February 6 -- Global

We had a good call with Allison tonight. The first thing she wanted to do was to check with each group on what have been identified as good practices for group success. The first question was whether our groups regularly hold a second meeting, besides the conference call, each month. Of course, we do here in Cedar Rapids. So we got an A there.

Second question was whether our annual planning had been done and turned in. Another A. The poor Chicago group has had to postpone their planning meeting twice now because of weather.

The third question was on a media contact because RESULTS would like to offer them specific support, conference calls and emails. I was honored to say I was the media contact for our group. We're scoring very well so far!

Finally, whether we had planned to participate in any fundraising. When I told Allison of our idea to hold informal dinners to raise $4000 to send two people to the International Conference, she loved the idea. Yvonne from Ann Arbor spoke about a man from New Zealand who had raised $6000 himself to attend the conference last June. We got four A's on group practice tonight!

The conference call Saturday is going to coer appropriations requests. John, I didn't catch his last name, is promised to be a very good presenter -- concise and to the point.

Allison is very pleased with our blog idea. She is going to share it with other regional coordinators.

Next week there won't be a global call. The global RCs don't hold group leader calls on the week following a monthly conference call.