local meetings

Dear All
I was wondering if there was any interest in setting up local regular (say 4 x per year) meetings for people who've done a DAFNE course. Just informal to get together and catch up etc or more formal like the DUK meetings with speakers? What do you think?
Sarah Phillips Leicester.

It would definitely be worth trying.............I think informal would be a good place to start until you know people are going to attend for sure.........

I'd be interested in coming along to a DAFNE gathering. Possibly would take pressure off the hospitals!

Or possibly put the pressure on the local hospitals as we overindulge in cakes and booze.............LOL

thanks for your comments. I was hoping that one of our local graduates would set something up with support-if required-from the local educator team. I kind of thought that people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes might also want to come along as there isn't a really anything locally that seems to appeal to people with type 1 diabetes?

Lol@cakes and booze comment! What "local" are we refering to here? Would these meets be split by county or even country? Organiser volunteers will be needed. Could possibly ask at libraries (especially if they have cafe with cake!) if they'll be happy to accomodate a gathering like this.

i was thinking very local eg the county that you live in. I was hoping that this topic would spark some interest and that people might look at organising something themselves. We tried to organise a local user group before DAFNE online was developed but the danger is it becomes another healthcare lead thing and in the spirit of DAFNE and from what i've noticed from talking to people in clinic some kind of meeting run by graduates themselves would seem quite appealing, now there is DAFNE online there is a better vehicle to organise this type of thing. I just wondered how people felt about this?

I'm happy to try and help out for the Norfolk area.

Hi, interesting to hear these suggestions, it is something that has been discussed in the DAFNE User Action Group but not really moved forward. Part of the issue is contacting people in the local area. DAFNEOnline obviously has a user based but the general DAFNE graduate population is much higher. The big problem is only the local DAFNE eductators have any record of local graduates so its hard to make progress without their input. They tend to be VERY busy people who are very stretched and so don't always have time to assist.
That said I'm 100% in favour of this idea and am happy to help in my DAFNE Centre, we even have our own 'free' venue to hold a get together since the local Diabetes charity built our Diabetes centre and allow us to use it in the evening for free. I'm in South East Kent.
Lastly I would suggest people interested in organising something like this, post in their DAFNE Centre forum to gauge interest as this is the idea of the centre forums. Its worth keeping people updated in this forum but you are likely to find it easier to do the orgainsing in the local forums. I agree with Sarah, that is better graduate led because its more likely to occur and keep occuring with its 'driven' by the people its for rather than by the DAFNE Educator. I would still invite the educators to the meetings though !

My JPH forum is very very quiet, but if anyone needs any inspiration for their forum bit, here's my post:

Local meets thread

Obviously, interest needs to be gauged before people take the time to make the arrangements, so I ask:

~ How interested are we in having a local meetup each calendar quarter?
~ What is our preferred day and place?
~ What sort of activities would we like to do?
~ Do we encourage partners, friends or relatives to come along?

Personally, I am interested and I'm even happy to try and make a meet happen.

My best days for doing a meet during the day are Saturday and Sunday. I am a Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm worker.
Depending on where we plan the place, I can do evening meets. My preferred places are Great Yarmouth area but I can take a trip out to places like Norwich if demand is there.

The sort of activities that I think would be nice to do as a group is things like bowling (to help build a team feeling perhaps? ) or meeting at a cafe for a discussion (discussion suggestions are welcome! We could start by introducing ourselves and then the next meet, talk about our memories of our first days of diagnosis... that sort of thing!).

I'm not quite as enthusiastic about cinema because people cannot necessarily chat and er "bond" quite as well... also, depending on the range of ages coming along, may cause the group to break up which would be defeating the point.

I'd love to have a bike ride out with a group of diabetics, but obviously, motorbiking interest needs to be clarified!

I know one of my DAFNE educators and my boyfriend are Park Run participants.... would we be interested in doing an activity like this together?

I think bringing along anyone you've had through your time as a diabetic is a very good thing. I know I'd love to give my boyfriend an opportunity to talk to someone else going through what he's been through (with dealing with the pain the bum that is JWo the T1diabetic!).... I think my parents would also love to come along!

So what do we think? Love to hear your thoughts!