Secretary's Notes for 3-10 Hey BALSO, Several updates for today. The outline of today’s announcements are as follows: 1 – BALSO Elections updates – candidacy statements due by tomorrow (Tues) at 5 PM; MAPS/Mentoring Liaison position still open; Cristina Fernandez’s responses 2 – Free Step 1 practice test – email Julie (jsr2103@columbia.edu) if you’d like one 3 – Volunteers needed for the SNMA National Conference (details below) – email Damani (dct2114@columbia.edu) if you’d like to help 4 – BALSO Town Hall Meeting with the Office of Diversity -- Wed 3/12 @ 4:30 PM in Hammer 401 5 – BALSO Anatomy Practice Practical – Saturday 3/15 at 8 AM 1 – BALSO Elections Updates - If you were nominated on the spot for a position on the BALSO e-board at today’s meeting, please send me your candidacy statement by tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5 PM. Please send in a candidacy statement for each position for which you have been nominated (if you’ve already sent in a candidacy statement for one position, and you were nominated tonight for a 2nd position, I need a candidacy statement for this 2nd position as well. If you were nominated for 2 positions tonight, I need 2 statements). Thank you! - The position of MAPS/Mentoring Liaison is still open! If you’d like to run for that open position, please email me your candidacy statement by tomorrow at 5 PM. - After all candidacy statements are in, the online BALSO ballot along with each candidates’ statement will be made available either by Tuesday night or Wednesday. The results of the elections will be made available on Friday. - Cristina Fernandez’s responses to questions posed for candidates running for NBLHO Co-President (she was absent from the meeting if you missed it): 1. How will your previous experience in NBLHO help you as NBLHO Co-president? A: I feel that my previous experience with NBLHO at Yale and then with NBLHO here at Columbia will inform my commitment to collaboration with other student groups and my commitment to enhancing community service partnerships between BALSO and Columbia-affiliated and community organizations. I've also been able to attend an NBLHO House of Delegates meeting and NBLHO executive board meeting as well as the national conference at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine last year; these opportunities have given me an insight into how chapters support the national leadership and how the national leadership can support chapters as well as provided me with contacts to NBLHO chapters and officers at other schools in the Northeast. 2. What is your vision as NBLHO Co-President? A: My vision as the NBLHO Co-President is two-fold: I want to create partnerships between BALSO and NBLHO and other student groups at Columbia to share information on issues affecting different groups in the United States, including Latinos, and to create more avenues for dialogue about the roles medical students can play in either affecting change right now or in acquiring tools to affect change in the future. As I mentioned in my campaign speech, this may take the form of creating a short lecture series about hot topics in health and medical advances, in collaboration with student groups like Physicians for Human Rights and APSA and the Whipple Surgical Society. I also want to increase participation in service projects BALSO and NBLHO sponsor to strengthen relationships between BALSO and NBLHO and these other organizations, such as the Lang Youth Medical Program and the Family Medicine Minority Caucus. As medical students we tend to get wrapped up in the medical school academic bubble and forget that part of the most insightful and most rewarding learning experiences we can acquire as physicians in training happens outside of the classroom, and I would like to increase the awareness and visibility of our community service 2 – Free Step 1 Practice Exam If you’d like a free Kaplan USMLE Step 1 diagnostic test (150 questions = 3 hrs), please email Julie (jsr2103@columbia.edu) and provide her with your P&S mailbox number. 3 – Volunteers needed for the SNMA National Conference Please email Damani (dct2114@columbia.edu) if you’re interested in helping out with any of the tasks described below. Your help will be much appreciated. Note that for some of these tasks (as indicated) you don’t have to be registered for the conference to help out. Message from the SNMA Convention Planning Co-Chairs (convention@snma.org): It is coming close to the time where we will be passing our titles on to another (except Rick-sorry man). That also means that National Conference is near! Before you give up your power and be glad that you served your SNMA proud, we are requesting just a few things to help make this a successful 43rd Annual Medical Education Conference. As you know we are the host region and we are doing conference up big- Big Apple Style that is. Dennis and I have been working diligently for the past year to make it the best conference you guys have seen in a long time. As we said at Regional Conference there are a few new things to this year's conference. We have extended our pre medical and physician research initiative (for those students interested in research). We have great workshops for the med students/ osteopathic students including clinical skills workshops geared to teaching suturing, ultrasound, and EKGs. Let us not talk about how great the Presidents Luncheon and BOD Banquet are gonna be :) So, why did I tell you all of that? I want you to know that your help can only make things better. We're in need of student volunteers throughout conference to help things move smoothly. Below you will find the needs we have. We have indicated the two days where the volunteers don't have to be registered conference participants. Please send in a list of people from your chapter that are assigned to the various volunteer projects. It is requested that each chapter provide at least 3 names of people that are willing to help out during conference. Thank you for your support of SNMA! Volunteers for Conference 1. Need at least 30 people to help with kit stuffing on Tuesday March 18th from 3pm-until (registration not needed) -All city schools and yes that includes Brooklyn, can send students to this. Y'all are close. It is only a train ride. 2. Need 15-20 people to help with finishing stuff kits and move them to the registration area on Wednesday evening around 9pm (registration not needed) -Again city schools preferred unless there are some upstate and NJ school students that will be in the hotel 3. Need people for registration on Wednesday 5-10pm and Thursday all day for crowd control around the registration area (we will rotate people) 4. Need people for information booth throughout weekend -We will provide a list of NYC tourist area and a program book with the conference information 5. Need 3 people to set up/hold ribbon for exhibit hall opening ceremony Thursday March 20th 1pm- Any school can send volunteers for this 6. Need 3 volunteers at each time slot to help move supplies in the clinical skills room on Thursday 4pm, Friday 9am, Friday 12pm, Saturday 12pm 7. Need many volunteers to usher people to and from panels and workshops on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (You can look at the schedule at snma.org to see the names of the workshops. You can match those students who want to go to those workshops with ushering the workshop speaker so everyone is happy) 8. Please remember: NYU, Downstate, Cornell, Mt. Sinai, Columbia and Touro you guys are hosting about 50 pre medical students at your schools on Friday March 21 for an hour either 9-10 or 11-12. You guys need to have some students at school to talk to these students (registration not needed) Again, thanks for all the help! Tartania Brown and Dennis Spencer Student National Medical Association Convention Planning Co-Chairs, 2007-2008 convention@snma.org 5113 Georgia Ave, NW Washington, DC 20011 443-286-3770 (cell) 202-882-2881 (SNMA Headquarters) 202-882-2886 (fax) Join us in New York City for our 43rd Annual Medical Education Conference, March 19-23, 2008! 4 – BALSO Town Hall Meeting with the Office of Diversity -- Wed 3/12 @ 4:30 PM in Hammer 401 To quote Shanequa’s email: Dear BALSO: Please join the Office of Diversity for a /*Town Hall Meeting*/, Wed March 12 @4:30 in Hammer 401. You are /*strongly*/ /*encouraged*/ to attend. This is an opportunity to reconnect with the services of the Office of Diversity as well as other P&S services that are available to you Please RSVP to *sg2533@columbia.edu* as food will be served. Thank you, Office of Diversity 5 – BALSO Anatomy Practice Practical – Saturday 3/15 at 8 AM First years: The next and last BALSO Anatomy Practice Practical is this Saturday 3/15 at 8 AM. Please email Julie (jsr2103@columbia.edu) by Friday 3/14 at 5 PM ONLY if you fall into one of the following 2 categories -- either: (1) you are a dues paying member who will NOT attend (2) you have not paid dues ($35) and you would like to attend -- First years, good luck with studying! Thanks for reading as always.