Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Don Blim Interview of May 13, 2008

The JLS interview of Dr. R.Don Blim is now up and running on the website and ready for viewing. Dr. Blim is a retired Pediatrician and former Director of St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the John Locke Society of Greater Kansas City. There are 6 short video clips. If you want to see them, click here or go to http://www.myjohnlocke.com/ and select the website for videos.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

John Locke Society Reorganization

The John Locke Society of Greater Kansas City announces a major reorganization of its infra-structure to better serve the needs of its base. For over twenty years, the present organization has been successful in several projects which it has undertaken. Among other things, it has provided a forum for retired physicians to enjoy each others company and fellowship. It has conducted a program for teaching health and hygiene to 5th grade primary school students.. Our, “Oral History of Medicine” project has been very well received. Our, “Medical Student Outreach” program is under way. We have websites and a blog. These activities have been carried out with very limited resources and a limited part time staff. They were successful because of the hard work and dedication of a few individuals.
All of this has been extremely worthwhile, but the demand for services has been growing faster than our ability to meet it. In order to get to the next level of efficiency, we need to grow. In order to grow, we need to do the following things:

1. Expand our base of operations to include more of our membership.
2. Expand our operations to meet new needs in the community.
3. Formalize our identity by acquiring a physical location with secretarial services.
4. Formalize our finances by incorporating as a 501 (c)(3) organization.
5. Upgrade our fund raising efforts to provide adequate working capital.
6. Reform our organizational infra-structure with new by-laws, and an annual meeting.
7. Improve our public relations efforts to recruit all retired physicians who
wish to participate.

Steps are being taken to address all of these issues. It can be done. It will take hard work and time, but it can be done.
The present Board of Directors firmly believes there is a huge need for an organization to serve retired physicians. These physicians have much to offer the community. We hope that the John Locke Society will be the organization through which they can make that offer.