Hey guys,

In our last officers' meeting, VP of Community Outreach Andrew Chang came up with a good idea on how to stream-line weekly meetings in order to avoid long, drawn out sessions. This plan involves delegating different topics on the agenda to different officers, instead of one person going through the entire agenda point by point. This helps to mix things up a bit, and allows for each individual officer to focus on his or her particular topic. In the beginning of the meeting, each officer will briefly go over the main points of his or her topic to the entire club, with the everyone taking no more than 15 min or so total. Then we would move onto the second part of the meeting, in which individuals who are interested in topics that they heard during the initial overview can then go to the respective officer and talk to them individually or in a small group instead of having the entire club having to wait. This streamlining strategy would be effective for when the club is involved with multiple small events going on, as people who are not involved with a certain event or activity do not have to wait around for things to finish up before they can get to work on what they need to get done. This is by no means a full proof system, and will probably take some getting used to, but hopefully itll save us some time in getting things done as a club.

-Greg

 Hey guys,

Thanksgiving edition of Greg's random thoughts. Turkey day is coming up, and besides stuffing our faces full of awesome, delicious food, being thankful for all the good things in our lives is something most people like to do. I thought I'd go over some things I'm thankful for regarding Team HBV at UC Berkeley. First and foremost, the people that make up Team HBV at UC Berkeley: you guys truly make this whole thing worth while. To all the officers, you guys are simply amazing for being willing to put in the extra hours and extra effort to make this club run smoothly. We have come a looooong way two semesters ago when this club was going through a transitional phase. The amount of progress we have made together is simply astonishing. I also have to give a tremendous amount of credit to the members of Team HBV at UC Berkeley. Your dedication to come to all the meetings and events is a testament to your passion for our cause to fight Hep B and liver cancer. An organization is nothing without members who care, so I thank all of you for that. I am also grateful for everyone else involved with the Jade Ribbon Campaign, including the rest of the Team HBV collegiate chapters. Even though we may be competing for pts on East Villagers, our ultimate cause is the same and our passions are combined. 

More to come later, but until then, think about what you are grateful for.

-Greg

 Hey guys!

So to help boost our resources for our upcoming charity basketball tournament, Team HBV at UC Berkeley decided to do a fundraiser teaming up with "Pho Me Now!" , which was actually started by a group of Cal students. Running from yesterday night to tomorrow night, customers who order from Pho Me Now can type in "TEAM HBV" into the comment box, 20% of their order will be donated to our cause! I personally ordered both last night and tonight, and let me tell you, this stuff is awesome! The first thing that stood out was that they are QUICK! Just today, no more than 15-20 min after I ordered online, the driver called me saying he was right outside my door...Amazing! They keep the broth and the noodles separately so that they arent soggy when it arrives. I've gotten the Big Boy Bowl and the Ultimate Brisket Bowl, both of them offering good portions of meat to fill you up. They also offer a decent variety of appetizers and drinks to make it a complete meal. The pho even comes in a convenient plastic microwavable tub that you can actually save and reuse for other purposes. Overall, I am a satisfied customer and will definitely order from them again, especially in super late night occasions since theyre open till 4am!

So, I encourage all of you who are in the berkeley area help support us and your hungry stomaches by ordering from Pho Me Now, and putting TEAM HBV on the comment box! You will not regret it!

-Greg

 Hey guys,

Greg here again, with some thoughts about teaching students how to conduct their own outreach events. During my experiences with the Jade Ribbon Youth Leadership Conference as well as the Jade Ribbon Decal, I've learned the true importance of teaching life long skills to others so that they themselves can go on and succeed in life. Both the leadership conference and the decal provide students with opportunities for themselves to use their creative juices and plan their own outreach event. Anyone can simply be a volunteer to an already formed event, but it takes something special to actually plan and execute a successful event. Such factors as money, scheduling, volunteer man power, transportation are all potential obstacles that can hinder you from your ultimate goal, whatever that may be. Students have to learn how to forsee all these things, and also how to go about dealing with these factors as well. Your first outreach event will most likely have a few flaws or hitches, but that's OKAY! You just have to learn from your mistakes and plan more carefully next time! Life is unfair, so you just have to roll with the punches and be happy with what you do have. 

 Hey guys,

Greg here with some thoughts about the Jade Ribbon Decal, a student run class offered here at UC Berkeley with the aim of teaching students about Hepatitis B and outreach.

I have always known that the decal existed, but I decided not to take it until this semster, my fall semester of my junior year. Beforehand, I thought "I've been involved with the Jade Ribbon Campaign since high school, what more could I learn about Hepatitis B?" My friend Tiffany and I who are officers of Team HBV at UC Berkeley, decided that we wanted to help facilitate the decal. But we first had to take it as students to get a feel for the class before we could help facilitate it. 

The decal was run by Patrick and Eric, who have been doing an awesome job of facilitating. The lectures are thorough and informative, but at the same time, the pace of the class is very chill, so there is ample time for students to absorb the material through creative methods such as videos and interactive games ie. Jeapordy and Bingo. Even with all my experience with HBV, there were many facts that I had not known. 

Next semester, Tiff and I will get our opportunity to help Patrick and Eric run the decal, which I'm really excited about. Teaching students in a classroom situation is a daunting task, but I look forward to passing on my knowledge and experience to students eager to learn about Hepatitis B and the Jade Ribbon Campaign. 

 Hey all, it's Greg again with some updates, this time about tabling at Ranch 99 in Richmond.

