President's Message
"Our mission is to “inspire hope in heart disease patients and their families.”
"Building a Framework for the Future" -- Your Mended Hearts Diablo Chapter 254 Executive Board and Chairs have undertaken this as their primary goal for the Chapter.
Over the past several years, the Chapter's Founders and key members built a solid foundation for our Chapter. The Executive Board and Chairs' goal is to continue to build on this framework to make the Chapter even better in the coming months and years. At last month's Board meeting, the Board discussed and defined the following goals for the Chapter:
GOAL #1
Increase Membership. Since the Membership Surveys were mailed out, we received membership applications from existing individual members for Family memberships. The Board is continually looking at ways in which to increase member¬ship and welcomes your suggestions. Thank you to Sandra R. Ahart, Valerie C. Compton and Olive Pace.
GOAL #2
Increase Chapter Public Awareness. Anna Lee, Publicity Chair, has been instrumental in helping us with this. She now has our monthly meetings mentioned in the Contra Costa Times on-line Community Calendar Events. In addition, Anna worked on getting our Chapter's website up and running. A big thank you to Anna! Please visit www.mendedhearts254.com and let others know about it! We welcome your comments. We have distributed the Mended Hearts Diablo Chapter 254 brochure at Kaiser's (Walnut Creek) Information Desk and the brochure and newsletter at the Cardiology Dept. and Health Education Center. Brochures are also at Kaiser Pleasanton. Most of you have experienced or gone through a heart condition and perhaps have been a caretaker for that person. It is a life changing event! I ask that each of you make it a goal to talk to two or three people a week about Mended Hearts and let them know about our Chapter. What a great way to meet people and make new friends!
Recruitment of New & Retention of Existing Members. A Chapter cannot sustain itself if it experiences a loss in membership. How can we prevent this? Our Chapter currently has over 100+ members and the Board's goal is to have at least 50 members regularly attend the General Meetings. Our newly formed Telephone Committee is crucial in helping us achieve this goal. The Committee is responsible for following up with members to remind and encourage members to attend the General Meetings. Thank you to Val Comp¬ton and Marjorie Kerry for volunteering to help out on the Telephone Committee. I f you are interested in volunteering also, please contact BJ Boone at (925) 939-4998. The Board is also considering having door prizes as incentives for members to attend. We have also designed a postcard for use by Visitation Volunteers during their patient visits. This tool will be handy in obtaining patient contact information and wheth¬ er he/she is interested in receiving our month¬ly news¬letter, additional Mended Hearts information or would like a Mend¬ed Hearts member to contact them. The postcard can also be used at Health Fairs to follow up with potential new members. Thanks to Kim for designing the postcard!
GOAL #4
Membership Participation in Leadership Positions. The Board continues to look at ways in which to accomplish this. We also realize that it may take a little work and that our members have very busy schedules. The Board encourages new and current members to volunteer to help out on a Committee or as a Visitation Volunteer. My wife Kim and I are Visitation Volunteers. We find it very rewarding when we visit cardiac patients in the hospital to talk to them and provide them hope and encouragement. It only takes a couple of hours a month of your time. Kim and I wanted to give back after we were visited by a Mended Hearts Visitation Volunteer at Summit Hospital in Oakland. That's why we became Visitation Volunteers and look forward to our twice a month visits. After visiting with a patient, we walk away feeling good knowing that we let that person know someone cares about their well-being. Thank you to Randolph Finn and Marietta Poldrack for volunteering as Visitation Volunteers and to Robert and Sandy Ahart and Wayne and Wanda King and Edward Boyer for volunteering to help out on the Hospitality Committee.