Talking Allergies

I am delighted to announce that Karen Eck is the new moderator
of the Allergic Living forum.

Many of you know Karen as the leader of the Ottawa Anaphylaxis
Support Group (www.ottawaasg.com). She is also the mom
of Epi-Man and Epi-Man Jr, who have their own website at
www.epi-man.com. Karen and her family have been living with
severe food allergies for over 5 years.

Karen brings enthusiasm and great ideas to AL's boards. She is particularly
interested in getting us more breaking allergy news and in drawing
more members to our boards, as there are so many grappling
today with allergies - both food and environmental. If you have
suggestions on how to draw more potential forum members, please let
her/us know on the boards.

Karen is open to hearing good ideas and suggestions generally. I
would ask, though, that we not inundate her with questions,
especially the kind that can be answered by others on the boards.
(Moderating is not a full-time job!)

Please join me in welcoming Karen to this role – I know she's going to be a great addition. Thanks to Catherine B. for keeping us going as the interim mod.

Welcome, Karen! (And I must add that "Epi-man" is simply adorable!)

Welcome Karen! I heard you speak at the AllergyExpo last year. Your presentation was one that I remember well. It was very informative. I was wondering if there is another expo planned for this year? Were the organizers happy with the attendance? It was wonderful for us.

Welcome Karen! My husband & I also saw you speak at the Allergy Expo, and your son "Epi-Man" was a huge hit! I'm also hoping we will see a return of Allergy Expo. It was a great experience for my husband and I... we learned a lot, and found lots of great allergy-related items for purchase all in one location. We have our annual appt with our son's allergist, Dr. Waserman of McMaster Medical Clinic, and we are going to ask her if the Allergy Expo will be returning. It's nice to have you on board!

Thanks katec!

I hope that there will be another Allergy Expo in the future but I haven't heard any details. One of the organizers did mention Vancouver as a possible future location, but I think that was just thinking out loud. I think it's a lot of work to put something on like that - perhaps every few years will be how it goes (if they do it again).

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much - I did too. I hope to put my presentation up on the web at some point (meant to do it ages ago).

K.

_________________
Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

Thanks Lisa!

Epi-Man and Epi-Man Jr are my own little dynamic duo.

If anyone's child has a good story or joke or drawing or whatever that they'd like to share, have them send it to Epi-Man and Epi-Man Jr and they'll put it on their website at http://www.epi-man.com/EpiKidsPageEn0.htm.

I would really like kids to have a sort of forum for their own for allergies. (I realize that this kind of forum isn't really feasible...)

K.

_________________
Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

Thanks Julie!

I'm really happy to be part of this. I am going to be encouraging my local support group members to use the forums more too. I think it's a great way for the allergy community to stay in touch and help each other out.

K.

_________________
Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

I think we should all start to behave ourselves here. We seem to be going through a lot of moderators.

Welcome Karen.

Now, don't take it personally AM! Audra got too busy with her business, Catherine got a very full-time position ....
Is moderating the AL boards is a career strategy?

But serieusement, back to my original comment in the welcome-to-Karen note - if anyone has thoughts about how to attract more parents, individuals dealing with food and enviro allergies to our growing community, do share.

Maybe you need to first know what has worked best. I can think of several ways people have found this site so far:

Free magazine
purchased magazine
link at another web-site
recommended by someone (on or off line)
internet search

You could do a poll to see how most people found the site. That way, if you are putting a lot of effort into an area that has not been very fruitful, you can decide whether to stop putting effort into it, or do it in a different way.

I hope that makes sense. I'm taking OTC meds for a really bad cold - I'm trying to think through a *cotton head*.

I know you have done the first three ideas. You have no control over the fourth. And I would assume you registered with google. (Do you actually register with search engines? I think so.....how else do they find the sites......)

As for other ideas:

I've seen sites have contests. (Don't think you can offer a cure as a prize though. ) I'm not recommending this idea - just throwing it out there.

Posting entire articles might help. When I find an article on-line that I want to post, I post a link to the original site. Any AL articles I've looked at were not complete - so I don't post links to them at other allergy sites. When someone else posts a link to an article, I will often look around that site after reading the article.

Free copies to libraries, allergists offices for 1 year.
I actually posted the internet address on another forum I frequent, Canadian Parents Online (is this ok?)
Ads in parenting magasines such as Todays Parents and Parenting.
Perhaps a spot n the Life Network show Moms. http://www.lifenetwork.ca/microsites/themomshow/
or
Perhaps a spot on Balance http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... /20030915/
Just a few thoughts

All very good ideas susan. I really like the allergists office idea...or any doctors office for that matter. The more of the general public that reads it, the more informed everyone will be.

How about a coupon for a free edition, or send two copies to current subscribers who inform you that they would like to share with family, friends, their local doctor, their school or anywhere they would like to increase awareness? Might help to get new subscribers too! Personally, my best friend subscribed after recieving the free copy as a member of an allergy related group (anaphylaxis canada?) which I borrowed and then subscribed. I got my mom a subscription for christmas, and my neighbour (whose kids do not have allergies, but she organizes a local childrens festival ) likes to borrow mine. I would like to also share with my daughters school and family doctor. I don't like lending my copy out to anyone other than a trusted friend who understands not to eat our allergnens while reading it. About the childrens festival, it would be a great place to set up an information booth on allergies and give out information about the magazine. Like I said, I just so happen to know the organizer.

What about the old copies of the magazine that are removed from store shelves? Are they just sent to recycle? Maybe they could be donated to hospital waiting rooms and doctor's offices. GP's as well as allergists. (A lot of adults don't see allergists.)

These are great ideas!

I know that our allergist gives handouts to newly diagnosed patients - and they're not choosy about providing protocopies. I wonder about some kind of Allergic Living brochure that would copy nicely? (Trying to think of keeping costs down...)

Of course, I'm not the person who has to implement all this... (I don't think!)

K.

_________________
Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma

Thanks for the ideas - some very good ones.

Definitely, feel free to mention us on other websites when appropriate - a nice grassroots way to spread the word about the mag. and forum.

Re allergists' offices - The magazine is going out to 99 per cent of them and is meant to be for reception display. If anyone doesn't see it on display and has a moment to ask the office nurse or secretary if they've been putting it out for patients, please do.

Most of the allergists do seem to be displaying Allergic Living - but there are always exceptions, and we're happy to remind.

Parenting shows are also good ideas - we don't have enough $ to buy ads, but I often send out media releases about our stories. I'll add these shows to the list. They might well be interested.

An Allergic Living brochure is something we've toyed with - maybe worth looking at again. Thanks all. Gwen