March 2023 Support Group Meeting

Please join us Tuesday, March 14th @ 7 p.m. for our monthly support group meeting, either in person at Hospice of Windsor, 6038 Empress St., Windsor, or virtually on Zoom at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87972958528?pwd=Zld4Z3RGcHF0MEhDNjdHdlpscXYzQT09

We recently received an invitation from the Ontario Prostate Cancer Support co-ordinating group to participate in a meeting with other Ontario Support groups to discuss declining memberships across the board, and other associated challenges.  This issue, and others which also apply to our group, need to be reflected upon and discussed in preparation for a National meeting to be hosted by Prostate Cancer Support Canada.  It is the current plan for Garry Loeper and Jim Fair to attend this Ontario discussion group, which is currently planned for the 3^rd week of March.

As you are aware, we did not hold a February meeting due to the difficulty of finding a speaker and the number of members wintering in warmer climates.  We are unfortunately again experiencing the same issue for our upcoming March meeting with members down south and potential speakers dealing with student March break commitments and warm climate vacations of their own.  Bear in mind that many of these kind folks have young families and are mostly still working while donating their spare time to our group.

It is our desire to hold Hybrid-ZOOM meetings that will allow members to meet at the Hospice but also allow out of town members to join in; but most importantly, allow speakers to present from the comfort of their homes.  These have worked very well for other groups and there are numerous opportunities to join the National group and other non-Windsor Support groups’ ZOOM meetings.  In fact, many of these non-Windsor groups have excellent speakers who are rare and who would be difficult to replicate here in Windsor.  Logic would dictate that we should take advantage of these quality speakers.

Unfortunately, past experience has shown that our members are not enthusiastic about ZOOM meetings.  In order to adjust to this paradigm shift that is evident in society lately, we will need to embrace Hybrid-ZOOM meetings and innovate other ways to attract members and conduct meaningful and interesting get-togethers.  Some options that could be explored include:

·         Having shared monthly meetings with other Ontario groups.  We could still meet at the Hospice, but virtually connect with other groups and take advantage of other excellent speakers; and/or

·         Acquire recorded expert presentations from the National and other non-Windsor groups’ meetings and present them during our monthly meetings.

Your Steering Committee is proposing to have this as the primary topic for our meeting this Tuesday 14 March.  We sincerely do need and value your input in preparation for this upcoming Ontario and National discussions.  Most importantly is the need to make sure that our group remains relevant and useful to the newly diagnosed and the community.  As you are aware, we have been aggressively briefing organizations and attending Health/Wellness Fairs and other events.  For example, we will soon be participating in Play for a Cure, Motorcycle Ride for Dad, National Federal Retirees Annual General Meeting, and other community awareness events.  We also continue to have newly diagnosed people calling upon us for help.  These are great endeavors and our vision is to be seen as a reliable and worthy support organization for survivors and the community.

We therefore invite and encourage everyone to join us at the Hospice at 7pm this Tuesday 14 March.  We sincerely need your input.  For those who cannot attend, please join us via ZOOM as follows:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87972958528?pwd=Zld4Z3RGcHF0MEhDNjdHdlpscXYzQT09

Meeting ID: 879 7295 8528

Passcode: 287292

Garry