: Re: First Chat A Success!

[Guest guest]

, as I posted yesterday, I would have loved to have been there

but alas, at 8:00 p.m. eastern time, us pacific time folks, at least

me, was still at work (and then driving home for another hour after

that).

I'm so sorry to have missed it and I guess us West Coast folks will

have a hard time to participate cause even if you made it later east

coast time, we're still three hours back. Oh well, can't always have

your cake and eat it too. But for those that were there, I'm so

happy to hear that it went well and was succesful. I'll take your

advice and just go in there sometime to see who's " lurking " ....maybe

somebody I know :-).

Again, so glad to hear that it was so successful. Happy

Thanksgiving, and Hugs

Monika

P.S. I'm lucky to have internet access during the day from work so

usually at lunch time, I try to get on here every day (not always

successful) to see what's up. I can't tell everyone enough about how

happy I am to have found this site. It's been a life safer for this

caregiver.

> Hi All,

>

> Thanks to everyone who joined us last night to make our

first " chat "

> a big success! I didn't expect anywhere near such a good turnout,

> especially for a holiday week where many people are on vacation,

> etc. (there were probably 15-20 in the room at peak - I was

guessing

> beforehand maybe half of that number would show up!).

>

> And good news - there were NO Yahoo " technical glitches " !!! For

> awhile there, I was afraid that somehow the chat software

> would " screw up " in the middle of our discussion and boot us all

out.

> The fact it DIDN'T even with 15-20 participants is a VERY good sign

> that the room is going to work exactly as it is supposed to.

>

> It sounds like there is a lot of interest in turing this into a

> weekly event. What we need to do is determine the day/time " most "

> would prefer (doesn't have to be every Tues at 8 - I just pulled

that

> out of the air). So maybe a little later I will set up a poll to

> ask what time zone everyone is in, and what day everyone wants.

>

> As I mentioned before, we could have SOME of the chats

with " planned

> agendas " , i.e. maybe there is a particular topic people would like

to

> discuss (examples: How do you talk to children about cancer? How do

> you interpret cancer statistics? How do you evaluate claims made

> by " alt med " advocates? What is Stereotactic Radioablation and when

> can it be used? What are Theraspheres, and what is the evidence for

> their effectiveness?). I am sure many out there have lots of good

> ideas for topics!

>

> For the " chats with agenda " , we could prepare a little ahead of

time

> by doing some " recommended reading " of relevant webpages with the

> idea of discussing the ideas in those pages when we get to the chat

> (I could send out a list of URLs). This kind of mimics the idea

> of " book club discussion groups " that some libraries have. " Pre-

> discussion research " will make for a much more valuable meeting in

> my opinion.

>

> Anyway, thanks again to everyone! I'll set up another one of

> these " chats " for next week.

>

> In the meantime - everyone should feel free to " log on " the chat

room

> ANYTIME, not just for " planned chats " ...you might meet a new friend!

>

>

> Best Wishes,

>

>