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I am the Director of the Houston Area Parkinson Society. That sounds a lot more glamorous than it is. I'm also the volunteer co-ordinator, office manager and gofer. My mother had PD for many years. This may explain my interest in the Parkinson's Disease Information Exchange. Our office receives calls daily asking for information on PD in general and specifics about anything you can imagine, from medication to the latest in research and you seem to be one of the best sources available. We also network with a variety of other social service agencies in the Houston area to help our members with such needs as respite care and in home medical care. And we work with the drug manufacturers to obtain free medications for members who truly can not afford it. We have nine, soon to be ten, weekly exercise and speech therapy groups which each meet with licensed therapists at no charge to the member and eight monthly support groups for patients and their care givers and families. We also sponsor a golf club made up of patients who play monthly tournaments. They have devised a short course method of play specifically for Parkinsonians which they have sent to other Parkinson groups all over the US and in some foreign countries. In April these diverse groups will play a "World Tournament", each playing on their home course using the PD rules and FAXing their scores to the original group here. In addition we have a monthly newsletter (as most cities do) which is distributed all over the US and to members in several other countries. We also organize and host a yearly seminar with speakers on a number of different topics. This year it is on April 22 and we will have a PAN representative as the major speaker. Typically there are about 3-400 hundred people attending so it is a fairly large event. The the world of computers is a new one for me. This is my first attempt to send E mail, so please bear with me while I learn to communicate in this new world. Thank you very much for the guide! Please provide REView PARKINSON and SET PARKINSN DIGests. Anne Martin ([log in to unmask])