Wednesday, November 25, 2009

One down....Two to go!

THE MEETING DATE IS SET.......SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I've got the main speaker secured for our meeting. He is our local pediatric gastroenterologist here in the Quad Cities. WHOO HOOO! This is really starting to happen!

This afternoon, I e-mailed another pediatric GI doc from the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. All my surgeries were done there, so I'm partial to that hospital. I'm hoping one of the peds GI team from UIHC will speak at our meeting.

From there, my plan is to contact a third speaker. I perceive this to be the most challenging to secure. I plan to invite someone from the research team at Johns Hopkins. ;-)

I'm also still making arrangements for somewhere for a casual "meet & greet" Friday night (Aug. 6th), as well as attempting to get a block of hotel rooms. I had to wait until I had a date set which I was waiting on the main speaker, Dr. Yaseen, to be available before I set up everything else.

When I figure it out, I'll post some sort of RSVP system. I would greatly appreciate RSVP's once I get that going.

I will continue to keep everyone posted! I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! We all know how much we have to be thankful for! :-)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

GREAT NEWS!!!!

I have secured sponsorship with Trinity Medical Center (part of the Iowa Health System) through the Medical Education department! I have the Jardine Center at Trinity West Campus, Rock Island, IL reserved for the first three Saturdays in August. Once I have secured a main speaker (Dr. Yaseen, Pediatric Gastroenterologist), I will decide which date we will have the meeting and then invite the other speakers. I'm hoping for one of the first two weekends in August. I'm also planning to get some advertising from Trinity. I'm SO EXCITED! I'm glad there has been a significant interest from the HMDSN group and I cannot wait to spread the news around here throughout Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois! Right now, I'm thinking we'll have a casual meet & greet on Friday evening as people arrive in the Quad Cities and then have the official meeting on Saturday! Heather has suggested reserving a block of hotel rooms and I plan to do so as we get closer to the date...great idea by the way! Please forward this to any families or friends who may be interested in attending the meeting. Once plans are set, I will post an RSVP system of some sort so I can start getting a more accurate count.
SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!
Brenda, 29 HD