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At 01:25 2001/05/18 -0700, mary yost wrote: >Message from PAN: > >The Parkinson's Action Network announces that the Eighth Public Policy >Forum will be postponed until March 2002 > >The Parkinson's Action Network (PAN) has decided to postpone the Eighth >Public Policy Forum until March of 2002. We appreciate the interest that >advocates have shown in this year's Forum and we apologize for any >inconvenience that this date change may cause. PAN made this decision in >our effort to improve our quality of services that we provide to the >Parkinson's community. > >This is a very exciting time for PAN. As a result, however, it is also a >time of enormous change and activity. Here are some of the big changes >that are occurring: > >-- We are in the process of establishing our new headquarters in the >Washington DC area. > >-- We have hired a new Executive Director to manage PAN's day-to-day >operations. > >-- We are changing and strengthening the staff in order to better >communicate PAN's message to the Hill, the Executive Branch, the advocacy >community and the public. > >-- We are about to undertake a regular electronic newsletter and are >gearing up for that. > >-- We are working to build a truly effective grassroots advocacy operations >so that PAN can communicate with you faster and smarter for your voice to >be heard in Washington with more regularity. > >Under the new configuration, Joan Samuelson continues to serve as >President, and as our chief policy architect. In addition to our new >Executive Director, Elisabeth Bresee, we have hired a terrific new staff. >They are all dedicated to our cause and bring a great deal of energy and >commitment to our mission. On the advocacy front, John Rogers is our >Advocacy Director and Laura Lytle Eckart is our new Advocacy Associate, >replacing Mike Claeys. Both John and Laura have excellent prior experience >working on Capitol Hill. > >In addition to establishing our new headquarters, we have been extremely >busy working on the 2002 Appropriations Bill -- in particular to ensure >that the NIH budget is in fact doubled within five years, for a total of >$3.4 billion in FY 2002. And that the NIH's increase for FY 2002 includes >an increase of $143.5 million for PD research, as called for in the NIH's >five-year plan. We are also taking the lead on the stem cell battle. Our >Advocacy Director serves on the Board of the newly created entity, the >Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR). This Coalition >has over fifty members, made up of advocacy groups, universities, and >scientists all fighting to ensure that embryonic stem cells are available >for scientific research. To learn more about CAMR, go to their web site >at: www.stemcellfunding.org. > >Moving the Forum to next March will allow us to continue to push the PD >policy agenda while fully establishing our new headquarters. With a little >additional time, we believe we can put on a truly informative and >worthwhile Forum. In addition, the March time frame works very well with >the appropriations schedule on Capitol Hill. We would, however, like to >invite any interested advocates to come to Washington and we will >facilitate meetings with your representative to put a face on Parkinson's >disease. We invite you to visit our new headquarters and we look forward >to seeing you in March. In addition, we are exploring options for uniting >the Parkinson's community in the early Fall. janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky . pd: 54/41/37 cd: 54/44/43 tel: 613 256 8340 email: [log in to unmask] . a new voice: the nnnewsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janet313/ . a new voice: the bbbook: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/wordbook/ . a new voice: the wwweb site: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn