So, now, I'm going to explore why we have meetings.
Meetings allow simultaneous collaboration, which accelerates and improves decision making, while providing a forum to hear all inputs, debate over (an) issue(s), and then decide on what course of action to take or make a decision.
Meetings also provide a place for group reviews and these group reviews create focus and direction to help align the organization and create communication within the organization
However, at the same time, it's also important to ask yourself before you go to a meeting, what exactly is the purpose of this meeting and if I need to go to this meeting, what do I need to do to prepare for the meeting.
Preparation before a meeting is one of the most important aspects of a meeting as
essentially more work outside the meeting means less person hours in meetings and less total person hours spent.
And thus, making the meeting more streamlined and efficient.
Press • Daily Cal: Reach a large student population by placing an ad in the Daily Cal. This option can be costly but if done well and timed well, it can be highly effective. Details and prices can be found at: http://dailycal.org/advertising.php • KALX Radio: Make a Public Service Announcement on the campus radio station. It announces campus events every day at 1:15pm and 8:15pm. Submit who/what/where/when/why sound byte about your event to campus@kalx.berkeley.edu. • Berkeley Daily Planet: A free Berkeley city-wide newspaper allows events to be added to their paper and online calendar for free. Email a 2-sentence description with details to: calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Items must be submitted at least a week in advance of the event.
Tabling • Student Groups currently registered with the Office of Student Life may maintain a table or other display materials at the Upper Sproul Plaza area between Bancroft Avenue and Sather Gate (not including Mario Savio Steps or the brick area of the plaza); Lower Sproul Plaza; North Gate; Tolman Hall breezeway; and the area between Kroeber Hall and Boalt Law School buildings. Organizations must provide their own table and chair. The areas listed above are available on a daily first-come, first-served basis. • Calapalooza: A resource fair extravaganza for Cal students is held every year on Thursday during Welcome Week. To table at the fair, you must be a registered student group or department on campus and reserve your table through New Student Services. Contact: 642-4970 or looza@berkeley.edu.
Presentations/Classroom Announcements • Giving short presentations to classes on campus offers more information than a flyer and introduces your group to a large audience. A good way to target a specific audience is to make presentations in specific clubs or classes. A listing of all the registered student groups is available online http://students.berkeley.edu/osl/. Existing group members may pass the word on to other groups they belong to. To present to a class, get the professor’s permission before class begins.
Internet • Post announcements on newsgroups and department listservs by email the department advisors. • Keep in touch with present and past participants and quickly distribute information on any upcoming events or announcements. • Send out messages to individual students, student group leaders, and campus contacts
Word of Mouth! • Never underestimate the power of spreading the word one-on-one. Marketing Strategies
Here are the answers to the 6 question survey about Hepatitis B knowledge.
Keep in mind that even though you may have surveyed a person, it is very important to go over the answers and explain the reasons for the answers to the surveyee as this will help them better understand Hepatitis B and they will then be more powerful in their quest for knowledge and be better able to spread Hepatitis B knowledge exponentially. =]
Also, if you are having your chapter do this, make sure that your members are familiar with the survey and the answers.
Outreach Survey Answers
1. What is the most common cause of liver cancer worldwide?
Answer: D. Chronic hepatitis B
60-80% of all liver cancer cases are caused by HBV infection. Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver and can lead to premature death caused by liver cancer or liver failure.
2. About how many Asian and Pacific Islander individuals are living with chronic Hepatitis B?
Answer: A. 1 in 10 people
1 out of 10 Vietnamese individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis B compared to the 1 out of 1000 white Americans. There is no clear answer to the origins of why HBV is so common in Asia, but its lack of symptoms, silent transmission and lack of awareness contribute to it being passed from generation to generation, which is why it is so important to get screened and protected with vaccination!
3. How can you get hepatitis B?
Answer: D. All of the above: A,B,C. from infected mother to child at birth, contact with open wounds, and unprotected sex.
HBV is transmitted in modes through BBS: birth, blood and unprotected sex. Emphasize that for Asians it is transmitted primarily from mother to child at birth when their bloods mix. Also mention that hep B is not transmitted through casual contact such as sharing utensils, shaking hands, kissing- this is a very common misconception.
4. If you look and feel perfectly healthy, could you have chronic hepatitis B?
Answer: A. YES
Hepatitis B is a silent killer, many who are infected show no symptoms until the very end stages of the disease. So testing and vaccination are VERY important to catch the disease early if you have it, and to protect yourself if you don’t. The screening is a simple one-time blood test.
