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Hi Mary, I'm a little disappointed there will be no Forum this year.... But, I'm heartened that PAN is restructuring and moving to DC... And Joan Samuelson's testimony.... Thank you very much Joan. I've read and re-read those words and could not agree more.... You have no idea what it means to this Canadian to have a strong advocacy group fighting for research I believe strongly will be the future for those of us able to be around when that elusive future arrives. Thank you Mary for these posts.... Cheers ......... murray On 18 May 2001, at 1:25, 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. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ********** [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn