Question:
We need speakers at our meetings. How do we arrange this?

Who pays for all of these speakers and assorted professionals to come in to speak to you guys? They don't do this for free do they? Some of you seem to belong to very well orgainzed, deluxe support groups. Do you pay a fee to keep them this way? I would love to have these kind of knowledgeable ppl come to speak to our little group. How does one approach a medical professional to come and speak? Wls is not big business here in Canada and someone volunteers in each town or city to create an informal support group no matter what kind of wls or who the surgeon is. It is basically info exchange between postops and preops. I would like to have more, like many American support groups have. Any advice for me? mary ann taylor, postop, aug7/03 302/242    — mary ann T. (posted on October 27, 2003)

October 27, 2003
My support group is run by a Dietician who is associated w/ a couple of Practices and one of the location Hosptial's Obesity Clinic. The doctors from those practices speak to our group on a rotation schedule. Because Bariatrics is not big business in your area, perhaps by speaking to some of the Office Managers in the existing Practices, you can see if any of the doctors would speak not for a fee but as a way to drum up business. If they are speaking at these meetings, they can begin referring perpective patients to these meetings for info to help them make their decision whether or not to have WLS.
   — [Deactivated Member]

October 27, 2003
At our local hospital (where about 8-10 gastric bypass operations are performed weekly), we have a once-monthly meeting for new patients (that the leading surgeon requires of all his patients) and a once-monthly meeting for post-ops. The surgeon attends a portion of most of these meetings and always is available to answer questions. The post-ops are required (we all promise our surgeon) to attend the pre-op meeting; during the meetings, we follow a slide show to explain the surgery, the risks/benefits and the psychological side of it all; we get post-ops to sometimes speak (which is great for the pre-ops) and at the end of the meetings we encourage the post-ops to meet with the pre-ops and network. Also the practitioners to whom the patients are evaluated are invited to speak and come freely. For me, the best post-op meetings are the ones where our facilitator (who is a hospital administrator, former psych nurse and gastric bypass success story) challenges us to speak about how our old behaviors cropped up in our "new" lives and how we dealt with it. Last week, he presented a great powerpoint presentation on the Benefits of Obesity as a wake-up call to the many people who are coasting and backsliding; it prompted a great discussion among all of us which opened a lot of eyes. Support groups are such an integral part of continued weight loss success that your efforts to make them interesting is very noble. Good luck.
   — SteveColarossi

October 27, 2003
We have a small support group too. Several of the members have asked their doctors if they would visit our meeting. We have a nutricinist, phychiatrist, plastic surgeon, and personal trainer that will be visiting. Get names of the types of people you'd like to have speak and call them. Let them know that it would be good for their business to visit your meeting.
   — Yvonne G.