5. Is there a vaccine for hepatitis B?
Answer: A. YES
Vaccination is a simple 3 shots taken over 6 months. The vaccine is so effective in preventing liver cancer that the WHO (World Health Organization) calls it the first anti-cancer vaccine.
6. Is there a cure for hepatitis B?
Answer: B. NO
There is no cure for hepatitis B, which is why it is SO important for you and your loved ones to get screened and vaccinated as soon as possible.Although there is no cure for hepatitis B, appropriate screening can determine if you need treatment which can reduce the risk of liver damage and cancer.
For those who yet have it, here is the 6 question survey that Team HBV uses to test people's knowledge of Hepatitis B. I will attach the answers in a separate blog.
1. What is the most common cause of liver cancer worldwide?
a.Eating contaminated food
b. Alcohol
c.Smoking
d.Chronic hepatitis B
2. About how many Asian and Pacific Islander individuals are living with chronic Hepatitis B?
a. 1 in 10
b. 1 in 100
c. 1 in 1000
3. How can you get hepatitis B?
a. from infected mother to child
b. direct contact with open wounds
c. unprotected sex
d. a, b, & c
e. sharing food
4. If you look and feel perfectly healthy, could you have chronic hepatitis B?
So, this past summer, I interned at a startup technology company and one of my supervisors gave a talk on effective meetings and I thought that I should share what I learned with EV.
Self Evaluation:
First of all, when thinking about effective meetings it's important to consider how many hours do YOU spend in meetings? Do you spend an hour a week, a couple of hours a week, more hours than you really should be spending in meetings a week? Evaluate yourself and the time you spend in meetings. You'd be surprised at how many hours you spend in meetings.
Next, ask yourself are those meetings really necessary. Is it that important for you to attend the meeting? Or could you be doing something better with your time? Why must you attend this meeting?
Meetings are expensive, take a lot of time, and people also don't like going to meetings. Meetings take up time, a valuable resource that many of us don't often view as a resource. Additionally, sometimes we should be doing more important things than going to a meeting, but we put off those things and go to meetings instead because we feel this pressure to attend. Also, people don't like going to meetings. They much prefer doing other things with their time.
Taking the first step to enter the registry is very simple. All you do to join the registry is fill in a form, and do a cheek swab. Nothing will actually be taken from you at this first step.
The test is a genetic (DNA) test, and the only time you will donate is if 10 genetic factors match a patient in need.
You will be in this registry until you are age 61. During this time, hopefully you will match someone, but you might not.
If you are a match for a patient in need, 70% of the time, a procedure is done to extract a certain amount of circulating stem cells from your system.This procedure is very similar to a blood donation, only it takes longer, about 4 hours. It is called PBSC, for Peripheral Blood Stem Cells.
The 2nd procedure that is done only 30% of the time is a marrow extraction from the top of your hip bone, NOT YOUR BACK OR SPINE, and you have anesthesia, so this is not a painful procedure. It is done with a needle, so there are no incisions or stitches. It only takes about one hour.
Most people have some misconceptions about being a marrow donor, it is really very simple, and is not a painful procedure as a lot of people think.
Minorities are critically needed in the registry, because there just are not enough in the registry to help all of the patients in need, so sometimes those patients do not get a marrow transplant.
There are currently two ways to donate marrow once you registered, have been notified by the National Marrow Donor Program that you have matched up with someone, and are trying to figure out if you would like to become a donor.
PBSC (Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection) (done about 70 % of the time) The donor receives a filgrastim(synthetic growth hormone) injection each day for 4 or 5 days before the donation procedure to increase the number of blood-forming cells in his or her blood. After the series of injections, the blood-forming cells are collected from the donor during one or two apheresis sessions. During apheresis, blood is drawn from a donor's arm and circulated through a machine that removes blood-forming cells. The rest of the blood is returned to the donor in the other arm. The donor must sit quietly during the four to six hours needed to collect the cells.
Marrow Collection (done about 30% of the time) The donor is given anesthesia to prevent the feeling of any pain during the procedure. While the patient lies on their stomach a needed is inserted into the hip bone and 600cc-1200cc of marrow is extracted. Since the insertion is small, only a band-aid is required and the donor is free to go home (and in some cases have gone back to work afterward). A common myth is that this procedure is very painful, but people who have donated before say that pain medication was not required, and most are able to return to work after the procedure (similar to a dentist appointment).
So remember, that donating marrow is not painful and usually surgery does not happen if you do happen to match up as a potential donor for someone in need of a marrow transplant.
