American Cancer Society Making Strides Steering Committee Meeting

Location: American Cancer Society Office

Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2013; 6:30-7:30 pm

This was the first of our monthly meetings since the inception of this Steering Committee.  Unlike the last time where the conference room had been arranged like a lecture hall, today all the tables were placed around the room to form a square and it looked like a true committee meeting.  Adam was there along with some of the other ladies who I had seen at the previous meeting.  There were also some new members and now we were looking like a real committee.  As before, I was the only other male besides Adam.  We waited for people to arrive after their work day, but soon Adam called the meeting to order. 

ACS Offices

We started as before by introducing ourselves and then saying why we were doing this - being a part of the committee.  Almost everyone was directly or indirectly affected by breast cancer and many were survivors.  This meant that we were applauding quite a bit and soon it was my turn and I apologized again for not having an inspirational story.  I said I am doing it because I can and I want to.  There was no applause, but it was good enough for them and we moved to the first item on the agenda.  We started with a ‘Mission Moment’, which is meant to remind us all what we are trying to accomplish.  We talked about ‘Cancer Prevention Study-3’, which is a 20-30 year study for anyone who is between 30-65 years old and who has never been diagnosed with cancer.  After an online survey and a on-site visit for some lab work, all one would have to do is answer questions every 5 years for the duration of the study.  We were encouraged to publicize this and if possible, recruit people as well.

Next, we took another look at the committee structure and since our last meeting, some of the key sub-committee places had been filled, especially ones for sponsorship and fundraising; a difference which I wasn’t sure about.  I asked about it and Adam, who was taking copious notes, explained that while fund raising can be at any scale, sponsorship was usually at a corporate level.  One of the main things that we need to do in the immediate future is spread the word about the walk.  We talked about the various options available to us such as sending out emails to people we knew, posting notices at laundromats, gyms or in coffee shops such as Starbucks or more so in local ones where people tend to read notices.  Someone mentioned putting up notices in their building and us recruiting our neighbors.  I said that while I did not know any of my neighbors, I could mail everyone in my Company or post it on the intranet.  What I needed was content of the message.  This prompted Adam to show us the brand new website for the walk, where we could find the message content as a part of the email template to send to people for fund raising purposes.  I next asked about cross-promotion and boy, did I learn a thing or two. 

We could learn from this

My question was if we could promote it through other organizations that I volunteer with.  To this Adam responded that every organization has their own agenda.  But of course they do, hence the words ‘cross promotion’!  This surprise was nothing compared to the next one where I asked about the difference between various organizations such as ACS, Susan Komen and Avon; all of whom are fighting for the same cause.  Everyone immediately went on the defensive and started elaborating on how “We”, meaning ACS, does a "lot more than any of them”.  One survivor said that during her battle, Komen did not do as much for her as ACS did.  A few years ago I read a book called ‘Tribal Leadership’, which talks about different stages of culture in the organization and 'Stage 5', which is the highest levels of culture, is when you realize that your competition is not a particular organization, but the cause that you are trying to overcome.  Based on that, we had some work ahead of us because I failed to understand who was “we” and who was “them”!  I said that when anyone asks me the question that I just asked my intention was to stay true to the overall cause and then narrow down to what ACS was doing.  We cannot say anything bad about others, but rather say good things about ourselves. 

We talked about some of the targets that we could approach for sponsorship and promotions, such as 'Bears' or the 'Cubs'.  We discussed day of activities such as kids tent, zumba, photo tent and some free giveaways.  Someone mentioned having a cupcake tent to which another countered saying we should be healthy and serve something with less sugar, but was immediately overruled.  When it comes to cupcakes, resistance is futile.  The next thing was to schedule the next meeting and also discuss the August kick-off breakfast, which would be on a weekday, but early enough for everyone to make it to their work on time.  The final thing was for Adam to take us through the website and show us how to register.  We decided to have our team and next thing was picking the team name.  We tossed around a few till someone proposed ‘Saving Second Base.’  Ponder on that for a bit as I conclude this article! 

That night I registered and joined our team.  My account from last year, when I was a walker, was still active.  I remember that day in October, when I did the walk; never imagining back then that a year later, I would actually be on the committee that organized this year’s event.  We are still learning how do this and what our roles and responsibilities are.  But we are all enthusiastic and while we may still have some ways to go before we attain ‘Stage 5’, as described in ‘Tribal Leadership’, we were at least all pulling in the same direction.