A regular monthly meeting of Transplant Recipients International Organization, Philadelphia Chapter, came to order at 10:00 AM in the first floor conference room at Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia, PA.

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Officers’ Reports:

President’s Report: Jim Gleason congratulated TRIO Philadelphia on being “BACK in a Big and Exciting way”!  In April 2010, TRIO Philadelphia hosted a national TRIO Leadership Summit, had a presence at the Second Chance Dinner Dance, and many of our members attended the DASH for Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness.  TRIO Philadelphia had a table at the DASH manned by John and Charlotte Keegan.  See our TRIO DASH photos on our FACEBOOK page.

Secretary’s Report: The Minutes from our April 17, 2010 meeting were accepted as presented by unanimous vote.

Committee Reports:

            Sunshine: Susan Pincus reported she will mail a card to Bill and Alma Keys who we hope are recovering well and will soon be back home.  

MOST: Steve reports the following speakers are scheduled:

May 27th: Dr. Linda Bogar, Heart transplant Surgeon, Jefferson University Hospital:" How to do a Heart Transplant in 10 easy steps"

 

June 23rd: Dr. Robert Steadman, local primary care Physician and Author: "Medicare for Baby Boomers and Beyond."

 

July 22: Janet Andrews, Gift of Life Coordinator: "The life and Career of a Nurse in the world of Transplant."

 

August 25th: Dr Jorge Ortiz, Chief of Liver Transplantation: and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pa: " Liver and Kidney Transplantation: Allocation, Policies and Controversies."

 

            Public Policy: Rosalie Lopez plans to work with Mike Sosna, TRIO National’s coordinator for the chapters’ public policy liaisons.   

Facebook Outreach: Susan Pincus reported there are now over 300 fans (and growing) of her TRIO facebook page, 259 of these are from the USA. Susan said that while she does report items of local interest, including chapter and MOST meetings, she also includes items of national interest.

            Membership: A TRIO tri-fold brochure is in the works and we will have 2500 brochures printed for $350 as accepted by unanimous vote at our April meeting.

            Outreach to transplant centers: Steve White reported he is collecting contact information for the 43 transplant centers in our area in order to have them include MOST meetings in their calendars of events and posted on their bulletin boards. Members are asked to send their transplant hospital contact information, preferably the social workers, via e-mail to Steve White at sjwhite17@comcast.net.

            Outreach to educate patients in hospitals and on dialysis: Tonya Harris shared at our April meeting that this is what her job entails, reaching out to dialysis centers.  Tonya volunteered to work with Steve, Elizabeth, Faith and Sandy on this service initiative.

            PCP Campaign: (a national initiative to promote discussion of organ donation by Primary Care Physicians in their practice).  Jim launched this at the TRIO National Leadership Conference in Philadelphia.  TRIO Philadelphia will be a test chapter for this rollout. 

Education for children and family members of those awaiting transplants:  Kathi Clapham and Dan Smith plan to meet to discuss this following our June 12^th meeting.  Our three recipients with “twins”, Kathi, Dan and Jim LaSalvia plan to work together to develop an outline for a children’s transplant book.

TRIO business cards: Jim reported business cards arrived for all TRIO Philadelphia PAID members.  Cards were distributed at our May meeting and will be available at future meetings for anyone who hasn’t received theirs yet.  Share your business cards and get our TRIO name and contact information out!

Creation of local transplant alliance with other groups: Jim said that the local ITNS has expressed some interest in a joint program. Pat Folk of ITNS National was elected to the TRIO National Board on April 30, 2010.

            Mythical Ball: Our treasury needs funding. Please think of just 2 or 3 people to invite to the ball, send an invitation and write Phila at the bottom of the return envelope. 

            National Leadership Summit:  TRIO Philadelphia was host to TRIO National's first Leadership Summit, a 2-day event, held in Philadelphia April 30 – May 1, 2010. Philadelphia TRIO members attended at no charge. Programs included Howard Nathan speaking about turning the dream of the Transplant House into reality, Debra Roberts speaking about fundraising for a good cause and Faith Cortright speaking about getting volunteers engaged and motivated. There was a guided tour of GLDP by John Green.                                                        Gift of Life Family House: As previously reported, Susan attended a volunteer training session for the house and has tentatively scheduled TRIO Philadelphia to volunteer the 2^nd Saturday of each month, from 12 – 2pm, following our monthly meeting. A suggested activity is baking; there will be an oversized kitchen and bake-ware supplies; TRIO would have to supply the ingredients, baking and clean up.  Gift of Life is hoping to open the Family House by Thanksgiving.

            Transplant Movie Night: Donate Life Hollywood, using Philadelphia’s Transplant Movie Night participants’ list of best transplant movies in a nationwide vote for best movie, has announced that our local favorite, Return to Me, came out in first place in that national voting and will be honored during a celebration in Los Angeles June 12th. Thanks to all who went to DLH’s facebook page or website and voted. 

            WAWA Kathi Clapham continues to make contacts at WAWA to get coffee clutches made with TRIO info on them.

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NEXT TRIO MEETING WILL BE our usual monthly 2^nd Saturday, June 12, 2010 at GLDP, 10am to noon.  Don't forget, please bring a friend to that meeting!

Respectfully submitted, Faith Carlin, Chapter Secretary