To be a potential donor, you must be between the ages of 18 and 60 years old and meet general health guidelines.
Registering is super easy and only requires a small cheek cell sample to be taken taken (no more blood sample used for this initial testing) and tested to determine the donor's genetic tissue type. Potential donors then also complete a brief health questionnaire and sign a consent form to have their tissue type listed on the Registry.
And that's it for most people. Since the chance to find a match is nearly 1 in 300,000, most people will never be contacted again. However, it's important to register as thousands of people daily are searching for a potential marrow match and by registering, you're helping to increase the chances that they actually find a match.
Volunteering becomes so much mor enjoyable when you're positive and everyone feels that charge of super positive energy emitting from you. As a result, usually those around you tend to feel a little more positive.
And even if you don't feel happy, fake it. Somehow, faking it will eventually help you to actually feel happy.
So, I don't profess to be an expert on anything, but here is the first in a series of blogs about a couple of lessons and tips that I have learned from my experiences volunteering.
1) While it's great that you think of a great event to put on, it's important to remember that as great as your event may be, at the same time, to make life easier on yourself, it's really helpful to have a great team behind you, supporting you throughout the entire way.
As much as we would all love to be our own individual superman or superwoman or super being, things are so much easier to do when you don't have to do everything and you can work on things with other people. Additionally, working on events helps create more bonding between you and your team. And when you look back and reflect on your event, that bonding time will be really what stands out to you as well as probably one of the highlights or funniest things/experiences about that event.
Additionally, it's important to utilize your team for their skills and knowledge. You wouldn't ask someone who speaks only Mandarin and English to translate for someone, who speaks only Spanish and French and the same goes for skills and knowledge.
Just wanted to say thanks to all Team HBV National, Asian Liver Center, everyone involved in the Jade Ribbon Campaign, Team HBV China Chapters, the Team HBV US Chapters, East Villagers, the Jade Ribbon Youth Council, SF Hep B Free, the Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation, and the Hep B Project.
It was so great to meet everyone after hearing their voices online via Skype and knowing that we’re all working together to eradicate HBV and that maybe someday, as a result of our efforts and other Hep B warriors around the world, that the next generation and the generations after that won’t have to deal with the negative physical and social effects of Hepatitis B.
After hearing all about Lei Chuang and his famous exploits back in China working to promote Hepatitis B awareness, I also did a little further research on my own.
Check out http://hi.baidu.com/%D3%EA%CC%EF%C3%C5%C2%ED/album/%D5%E3%B4%F3%D2%D2%B8%CE%D1%A7%D7%D3%D6%C2%D0%C5523%C3%FB%D4%BA%CA%BF%C7%F3%D6%FA
At this site, there's a whole photo album about Lei Chuang and how he sent out a ton of letters about Hepatitis B awareness to many Chinese officials and policymakers.
Not only is it impressive about how many letters he sent out, but also the fact that he's been voicing these concerns about Hepatitis B awareness and HBV discrimination to the Chinese government.
The Chinese government does not take criticism lightly and Lei has been quite brave in voicing his concerns against them.
One of the best things about the Team HBV National Conference is having the opportunity to meet and mingle with the Team HBV China Chapters. It's so interesting hearing about their different experiences as between the US and China, there is most definitely a difference in focus and yet, we all share the common goal of eradicating Hepatitis B.
And upon hearing that the China Chapter Team HBV volunteers were known as the sunshine volunteers most definitely put a smile on my face. Maybe, it was the fact that they weren't just a part of Team HBV, but were more specifically, sunshine volunteers. Maybe, it was that it reminded me of the song that kids sing called "You are my sunshine" or maybe, it was the whole idea that as a sunshine volunteer, you definitely bring some sunshine or positivity into the lives of others.
Whatever the reason, I applaud these chapters on their efforts and love the name!
It's almost Tuesday and you know what that means here in Berktown, almost time for Team HBV at UC Berkeley's general meeting.
In particular, I'm super stoked about this upcoming meeting tomorrow because Amanda (one of the coolest/nicest people in the world/one of Team HBV's founders) is giving us a presentation on outreaching and WE'LL ALL BE DRESSING UP AS HEP B NINJAS!!!!
I'm definitely excited to be hearing what are some other things our team needs to take into consideration about outreaching and better reaching out to the Berkeley campus and community and spreading Hep B awareness. Did you know that Hep B is one of the most preventable diseases in the world and yet 400 million people in the world are infected with chronic Hep B or 1 million in the US alone?
At the same time, I also can't wait to see everyone dressed up as a Hep B ninja!
