October Is Almost Here

Grafted Hearts Officer Nominations
It’s that time of year again when we have to start preparing for the change of seasons from warm weather to cold weather and that time of year when we have to start preparing for nominations for officers to lead The Fairview Grafted Hearts for another year.

Be prepared when you come to the October meeting at the hospital to nominate those individuals who you feel you want to serve as your officers for the 2009 calendar year. Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the October and November meetings and the voting will take place at our November meeting. After all nominations have been finalized in November we will vote and decide who will be the officers of The Fairview Grafted Hearts for 2009. Be sure to attend the October and November meetings.

Nursing Scholarships
It has been a long-standing tradition that Fairview Grafted Hearts awards Nursing Scholarships in October to those nurses who have applied for a scholarship with us. The numerous applications we received for the scholarships were reviewed and it was decided that this year we would award three scholarships. One scholarship to an undergraduate nursing student ($500) and two scholarships to two post-graduate nursing students. The two most important criteria, among others, for these awards is that they are currently enrolled in an approved nursing program at an approved college or university and that they they are currently employed at Fairview Hospital. The results of the committees selection will be announced at the October 8th Fairview Grafted Hearts meeting. We will have a representative from the hospital at the meeting who will present the scholarships to the nurses .

New Organizational By-Law Change To Be Voted On At October 8th Meeting
Your Board of Directors voted in Executive Session to bring before the general membership at our next regularly scheduled monthly meeting a proposal which would result in a significant By-Law change which would require a two-third’s approval vote by those members in attendance.

The By-Law change is a financial by-law change which would change the regular one-time $15.00 Life Membership to a one-time $15 membership fee and a $5.00 annual dues. The annual dues would start on January 1st of each calendar year. This means that if you are already a member you have paid your $15.00 life-time membership and you only have to pay the annual $5.00 yearly dues. This cost will cover some financial aspects of the Grafted Hearts that has increased since the organizations inception in 1987. We are trying to hold this cost to a bare minimum and provide for some additional yearly income for our treasury.

As we all know our current economy has risen - gas, food, etc. - and so has the cost of The Fairview Grafted Hearts. The dues will subsidize in part the cost of our newsletter printing and mailing and the refreshments at our meetings. These costs now are being absorbed by the budget of Park View 2. This dues assessment will help ease some of the financial operating costs of The Grafted Hearts.

I hope that you will join us at the October 8th meeting and vote for this $5.00 annual dues increase. If everyone were to pay $5.00 dues a year times our 250 members we could put an additional $1,250.00 in our treasury every year!

September Meeting

This coming Wednesday, September 10th, is scheduled for our September Monthly Meeting. Mr. Victor Hall will be speaking about his efforts with the United States Marine Corps and their humanitarian efforts mission to Africa. Surely a great speaker, friend of Grafted Hearts and a proud member of the United States Navy Reserves. Victor is also Vice President of the Cleveland Clinic West Heart Center.

I received an email from Tom Metzner last week and it said that he is doing well and is on the road to recovery. Our prayers and thoughts go out to Tom and all members, families and friends of Grafted Hearts who are in need of prayer. I want to thank Barb O'Malley for keeping the Prayer Chain open to all of us and keeping us informed of those individuals who need our prayers.

Please remember to make your reservations for the Christmas Party with Art Zammikiel, our treasurer. You can mail him your reservations and check or bring them to the next meeting.

I look forward to seeing and speaking with all of you this coming Wednesday at our meeting. God Bless all of you and God Bless The Fairview Grafted Hearts!

New Blog For Grafted Hearts

We are an extended care support group at Fairview Hospital, located at Cleveland, Ohio, and our prime function is to offer support, information and guidance to those individuals and families that have had open heart by-pass surgery or other heart intervention surgery (stents, pacemakers, etc.).

The Fairview Grafted Hearts has been around since the early 1980s at Fairview Hospital and its primary function is to volunteer at Fairview Hospital on Parkview 2 (PK-2) and assist the nurses in their daily duties and to personally speak with patients who will or have had some sort of heart intervention.

It's time for us at Fairview Grafted Hearts to become part of the electronic age.  This blog will be for those who have computers and want to stay in touch via the internet. If there is enough interest in this blog I will publish our events and notices for members about meetings, activities and members notices. If you're interested in this venue, please let me know by posting a comment here. Click on the comments tab on the lower right and follow the instructions. I look forward to your thoughts and comments.