Just wanted to give a quick recap of the past year and let you know what our chapter has been doing. We hope that this inspires you to volunteer and join our board as we need 2 positions filled each year. 

Our board consists of President, VP-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Past President. We also have a nominating chair who helps run our elections and we also have some Ad-Hoc members to help with other events/planning/etc.  

Current President is Tricia Dziabis who will move to Past President

VP-Elect is Michelle Buikema who will move to President

Secretary is Jessica Ismail (moving into 2nd year of term)

Treasurer is Margaret Avery-Robinson (served for 2 terms/4years but now gets to retire :)

Nominating Chair: Masako Mayahara

Ad-Hoc:  Nancy Romanchek

Retreat Committee from 2018: Board members plus Colleen O’Keefe, Julie Holzer, Wendy Dybas, Cheryl Slack and Nancy Romanchek.

Our Board runs from June to June. We typically meet monthly via Zoom or WebX and plan out activities and events. Time commitment is a few hours a month. This can increase when we have bigger events but we work collaboratively.  One board member gets sent to HPNA Leadership conference—FOR FREE!! Which is now held as a preconference with Clinical Practice Forum in Pittsburgh in September. 

Current positions to be filled are:

VP-Elect which is a 3 year position with 1st year as VP, 2nd as President, 3rd as Past President. This person works with board to help plan events, transition to President and then mentor as past president. Typically VP Elect is who goes to leadership conference. 

Treasurer: 2 year position: Manages bank account, prepare financial summary 2x/year to send to national, pay for CE’s or other fees the chapter owe. Reviews memberships for payment, monitors website financials, has POBox for chapter set up/maintained.

PLEASE consider joining our board. We cannot maintain the chapter without leadership. We have moved to be more sustainable over the past 4-5 years by creating a website, having a chapter email, and now virtual meetings with Zoom/WebX and hope to transition that to our chapter events in order to have an online component so people can listen/view from home.

Other advantages to being on our Board: Board members qualify for points that can be utilized for recertification through HPAR. Being a local chapter board member opens the door to opportunities on a national level as well. HPNA is always looking for leadership representatives in all different roles. Perhaps your employer doesn't have leadership roles that fit your needs....we would love to help grow your leadership skills and create opportunities to make a difference in our local Chicagoland Hospice and Palliative community. Board members need to members of our local chapter and national HPNA.

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These were our events from the past year—We will actually send a different email or link to go into more detail on these events—because they were really good!

October 2018:

3rd annual Hospice Nurse Retreat: Relax and Rejuvenate!   Loyola Retreat Center in Woodstock, IL

April 2019

Faith Based Care & Rituals Surrounding Death & Burial Practices for the Christian, Jewish and Muslim Patient.    Lutheran General Hospital. Park Ridge, IL

May 2019

Considering the Opioid Crisis on End-of-Life Care Loyola Maywood Campus

June 11 2019

Culinary Grief Therapy.  AMITA-Alexian Brothers Hospital.   Elk Grove Village IL. **few spots left—please email or register  on our website to attend. https://chicagolandhpna.nursingnetwork.com

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Our Chapter Membership typically runs about 40-50 people.  We have hundreds of people in the Chicagoland area who are national members but few are chapter members. Local chapter membership is $25/year.  What do we do with the money?  Actually, approximately $5 is spent to offset costs related to credit card/website fees to manage our membership and send out email reminders etc. This allows us to have a consistent electronic record which is easily updated and managed. (and saves TONS OF TIME!)

We also have given either $500 or $1000 annually to HPNF.  HPNF gives away thousands of dollars in scholarships to attend conferences, Annual Assembly, certifications,  recertifications, etc.   Have you ever applied or received a scholarship from HPNF?  I personally have received 2—one I applied for and the other I won at drawing for free recertification reimbursement.  Our chapter received a $1000 grant in 2016 which kick started our 1st retreat and kept our costs low.  This is one of the reasons why we give back to HPNF.

Our chapter Educational Events typically include a light meal and CE.  CE’s cost $10 from HPNA and it is hard to spend less than $5/per person to provide food. Our chapter account absorbs the extra cost.  When we can decrease costs due to donations, we pass that along to our members. We are fortunate to have a healthy bank balance, thanks to previous boards and larger events that we’ve held. We have tried to be good stewards of chapter funds and hope to continue to provide great events to the Chicagoland area but we need your help.

Please reply to this email if you are interested in our open Board positions of Treasurer or VP-Elect. Or if you think you have a skill or leadership trait that would benefit our board---social chair, membership, technology, social media.... Let us know!  We have the ability to be creative...we are hospice and palliative nurses..we are amazing!

Feel free to respond with questions also.

Thanks! and don't forget to sign up for Culinary Grief on June 11 as registration will be closing soon!

The Chicagoland Chapter Board/

Tricia Dziabis BSN RN CHPN

President 

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