NVHR Update
Update 2/27/04
The Board of Directors had hoped to provide this update much sooner than
this, but so much has transpired since the National Meeting that it was
impossible to organize our thoughts into a message that would be informative
for everyone. At last, we have an opportunity to let you all know what
has been happening.
Board of Directors Vacancies
Despite the best efforts of the Nominations Committee to prepare a list
of candidates for consideration for current board vacancies, the number
of applicants on top of all the other ongoing business made it impossible
to complete the task in time for the January board meeting. As a result,
the list of candidates will be developed for consideration at a later
date. One of the concerns is that the size of the current board is almost
unmanageable as it is. Adding more members would only serve to increase
the difficulties we currently face trying to communicate with everyone.
Also complicating the matter is the fact that we are quickly running out
of funds and would be unable to support travel costs to board meetings
for new members. Rest assured that everyone who submitted a resume and
expressed interest in a board position will be considered for vacancies
during the upcoming election by the full membership.
Writing the National Hepatitis Elimination Plan
Many of you may think that the dust has settled on the NVHR since
the inaugural meeting in December. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Board of Directors just concluded its first meeting of 2004 and has
good news to report. CDC has offered us the assistance of a very talented
and experienced scientific writer to help us develop and write the national
plan. Dr. Alexandra Levitt has agreed to undertake this daunting task
and work with us to put all of our ideas and strategy to paper. Our goal
for completing a plan within the next18 months remains.
Dr. Levitt has already taken the materials from the workgroup notes that
were posted on the walls of the breakout rooms as well as the summary
power point presentations to begin crafting an outline.
We know that many of you are interested in contributing to the plan as
well. Since we have over 140 people now engaged with NVHR, we need to
organize the volunteers as best we can. Dick Conlon, NVHR Administrator,
will set up a list of point persons for each member of each workgroup
(the work groups from the conference) to contact with ideas, information,
and offers of service in preparing and organizing content for the Plan.
We will send this list of contact persons to you in about 6 weeks when
the outline of the Plan is expected to be available.
Additionally, we will be developing a reservoir for all the data, research,
and documentation which will serve as the source material for the plan.
Again, a direct contact person’s name and phone and email information
will be provided in a few weeks.
Fundraising
In order to accomplish our task, we are going to need funds. Dick Conlon
is working with International Medical Press to organize a fundraising
effort. Our plans for this year, include at least one meeting of all the
workgroups toward the end of the year. If funding is available, it may
be possible of a few of the workgroups to meet more than one time. The
workgroups will move beyond the brainstorming phase and will hopefully
have some hard copies to review and expand upon in this year’s meetings.
Tune in to the website for late breaking news.
You should also have received an electronic thank you letter, and an
email with all of the attendees’ contact information. If you did
not receive these items, please contact Dick Conlon (rconlon@nvhr.org)
and he will see that you receive them.
Thank you for your patience. We are a new coalition and experiencing
some growing pains, but we have a great base of support and lots of momentum.
We look forward to working with all of you soon.
Dick Conlon
Administrator
NVHR
February 2004
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