Question:
I need help or suggestions on how to start a support group?

WOULD LIKE TO START A SUPPORT GROUP IN ORANGE/DUTCHESS OR WESTCHESTER COUNTY IF YOU KNOW OF ANY GUIDELINES, SUGGESTIONS OR WOULD LIKE TO JUST HELP PLEASE POST I LIVE IN ORANGE COUNTY AND HAVE TO TRAVEL TO THE BRONX OR NEW JERSEY. PLEASE HELP    — DIONE M. (posted on August 21, 2001)

August 21, 2001
Hi, I would be interested in starting one here in Orange county. I do know a couple of people who have had the surgery that live locally. I don't know if it needs to be very formal or if we could just start by getting a few people together and then getting the word out. Let me know what you think, you can email me directly at [email protected]
   — Vicki K.

August 22, 2001
There are a number of groups in my area but they are all at least a 30 minute drive away so I decided to start my own group. I made up a flyer and booked a meeting room at a public library. I took the flyer to my surgeon's office for distribution in his monthly in-service packet which goes to ~50 people, and I also put a notice in my company's weekly newsletter. Our first meeting was June 19th, and we had *31* people!! We didn't get to do more than go-rounds at that meeting because there were SO MANY of us. :-) We decided to meet every two weeks, and I started a Yahoo! group.<br><br>We now have a set of 13 meetings (so we'll get through them twice a year) and we average 20-25 people per meeting (so every other week is the right frequency for us). Our Yahoo! group is up to 82 members and in all, we have had 100 unique people between the online group and the in-person meetings. We've had 5 meetings so far and we've not managed any guest speakers yet but we have one next week. Our typical format is: 1st hour: go-rounds (name, point in the process you're at, surgeon's name, how much weight lost if post-op, any other short thing you want to say), then we talk about that week's topic and typically have some handouts if I've found some good AMOS q/a's about the topic or another source. Second hour: break into groups of 4-6 people for direct, non-topic-oriented support. In October, our meeting space will change and we will get our room from 6:30-9 instead of 7-9; we're going to use that first half-hour for clothing exchange!<br><br>The email for our group is [email protected] and the group itself is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EastsideWLS-Support<br><br>Good luck forming a new group! I've found it VERY rewarding and I'm glad I've put the effort into it. It's really helped a number of the gals in our group already and several say it's gotten their weight loss back on track. My surgeon was also thrilled that I started a group (so he can send his patients!) and my psychological evaluation mentions it prominently as a factor likely to lead to success with WLS for me personally.
   — Julia M.