Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on February 4, 2011 at 5:29pm

I went ahead and posted this opportunity on Volunteer Match:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp803368.jsp

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Permalink Reply by Judith on February 4, 2011 at 8:45pm

Oh dearhearts---you know I would love to participate in this noble effort, but it's a little too soon after Mom's death, especially as so many other beloved elders are dropping like flies around me this year. However, I hope I can help more next year. Working with Ricky Joe, I'll continue connecting Portland TuD folks. For now, it's all I can manage. But I would love to be kept "in the loop" as you progress......Best regards to all!......

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on February 5, 2011 at 3:54pm

I know, Judith. No worries!! :)

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on February 4, 2011 at 9:38pm

It's great to see the organization developing. I have *zero* grant writing experience or I'd be happy to try to work to help you.

I am looking at the board of directors and am a bit intrigued to see that not all that many of them have diabetes? Not that there's anything wrong with that but to me, it seems like it would enhance the credibility of the organization to have more people who are not only familiar with the bus but ride it to work every day, home every night and on the weekends, even when there's a football game on, helping to lead the organization?

Or at least participate in the leadership team's dialogues? There are a lot of really smart people around here and I would think that it would be an advantage to the organization to expand the organizational voice of people who are not just great at fund-raising but also great at describing their experiences with diabetes and working on the communication piece. I think that communication offers the best opportunity for lower cost solution to the challenges of diabetes and that, for many day to day "tactical" diabetes solutions, a message board may be as effective or even more effective than a doctor, because perhaps the interpersonal relationships can grow and be stronger over time. I have a very hard time listening to anyone who doesn't have diabetes making any sort of suggestion about it to me? Or anyone else?

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on February 5, 2011 at 4:02pm

Hello acidrock23,
Your observation is accurate in terms of the current # of people who HAVE diabetes in the Board of Directors. However, among our board members, we have:
-Myself, with LADA
-Andreina Davila, spouse of someone with LADA (myself)
-David Edelman, spouse of someone with type 1; founder of DiabetesDaily.
-Lorraine Stiehl, spouse of someone with type 1; former executive with JDRF, currently heading their grassroots efforts nationwide and also working for the Diabetes Center at UCSF.

That is, 4 out of the 7 members are touched by diabetes either personally or through a spouse. The other 3 are people who have become involved with the board because of their expertise in other areas, which is important to have as part of the skills represented in a board. Here is a video we shot in mid-2009, which includes one former board member. In it, they all describe what they bring to the board and why they became involved with it:

We feel the recent addition of David and Lorraine has been instrumental in increasing the # of people in the board touched by diabetes. In the coming years I don't doubt we will be adjusting the composition of our board to remain balanced and attuned to the needs of the community and the foundation as a whole.

Please let me know if there are ways in which you feel you could help us in the foundation. You can complete a volunteer form here:
http://diabeteshandsfoundation.org/Diabetes_Hands_Foundation/About_...

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Permalink Reply by Judith on February 5, 2011 at 6:21pm

"A community of people touched by diabetes." I like the makeup of the board. Our spouses and moms and dads and sisters and brothers need a safe haven for supporting us. And knowledgeable, experienced folks to give them a place for questions and answers....Plus, for our day-to-day needs onsite, we have one of the greatest admin teams anywhere, I do believe....When we put together our dance company board, we pulled in a building manager, an architect, two lawyers, a public relations dynamo, an arts administrator. The company was dancers and choreographers and designers, what we needed was savvy, experienced folks to help keep us afloat-----which they did for 25 years.....

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Permalink Reply by Mike Ratrie on February 6, 2011 at 11:37am

Manny,

I completed a volunteer form after seeing Ginger Viera's post on FB.

As I pointed out on the form. I have not written grant apps before, but I have worked on responding to several US Government RFPs for telecomm services.

Fair Winds,
Mike

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on February 6, 2011 at 7:36pm

Fantastic, Mike!! Will look at it tomorrow.

We'll be in touch. Your experience writing US Gov RFPs is completely valid: in fact, I am sure it's tougher to do what you did than doing grant applications. :)

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