In March of 1996, Phyllis Truesdell set a goal for the support group she helped found. "It would be great," she said during an interview, "to form some sort of steering committee for Stepping Stones. Members could serve on a voluntary basis to brainstorm and problem solve for the group as a whole." At that time, she and co-founder Mary McCauley, were discovering that as the group evolved and matured, the issues it confronted were becoming more and more complex, and couldn’t be adequately addressed without jeopardizing the psychosocial support offered to members during the regularly scheduled monthly meetings.Since then, as the co-founders anticipated, members of the support group have been dealing with an array of challenging questions and problems about its responsibilities and direction. How does the group best integrate the needs of its veteran BMT survivors with those who are newly out of transplant? How can the group better support members who are seriously ill? How should the group formally respond to the family of a member who has died? And what about the relatively new and growing Stepping Stones’ fund? How should this fund be utilized by the membership?
Finally, on November 4 of 1998, with the consent of the larger membership, a group of volunteers met for an hour and a half prior to the regularly scheduled 7:00 PM time, and formed an ad-hoc steering committee to answer just such questions. Members Janice McGrath, Linda Falstein, Toni and Jack Schleyer, Laureen Frost, Helaine Palmer, Joe Ruma, Cindy Troidle, Lorin Lavidor and Eric Berman, together with co-facilitators Mary McCauley and Irene Goss-Werner, gathered around a table in the Smith-Family Room at the DFCI, and began to define how the Steering Committee would operate and which problems needed its immediate attention.
By the time this issue of the newsletter is in your hands, the Steering Committee will have met three additional times. On behalf of the group as a whole, it has formulated some exciting projects and ideas. Here’s what you, as a member of Stepping Stones, need to know:
- The Steering Committee meets from 5:30 PM until 6:45 PM immediately before the regularly scheduled general meeting.
- Meetings are open to any member who would like to attend. Additional volunteers are always welcome.
- Minutes of the meetings are available to the general membership. Copies can be picked up on the refreshment table during the general meeting, or requested through this newsletter.
- When a member is seriously ill, the Steering Committee will take special notice and will encourage the larger group to offer additional support to that member and his or her immediate family.
- Any money donated to Stepping Stones will be used to fund educational ideas based on BMT survivorship issues; or to send remembrances on behalf of the group to members who are seriously ill, or to the family of members who have died.
- Stepping Stones is proudly sponsoring BMT survivor Evan Handler’s performance of his play, Time on Fire, during the New England Cancer Survivorship Conference on November 13, 1999.
- Stepping Stones will be funding a research project which will study the support group itself, and the dynamics of survivorship within the group.
If you have any questions or ideas, don’t hesitate to share them with a member of the Steering Committee. And if you can spare the extra time; feel free to drop by a meeting or volunteer to work on one of the committee’s ongoing projects. Remember, Stepping Stones and its Steering Committee belong to you!