Dear fellow board members,

I have been getting an education about our Brain Tumor Center in weekly meetings with Dr. Warnick, Kimbaird and Tom. I am excited about the momentum we are building in lots of areas—Rich Seal is driving the wine tasting fundraiser planned for April 29. Should be a great event. We are being conservative about the fund-raising aspect of this event-we know if successful it will build momentum of its own in the years to come. But we are excited to make this happen-- our first official Brain Tumor Center fund-raising event! Thank you Rich! I will also be asking you in a separate email to send names and addresses of at least four invitees in addition to yourself/spouse/guest. We are looking to get a Save the Date notice out shortly.

Chris Knueven and Wally Pagan are involved in getting the Walk/Run event organized for the fall. We are close to selecting a company to be our “race director” as well as help us use this event wisely to brand the Brain Tumor Center.

Eric Becker has been very engaged in planning the Patient Symposium for June.

My focus has been on recruiting additional Board Members to help us do our work. In my phone conversations with each of you, I asked your suggestions on additional Board prospects and thanks to you, some of those prospects are ready to become Board members. I have directed Kimbaird to include their bios in the Board packet for your review and comment before the March 6th Board meeting. We will vote on adding them to our Board at that meeting—some of them may even be joining us for that meeting.

I am developing a Board committee structure that can help us do our work. I’ll talk this more at our Board meeting but the immediate needs seem to be emerging as a Development Committee—a Patient Advocacy Committee—and a Marketing Committee. We will all need to be involved in our fund-raising events and in the Board recruiting process—so continue to send me your ideas/ comments/suggestions.

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday March 6th at 8:00am at the Mayfield’s corporate office on Oak Street.

Sincerely,

Kathy Beechem, Board Chair