively for Rheumatology Managers. There were more than fifty (50) managers and physicians in attendance. Everyone was delighted to be able to share rheumatology specific management experiences with colleagues. As a result of that meeting and the desire to fill the void, the National Organization of Rheumatology Managers was formed.

Our 2006 Conference held at the Vinoy Renaissance in St. Petersburg, FL saw a thirty-five percent (35%) increased in membership for our organization. The 2007 Conference was held on September 28th and 29th in St. Louis, MO. Norm continued its growth pattern this year with 75 attendees as well as 18 exhibitors.

2008 saw unprecedented growth for NORM with 115 members, and 100 attendees at the September 12 & 13th meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. This year the conference also grew in length with a full day of seminars on Friday, and ¾ of day of seminars on Saturday. NORM membership also participated in a benchmarking survey with a recap of the results presented at the meeting.

NORM's unprecedented growth continued in 2009. We had 135 plus people attend the September 25 & 26, 2009 meeting at the Marriott Myrtle Beach Resort at Grande Dunes. We continued our tradition of listening to our members about their desires for the conference and the executive board added breakout sessions at the 2009 meeting.

2010 was a milestone year for NORM. We now have over 200 members! Attendance at our conference continued to grow. 163 practice administrators, practice managers, and physician managers from 36 states attended the 2010 conference at the JW Marriott Summerlin in Las Vegas, NV. The executive board again continued our tradition of listening to our members and added roundtables on Saturday afternoon. These roundtables provided the members a final opportunity to discuss topics from the presentations as well as continue to network with managers from across the country.