American Cancer Society Making Strides Steering Committee Meeting

Location: American Cancer Society Office

Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2014; 6:00-7:00 pm

All of us on the steering committee are usually tasked with some action item to be discussed at the next meeting.  My task was to find out options for the “virtual card” idea that I had brought up and which I thought would be a perfect implementation at the children’s tent.  A quick search revealed that there are several hospitals that have this program and people could send such cards to those patients.  Armed with this knowledge, I arrived to find that everyone was already there. We started with the “Mission Moment” with Katie reminding us that this month was “Men’s cancer awareness month”, especially prostate and skin cancer.  She also mentioned that there was a link between breast and prostate cancer and if someone in your family had one, genetics may dictate that the other could exist.  Next was Le’Loni’s “Advocacy Moment” and she talked about the continuing push from ‘ACS CAN’ on tanning ban for teenagers. 

Jessie then talked about some of the upcoming events like the ‘Chicago Sky’ game on August 3^rd where we would be showcased, and based on some of the promotional pictures; everything was going to be covered in pink.  Then there was the ‘Kick-off Breakfast’ on Monday August 4^th, and a sign-up sheet was passed for volunteers, wherein I put down my name.  There was also going to be a promotional kick-off event at a pub.  This was to attract younger crowd and also people who may not be able to make it to the early breakfast.  I said that since the intention is to get people to sign up at these events, perhaps we should not “oversell” the “happy hour” at breakfast else the same people will show up.  Also, I reiterated that we should get people to sign up on the spot and said that if not laptops, we should have iPads as ways of signing-up.  I said we could ask people to sign up on the spot – especially the young and trendy at the evening event.  Jesse asked if anyone had comments regarding last year’s kickoff, especially since both, Carrie and she weren't there.  Carrie said that she had heard that the speeches ran too long and so was planning to curb that by keeping the ceremony short and to the point.  I said that I was mostly outside on the street, directing people while standing next to a homeless man.  However, once I had come inside I had thought that the ceremony was good. 

"ACS CAN needs you!"

Jesse then asked us to break out into focused subcommittee groups and work on our plans.  I joined the ‘Entertainment’ group and told the ladies there that I could potentially arrange for volunteers.  Le’Loni was by herself and asked how many people did not have any subcommittees and if they could join her for discussions.  That would be me, so I went over as did Katie.  We discussed the ‘Advocacy Tent’ and Le’Loni’s idea of having the entrance decorated like a purse.  She was going to put an ‘Uncle Sam’ poster inside and I suggested having an entire wall of posters inside; calling it “Wall of Education”.  While they liked it, finding enough room would be a challenge.  I said that we could even have it as a part of the ‘Scavenger Hunt’, where the participants would have to come back with some tidbits from these posters.  Le’Loni was trying to get some of our elected officials to come, even though they would not be allowed to speak or canvas.  But being seen there would be promotion in itself during this election year.  Aah politicians.  You gotta love them!

We all got back together and Carrie talked about a database of volunteers from last year and she wanted to cut down the numbers from 500 to 100.  So it looked like I would not be required to provide volunteers after all.  I mentioned that some of the younger one’s had not been of much help last year and she mentioned that not everyone would be invited back.  We discussed some other committee matters, including where we were with respect to our goals. Carrie announced that we were way ahead than where we were at this stage last year.  There was a ‘White Sox’ fundraiser game in August and Carrie said that she could get our tickets in bulk so that all of us could sit together.  I asked if some of the other sports teams do anything and Carrie mentioned that ‘Bears’ have their own organization supporting cancer and so do not want to do cross-promotion.  It never ceases to amuse me that people lose sight of the main goal - which is beating cancer, not who raises the most money. 

It was time to leave and I talked to Jesse about possibly getting ‘One Brick’ involved as volunteers.  We also talked about the ‘ecards’ idea and I said that it was important for little kids to send these cards in order to get them introduced to supporting the community.  It had been a good meeting and we could all sense that the momentum was picking up.  Lot’s had been done since last month.  But there was still plenty to do.