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Well, your Vice President, Pam Herbig, and I attended the 2009 STTI Biennial Convention in Indianapolis this November. It was a wonderful experience and we were able to really see the workings of the international organization and visit the International Headquarters. We will begin to move forward on our new strategic plan for this biennium and really hone in on those items that are important to us as a federal chapter and those items that STTI feels are important. One of the first things we are going to do is rewrite a strategic plan that focuses on the items needed for a Chapter Key award. We will be sharing that with all of you and hopefully at the 2011 Biennium we can receive that honor. Here are some of the initiatives that we are going to tackle and we certainly would like your feedback and suggestions on any of them:

1) We have decided to focus our service and research money on a unified topic and since we are all associated with the federal government, we have chosen “Paws for Patriots” as that project. We discussed this topic at the Region 12 meeting and had several chapters ask to be part of that project. We will be attaching a short video on “Paws for Patriots” to this website as soon as I can.In short, each dog is “adopted” at 9 weeks old and the money donated ($3500.00 per dog) is used to care for and feed the dog until the age of 20 months. Then the animal is placed into the training program to serve our wounded warriors. The dogs can be used as a therapy dog for a center as a whole or given to a single warrior who needs assistance. Either way, it goes directly to supporting our troops. We also have individuals who have done research on these types of animal companions and would like to support their research if possible. So, we are pursuing the idea of a foundation where anyone can donate to the cause. Some of us have decided to forego giving gifts to our friends and donating to the Tau Theta Chapter for the Paws for Patriots service project instead. We will certainly get you more information as that comes to fruition.�

2. We were proud to have Diane Seibert speak at the convention and it gave great exposure to our chapter.

3. We are working on making this website and a new facebook page user friendly so that we can speak more easily and have our chapter meetings in different forums.

4. Finally I would like to ask you to respond if you currently are able to use DCO. Since it looks like that is going to be DoD wide, we may try to use that option for meetings – however, that remains to be seen until we get clearance. But, I would like to know if you have access so that I can pursue this option.

That is it for now and the Tau Theta Board and I wish you a happy Thanksgiving!

– Micki Shafer

Good morning everyone! I am very pleased to announce the results of our elections and I want to thank so many of you for voting. We actually had a substantial response. So here goes!!!!

Faculty Counselor: Diane Seibert

Nominating Committee: Capt Natasha Sutton and Maj Heather Johnson

Secretary: LTC Karen Whitman

Congratulations to you all. We will be having a board meeting shortly to discuss our new strategic plan. Welcome to the team!!!!

Hi everyone,
The Tau Theta 2009 ballot is now open to elect individuals to fill the following positions:

Faculty Counselor (1)
Nominating Committee (2)
Secretary (1)

The ballot can be found at this link:

http://cim01.usuhs.mil/genein/electauthet09.tp4

It should take you no more than 5 minutes to complete this ballot – so please vote today! (We’d like to close this ballot by next week).

Thanks
Diane Seibert

Hi everyone! It’s election time at Tau Theta. To cast your vote, please go to: http://cim01.usuhs.mil/genein/electauthet08.tp4!

Here are the photos from the induction ceremony. Click on each thumbnail to be taken to a larger-size image.

Hi everyone,

My transition out of the Presidency position has given me an opportunity to serve as the POC for the Global community initiatives this year (it’s one of the 3 communities Tau Theta is trying to get started). In case you’ve forgotten, the three communities are:

Local: Service in the local community (Adopting a nurse or nursing home)
Global: Global service (Heifer International, Habitat for humanity, Orphanage project)
Professional: Promoting nursing (speaking in schools, mentoring nursing students)

Last December, five Tau Theta members at USU contributed money to Heifer International in lieu of giving holiday gifts to faculty & staff. With our combined dollars, we purchased a Water Buffalo, a Pig, 10 Tree Seedlings, a Trio of Rabbits and a flock of hope (chicks, ducklings and goslings). We then sent out an email message stating that our holiday gift to the USU community was to help feed and nourish individuals in the US and around the globe.

This year, we are extending an invitation to any Tau Theta member interested in joining us in this global service effort.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the 2007 Tau Theta Global Service Project: our 2007 Heifer International gift, please send our treasurer (he was just elected to the STTI board as their treasurer – congratulations Ric!) Ric Ricciardi a short email (rricciardi@usuhs.mil) so we know approximately how many donations to expect in the mail. Then please send a check (any dollar amounts appreciated) made out to Tau Theta to

Tau Theta Chapter

20203 Goshen Road #294

Gaithersburg, MD 20879

I know it’s a lofty goal, but perhaps, this year we could collect enough to buy an Ark!

Check out the website http://www.heifer.org

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Diane

Click here for Attachment

I’m still learning how to use our new website! I included all the information on the Fall meeting in the “Upcoming Events” area under Site Information. I’ll keep trying to attach the Flyer!

Diane

Hi everyone!

On behalf of our new Tau Theta president, Deb Kenny, I’m forwarding the announcement of our Fall Tau Theta meeting. We hope to see you there!

Diane Seibert

Overarching goal: help the homebound or institutionalized elderly
Project: Adopting a Nursing Home
Overall POC: Laura Shay laura.shay@fda.hhs.gov