Each year in February or March, we hold a four day conference called ‘Government Day’. Yes, I know it’s a bit of a misnomer, but bear with me. The main audience for this event is our group of advocate leaders from across the country that coordinate our efforts in their chapters, states, and/or regions.
Our goals for this event are many:
From an advocacy standpoint, one of our goals is to make sure that we’re doing our part not just to grow our JDRF network, but to support and advance the broader diabetes community--both online and offline. To realize better treatments, and ultimately a cure, as quickly as possible demands nothing less.
So, it only makes sense to open this event to the ideas, feedback, goals, and concerns of the broader diabetes community (within the bounds of our budget, of course). I’m proud to say that we’re taking steps to do just that. This year, we’ve invited some folks from the diabetes blogosphere to join us to share their perspectives on the advocacy needs of the diabetes community and discuss how we can work together to achieve them.
I want to thank (in alpha order) Allison Blass, Michael Hoskins, Scott Johnson, Kelly Kunik, Kelly Rawlings, Cherise Shockley, Kerri Sparling, Scott Strange, and Kim Vlasnik for agreeing to make the trip to D.C. to be with us March 12-March 15!
My only regret, of course, is that we don’t have the budget to invite more of you to attend and share your thoughts. Rest assured, though, I do plan on making this a yearly invitation! And, in an effort make Government Day as open as possible, we’re also investigating our options to live-stream sessions so that those of you that can’t attend can still provide your thoughts. As always, we value the feedback of anyone that’s willing to talk with us and share their perspective.
As with most things we’ve done to engage the DOC over the past 18 months or so, this is intended to be just another first step—one that will hopefully lead to more engagement and discussion in the weeks and months ahead.
Use the comments section to provide your feedback on what you think we ought to be discussing at Government Day.
Thanks!
This is great team that is going and a wonderful thing you are all doing. Thank you!
Hey, that's me! :)
I am really looking forward to seeing you all in DC. Thanks so much for the opportunity!
What a good idea!
I look forward to learning how to spread the word to forward a cure faster with their ideas!
Thank you all so much for your support!
Thanks for the opportunity and I'm I can't wait to see everyone in DC!!
Kelly K
What a great opportunity, and thank you so much! Honored to be in the company of such great D-Advocates, and looking forward to seeing everyone in D.C.
I appreciate the steps you all are taking to bridge the gap. I hope you are able to stream the event online. The DOC would probably like to take part in the event wether it's streamed online or by sending tweets. Btw, we need to figure out a hashtag for twitter:)
Be Blessed
Cherise
Hi,
I don't see my name there and I did accept coming to Government Day.
Is there a mix up?
Thanx
Gary
Thanks all!
Gary...we've got you on the Govt. Day list!
I'm really looking forward to this event, thanks for the opportunity! It'll be great to see friends, some for the first time, make some new ones and see where this process can take the diabetes community.
How about #OGD2011 for twitter? Oh you know what would be cool if we can all have a twitter chat after the event?
Looking forward to Government Day and seeing some of the friends I met last year. Had my first NMOI meeting Friday!
Very exciting! Please don't forget about parent bloggers for future opportunities! Thanks :)