Highlights of this November 2009 newsletter: 1) Policy & Advocacy Committee announces new co-chair 2) November 17th, donation matching through GiveMN.Org 3) Policy forum a success! 4) Member forums on website 1) Policy & Advocacy Committee announces new co-chair The Governing Council welcomes Allison Moore to the leadership team. Allison has served MPHA as a member of the Policy and Advocacy Committee for the past 5 years and has been our lead on tobacco policy legislation for the committee during that time. She works as a health policy educator with the Tobacco Law Center in St. Paul. 2) Give to the Max Day, matching donations to MPHA Please support MPHA on GiveMN.org's "Give to the Max" Day, Tuesday, November 17th. From 8 am on Tuesday, November 17th to 8 am on Wednesday, November 18th, all donations to non-profits will get a share of the $500,000 match from foundations set aside for this purpose. Thanks to generous foundation support, MPHA will receive 100% of the donations made on this site, plus any matching donations for Give to the Max Day (Tuesday, November 17th). Consider an extra gift to MPHA. To donate to MPHA, click on: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Minnesota-Public-Health-Association. 3) November 13th, “On the Edge” Breakfast policy forum-- a success! MPHA hosted the first in the new series of policy forums this past Friday. A panel of experts, moderated by Dean John Finnegan (of the School of Public Health), spoke about harmful effects of advertising to children and adolescents. This is the first in a series of policy and advocacy forums to discussion current controversies in public health. Save the date for the next forum will be held January15th, 2010. The topic will be announced in the December newsletter. 4) New member feature on website, Member Forums The secure-site “member forums” section of the MPHA website was activated in October. This feature allows a general area for member-only discussion. Our hope is to build a robust communication tool which can be used to feature discussion for member sections and interest groups. To access member forums, click on “members” on the left tab and choose “discussion forums”, after which you will be prompted to enter your username and password. As always, email membership@mpha.net if you have any trouble signing in to your MPHA member account. Final note…some MPHA members are receiving this newsletter twice. The membership and communication committees apologize for that. We are in the process of merging the on-line email listservs and the former hard copy database. Our goal is to be sure that all members are getting the communications. Until we are able to wrap up that work, you may get 2 mailings to meet that end. We apologize for multiple emails and appreciate your patience as we get it worked out! Scott Harpin, MPHA communications chair |