Present:

Sandy Ward, Kathleen Packard, Doris McKethan, Kathleen McDonough, Michelle Eberle, Chris Craig, James Craig, Gail Weirick, Ellen Moriarty, Doug Fleury, and Daniel Fitzgerald.

1.

The meeting was formally called to order at 2:45. The round of introductions included Kathleen Packard, the newly hired HCHL Consumer Health Information Coordinator. A special welcome was extended to Michelle Eberle, the Consumer Health Information Coordinator for NN/LM New England Region. Congratulations were extended to Chris and Jim on their recent marriage; they met at one of our HCHL meetings a few years ago!

2.

A report of recent activities included the following items:

a.

Michelle recently presented a workshop on consumer health web resources in Spanish, focusing especially on Spanish vocabulary needed for basic evaluation of the sites. Kathleen P. attended.

b.

Sandy updated and removed dead links from the Spanish language portion of the HCHL web site.

c.

About 75 people came by the HCHL table at the Magic Johnson Health Fair held in Springfield on October 25^th. Several of the individuals who stopped by represented larger groups and took away materials on MedlinePlus and cards for HCHL, Inc. HCHL was also present and making connections at the 8/31 Senior Fest and 10/1 Education Fair in Holyoke.

d.

Mary Farrell, Dean of the Allied Health Division of Holyoke Community College met with both Kathleen McDonough and Sandy Ward at separate times to talk about her potential involvement with HCHL, Inc. and ways to connect with the community college programs and students. She also serves on the board of the Holyoke Health Center. Further connections with the college may be fostered through Glenn Yarnell and the adult literacy program that he administers.

e.

Girls, Inc. has benefited from Kathleen P.'s expertise in evaluating sex ed. and teen web sites when Kathleen reviewed the sites they had listed. She provided impromptu feedback to the local staff about her criteria for evaluating sites. She will in the future provide training sessions on MedlinePlus, the HCHL site, and on how to evaluation websites.

f.

Michelle announced the launching of the "Go Local" feature of Medline Plus and the upcoming celebratory event 11/29 at UMass Medical.

3.

Treasurer's Report

Doris presented the report. There are $831.91 on hand although $358.87 of this are Oct. checks which have not yet been posted. Of the original $40,000 NLM grant, $22,981.96 remained on 9/30/05. Of the $2000 set aside for book purchase in the grant, $1,000 has been spent. Personnel costs make up the bulk of the spending but other costs are for items such as WiFi access for the laptop.

4.

Review of the Past Year

a.

The Annual Progress Report (9/1/04 - 8/31/05) of the NLM Grant was officially passed to Michelle and a copy of the Executive Summary was distributed to the members present.

b.

Nuestras Raices, one of the partner agencies in the grant, has dropped out. They have had a long standing relationship with HCHL, Inc. but recently have purchased a farm. This expansion of their program is taking much of their attention and energy now. They would like to keep the medical reference books to make available at a planned teen center at the farm.

c.

In other partner agency news, Chris Craig of HHC reported hearing very positive feedback from those who have undergone training. The focus on patient and family education helps to "extend the visit." Thirty-six HHC staff have been through a MedlinePlus training session.

5.

Election of Officers for 2006

The following officers were elected at the meeting:

President:

Sandy Ward

Vice-President

Maria Pagan

Clerk:

Christine P. Craig

Treasurer:

Doris McKethan

Sandy thanked Kathleen McDonough for her service as Clerk over the past two years.

6.

Brainstorming.

Members discussed the value of forming an Advisory Board and discussed potential members who might bring expertise to this endeavor. Michelle pointed out that CBO (Community Based Organization) grants will be available by May 2006. Partnerships with the Holyoke schools and the Senior center might be other areas for further development

7.

The meeting adjourned at 4:10 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen McDonough

Clerk