Participants: Nick Dawson, Dave DeBronkart, Peter Elias, Nancy Finn, John Grohol, John Hoben, Sarah Krug, Mark Reifsteck, Danny Sands, Joe Ternullo, Jon Wald, Peggy Zuckerman

Minutes Approved

Upcoming Conferences/ Events   

At Health 2.0, September 27 at 7 pm in Santa Clara, CA at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, SPM will hold a member/guest get together.  We will also hold a similar event at the Connected Health, Oct 20, 21, at the Seaport Hotel in Boston MA.  We are seeking sponsors for both events.  All of our members are invited to attend the social events, whether or not they are registered for the conference.  A mailing will go out with the logistics to all of our members.

At the Connected Health Symposium, we also will have a booth.  Danny Van Leeuwen and Susan Woods are chairing this effort. More information can be found on our website.

Board Elections 

It is the time of year when we need to elect a new President Elect and two members at Large.  The Executive Committee nominates the President Elect. Our full membership nominates and votes on our members-at-large.  Anyone who is interested in becoming a candidate for either of these positions should contact Danny Sands.

SPM/ Weill Cornell Research Library

A press release has been written and approved by Weill Cornell Medical School, regarding our joint program to form a research library in participatory medicine. We discussed the logistics of sending out the press announcement and are encouraging our members to use their social networks to get out the word.  For more information, contact Danny Sands.

Journal for Participatory Medicine  

We currently spend nearly 90% of the SPM budget in support of the Journal.  We will be evaluating how to get more submissions and reviewers, as well as the role of the Journal going forward.

Membership Update

Our rate of increase of new members has not changed recently.  We are soliciting the 1800 individuals who have joined the Society’s Linked In Group and trying to individually contact them and ask them to become dues paying members We will start with a pilot of 100 individuals.  We are also circulating a membership survey to all of our members and hope to get some insights from this.

Internal Communication Update

We are evaluating alternatives to internal communication platforms including the listserv which we have relied on since the founding of SPM.  Peter Elias and Dave deBronkart are leading this effort and have been reviewing a communication tool, Higher Logic, which provides forum discussion as well as collaboration tools.  Using this platform would require ongoing funds. Peter and Dave are investigating ways to generate those funds to pay the monthly fees, the cost of transition to Higher Logic and the human labor required to oversee this platform. For more information, contact Peter Elias.

Website Revision

John Grohol is to putting together a project plan that consolidates our three websites into one with a single URL. The existing websites would be redirected to the new website which would be built on a modern WordPress platform.   We are looking for member volunteers who have the technical, design and photography skills to help us put the new website together.  Interested members should contact John.