My two good friends Tiff and Nehemiah planned out a tabling outreach event at Ranch 99, with special props going to Nehemiah for going through all the administrative work and signing papers and all that good stuff. It ended up that Tiff had to attend an archery competition, so she had to join us in spirit over at Ranch 99. Nehemiah and I were extremely lucky to have avoided the usually insurmountable obstacle of finding parking at an Asian Supermarket on a Saturday afternoon. We got a decent spot right outside the checkout lines. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.  We came armed with brochures, buttons, and balloons, although we didn't have any helium to blow those babies up :( What somewhat surprised me was how popular the buttons were, and how many people they were able to attract. Many of the bag boys and bag girls were eager to approach the table and pick out their favorites, which ended up being the jade ribbon with the white background (my personal favorite as well). We got a decent amount of people to approach the table and we did our best to fill their brains with HBV knowledge. There was about a 50:50 split on people who have heard about HBV before and those who have not. There were even some Cal students who recognized us! After a few hours, we had to pack up and head on out to make it back for the football game, but not before we did some much needed shopping at Ranch 99 and Sheng Kee Bakery (Beef Curry Horns ftw!) 

A simple, easy form of outreach, executed without problem. 

That's all for now, tune in next time for some more HBV adventures!

-Greg

 Hey ya'll

Greg here with some more updates on the going ons at Team HBV at UC Berkeley.

A few weeks ago, the officers decided that it would be a good idea to set up a mock tabling exercise for our members to get some hands on practice in engaging people at a tabling situation. Tabling is a staple in spreading the word to students on campus, whether it be on sproul plaza or at a health conference. We all took turns being those behind the table promoting Team HBV, and those in front of the table pretending to be curious passer byers (sp?). While it might be rather straightforward looking at powerpoint slides and listening to fact after fact from infosessions, trying to convey a concise but meaningful message about Hepatitis B is a whole other beast in itself. Trying to get as much information across while still maintaining the interest of your customer requires a delicate balance. In the end, I believe it was good practice that members of all chapters would benefit from trying. Here are some useful tips that we found most important:

-Don't be passive, be proactive! Students walking by won't necessarily have the moxie to come up to your table and suddenly start asking questions. At Cal's giant club fair Calapalooza, many new students such as freshmen might be shy, and might be overwhelmed by so many clubs at once. If you're sitting behind the table and see someone glance at your banner or slow down by your table, don't hesitate to give a friendly "hi there!" to break the ice. Now that you have some small talk to break the ice, now's the time to make your sell!

-Stick to the highlights! Students who are going from table to table have short attention spans. They don't want to here a 10 minute lecture from you, that's what other boring professors are for. Pick some facts or main points that you want to get across, and create a short but sweet blurb that you can stick in your back pocket (figuratively) and just bust out at any time. The more you use it, more comfortable you will be with it, and easier it gets.

-Know why you are here. When you're trying to pitch to someone to join your club, or even trying to tell someone how important HBV is, it helps to understand why you are here in the first place. Why are you in Team HBV? Why do you care about Hepatitis B at all? Spend a few minutes thinking to yourself about that, and soon you'll have some good reasons why others should care too. You can then use these points when talking to others about why they should be a part of an organization that fights the good fight against HBV and liver cancer!

That's all for now, hope you guys can use some of the pointers that we've learned from this exercise, and good luck!

-Greg

 Hey folks!

Your friendly neighborhood VP of Global Outreach from Team HBV at UC Berkeley here again to input round 2 of my infosessions. Just to give a quick recap, the officers at Team HBV at UC Berkeley thought it would be a good idea to emphasize educating our member base so that they can become lean, mean, HBV educating machines themselves and go out into the local community and spread the word about Hepatitis B and liver cancer.

My first informational session focused on general hepatitis B and liver cancer facts, while my second session focused on other areas of Hepatitis B.

In my second presentation which I gave October 20th, 2009, the material consisted of the following:

-Modes of Transmission: Birth, Blood, and Sex (It's not "BS", it's B,B,S!)

-Common Misconceptions: including a case study from recent news showing how discrimination against chronic Hep B carriers still exists today

-Screening: What is being tested for (The HBV surface antigen, and the HBV surface anti-body) Who should get screened (various high risks groups)

Again, if anyone would like a copy of my presentation, feel free to email me at greglam@berkeley.edu and I will be more than happy to share the wealth! 

That's all for now, take it easy!

-Greg

 Hey all!

This is Greg, your friendly neighborhood VP of Global Outreach of Team HBV and UC Berkeley! This is my first blog ever for East Villagers, so bear with me if this entry seems kind of n00b. 

We at Team HBV at UC Berkeley work hard to educate the Berkeley campus of Hepatitis B, utilizing various outreach events to make sure everyone knows to get screened and to get vaccinated so they can be Free for Life! In order to efficiently and accurately spread the word, the officers including myself decided that educating the community starts right at our own member base, so I developed several HBV informational sessions, consisting of powerpoint presentations, to give to our members, so that they would gain the tools and the knowledge to be able to go up to anyone with confidence and give them the 411 on Hepatitis B. 

My first infosession was given on Sept 22nd, 2009 to our member base. Here are some of the topics that i covered during my presentation:

What is Hepatitis B?

The differences between Hep A, B, and C

Hepatitis B is global epidemic

Hepatitis B is a health disparity

Hepatitis B and the correlation to liver cancer

Hepatitis B is a "Silent Killer"

I also highlighted several important statistics that puts the Hepatitis B health issue into perspect:

up to 400 million people world wide are chronically infected with Hepatitis B

1 million people in the world die from Hepatitis B every year

1 in 4 of those chronically infected will die from liver cancer or liver failure if left untreated

1 in 10 Asian Pacific Islanders are infected with chronic Hepatitis B. 

If you would like the actual powerpoint presentation, just email me at greglam@berkeley.edu and I'll be happy to send it to you.

That's all for now, peace!

-Greg