American Cancer Society Making Strides Steering Committee Meeting

Location: American Cancer Society Office

Date: Tuesday, April 08, 2014; 6:00-7:00 pm

A month had gone by real fast and it was time for another ‘Steering Committee’ meeting.  As I have mentioned, one of things that makes Carrie a right leader is that she hold's people accountable and always seems to have a plan.  For this particular meeting, she had assigned us homework and asked us to come prepared with 3 ideas in the areas that we would be working in.  Plus, she wanted us to think about how we would go about executing on those ideas.  Since I was a ‘General Volunteer’, I could think about all of the other groups and how I could support them.  So I decided to go with ‘Promotion’, ‘Fund-Raising’ and ‘Children’s Tent Activities’.

For ‘Promotions’, I thought about putting the survivor’s stories on flyers, thinking that this would give it a more personal touch as we ask people to get involved.  I have seen this be very effective with ‘Make-A-Wish’, as we put up stories of various “wishes” at our events.  For ‘Fund-Raising’ I thought about a “soiree” in a bar or a pub.  I know some places that have hosted such events for other organizations and we could start by approaching them.  Plus, we could raise additional money through raffle, silent auctions, games etc.  For the ‘Children’s Tent’, I thought about getting ‘One Brick’ involved with activities such as face painting etc.  There was no need to recruit specialists or experts.  I had seen enough volunteers in the past that would be able to do this with ease. 

Some had decorated their folders

I arrived for my meeting carrying the folder that had been distributed at the last meeting and saw that Carrie had several more handouts for us this time.  We started with introductions and ice-breaker and this time it was favorite “Easter candy”.  I said that anything having chocolate would be alright with me.  Several others were fans of chocolate as well, although one lady said that she wasn’t!  There was also a demand for “Chocolate-Peanut Butter Eggs”.  We then started with the “Mission moment”, where Katie, the co-chair talked about this being the volunteer week and how statistics have shown that 2 hours a week of volunteer work reduces depression.  No wonder Wilson’s always in a happy mood.  Next up was “Advocacy moment” and we learned how some State representative is trying to add $120 billion towards cancer awareness and healthcare, through increase of $0.75 in taxes on cigarettes. 

Carrie talked about sponsors and in-kind sponsorship.  'ACS' has a policy of exclusive sponsorship, meaning if one bank is sponsoring, no other bank can do it.  The same was true with TV channels or car companies.  For example, someone wanted to get her friend who works for TV to come and give a talk, but since we have an exclusive deal with ‘ABC’, we could not have a representative from another company coming in.  The only way she could come and speak was if she came as an individual and did not mention her affiliation.  Carrie talked about how our goal for this year was to reduce our budget by almost $7 a person.  This was going to be a challenge for Carrie since we also had other goals such as increasing our attendance for the kick-off breakfast. 

Next, it was time for the brainstorming session and Carrie took to the whiteboard.  First up was ‘Survivor Tent’ and the 3 ladies in that group presented their ideas, which included an increased focus on the tent.  They wanted to spotlight the survivors who would be there and also have a pink carpet at the entry.  Next was ‘Mission’ and Katie had an idea of doing a "Scavenger Hunt", where people would have to go get signatures or something at every tent.  I said that this would definitely make the sponsors happy!  ‘Advocacy’ person proposed a game - “Whose your representative?”  She also wanted to hand out ‘Dollar Store’ bags with #askme, so that people ask volunteers more questions.  ‘Entertainment’ tasked about organizing Zumba, yoga, a flash mob, decorating pink hair etc.  I brought up my ‘One Brick’ idea and everyone liked it.  Besides the face painter for kids or tattoos, I mentioned how “card making” is popular nowadays and we could have a similar “virtual” experience on a laptop.  All we would need to do was set up and then just press “send”, so that the card is dispatched in a fast, convenient and an inexpensive way.  Some of the other ideas that we discussed were having a “Promise Garden”, similar to the one I had done for the ‘Alzheimer’s Walk’ project last year.  I told them how we had different colored “flowers” for caregivers, survivors etc. and they liked it. 

Time was up and so I did not have a chance to bring up my ‘Promotions’ idea.  As people left, I stayed back to chat with Carrie and Jessie about putting the survivor stories on flyers.  Well, apparently corporate designs the layout and so we may not have any say in that matter.  Also, told them that we could potentially host the kick-off at a location such as ‘Chicago Cultural Center’, instead of a hotel.  Well the problem is that people expect a breakfast when they are invited for a “Kick-off breakfast” and so hotel was almost mandatory.  I told them to let me know about One Brick and then left with my pink water bottle as a present for joining ‘ACS CAN’.  It had been a very good meeting and I can’t wait to see how we go about preparing for the event.