Posted by Todd (64.34.202.197) on July 03, 2001 at 18:08:14:
Well, several people have posted their impressions of the Convention and of the people there. Elaine did a great job in her post describing everyone.
No-one's actually posted much about what happened there, so I thought I'd try to summarize.
There really wasn't anything "formal" planned for Friday except a group, Dutch treat dinner at the Shoney's next door. Some of the pics you've seen were taken there. Friday was an arrival day and when we passed out the Welcome Packs. Let me see if I can remember this correctly - Each Welcome Pack included OUCH business cards for every registered attendee, ch or supporter; a Certificate commemorating their attendance; an ink pen shaped like a hypodermic; notepad for taking notes (like how to find your room while drunk); namebadges made up by Annemarie; a CD with a great label designed and printed by Doodles (Kip's daughter); an OUCH mousepad; OUCH brochures ChuckC printed professionally; rice bags made by Sonya and Elaine; info from Glaxo on Imitrex and probably other stuff I've forgotten, all encased in a shopping bag with OUCH printed on it.
Dinner was fun and afterwards a bunch of people stopped off at the bar next door. (I believe their motivation was to speak with the patrons and attempt to convince them of the horrors of Demon Rum.)
Sat. morning, BobP covered the activities of the OUCH Committees that are active and tried to drum up some support for those that have been unstaffed or inactive. Several people said they'd help out. Then, Bob led a general discussion on anything anyone wanted to talk about.
During lunch, the Board of Directors members who were in attendance had a face-to-face Board meeting.
After lunch on Sat we had an hour about depression and suicide, presented by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works at a Chronic Pain clinic.
Next, we held a discussion on what the goals and activities of OUCH should be. Very interesting suggestions. We concluded that our group of perhaps 40 OUCH members couldn't actually "set" policy for the organization, so BobP and BarbD will present our recommendations to the entire BoD and Officers. Once they approve, BobP will make a public announcement.
Sat. night was the Closing Banquet. After eating, Elaine kicked things off with the presentation of awards. I think 14 people were honored for their contributions to OUCH, but since I can't recall who all they were, I won't mention any for fear of leaving someone out.
Finally, we gave out Door Prizes. They were donated by a whole bunch of people - lighthouses from MaryD, collectible knives from Jonny, Cluster CooCoo Chicks from Sonya, books from E, paintings from Paco, a grill from NancyC, and again I can't recall everyone and everything. Each attendee got a ticket when they showed up Sat. morning and we drew numbers and let them choose what they wanted. That pretty much wrapped up the "organized" portion.
In between all of this, there was a group of clusterheads constantly revolving in the lobby lounge, get togethers in the Hospitality Suite, sunbathers around the pool and people chilling in the bar next door.
Sunday, Leesa agreed to become the new Membership Committee Chairperson and held a Committee meeting to drum up ideas on how to increase membership. Most everyone was still around Sunday, although some left very early in the morning.
Sunday night, a group of 8 went to Red Lobster for dinner and ran into 2 more with the same idea. After about an hourlong wait, we had a great time. There are a couple pics from that night posted also.
I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but I'll leave it to the others who were there to fill in the blanks. I do have CRS, after all.
KTSSU,
T