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Where the Money is going
Hey
All You "Convention" Goers Out There!
I just wanted to give everyone an idea of where all your hard-earned fundraising
dollars are going:
Lunch on Saturday for approx 100 people
Popcorn Machine/Cotton Candy Machine Rental
Tent Rental
Welcome Packets
Presentation Packets
Name Tags
Donation to Hanson Center for use of their facilities on Friday
Donation to Shriners for use of their facilities on Saturday
and the ever present Miscellaneous (depending on what other costs are
incurred/come up that I am presently unaware of!)
The time that several of us have put into planning is of course donated - so a
BIG THANK YOU to all who have helped plan this event.
I know that this isn't your traditional "convention" so please use the
term loosely. We do not have vendors who are going to try to sell to you, all
people at this convention will be donating their time to explain their products
and answer your questions. We also did not require a registration or up front
fee as we felt this was more of a "meeting of the minds" and wanted to
see as many of you as possible. Finally, AMC Support is not funding this event,
but is, in this first year anyway, acting more as a meeting ground and a launch
pad for bringing us all (those with AMC, their family and friends) together to
form a community that will hopefully help to bring about more Awareness, more
Research, and a great Network for all of us directly affected by AMC.
Again I am looking forward to meeting you all in August (say a quick prayer that
this baby does not come before then 
). I think that no matter what we will have a great time getting to know one
another and getting that much needed sense of community, togetherness, and
seeing people that are "just like us".
See you in August!
Michelle
PS If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email them to me at mpayne@amcsupport.org.
Thanks again!
ADDRESSING CONCERNS ABOUT THE CONVENTION
It has come to our attention that there are some questions &/or concerns about the up coming convention that need to be addressed.
First of all we want to say Thank You and give a round of applause to ALL who have been involved with the planning, contributing, and organizing, of this…OUR Very First Ever AMCSupport Connection Convention. We would also like to extend our “Thank You’s” to all who have prayed for and supported us in preparing for our Convention in Chicago! You have done an exceptional job and we are all thankful to each of you for your hard work and dedication. If you are unable to attend physically, Please know that you will ALL be there with us in our thoughts and in our hearts!!
When we ask each of our attending families to assist us in the fund-raising process by helping raise $10 (have a yard sale, bake sale, car wash or host a pancake breakfast, spaghetti dinner, etc), we did so with the very Best of intentions at heart. This was Not a requirement in order to attend. We assure you that ALL monies &/or items donated ARE going to help cover the cost/support of this convention.
Rosalinda & Michele (our Chicago event planning team) have done an incredible job with the preparations!! They have even provided us the security of knowing that hotel rooms would be made available to us in August by reserving a number of rooms on their own personal credit card accounts. We did not ask them to do this, they Volunteered. That is the key word here, Volunteer. Those who are working behind the scenes in order to make this and enjoyable & momentous event are ALL Volunteers and are receiving no form of monetary payment for their time & effort.
We are sure that many of you have attended a specialty convention or meeting of some sort before and probably were not ask to donate or assist in the fund-raising of money, but you ‘were’ probably ask to pay an admittance fee. We ARE NOT asking our attending families to pay an admittance fee for the following reason(s):
1.)We are at this time unable to assist attending families with any form of funding in getting to the convention,
2.)We wanted ALL that CAN to be able to attend!!
3.)We acknowledge that each hard earned dollar that each of our families earns is indeed that Hard Earned, and
4.)We also understand the expenses of medical care on all levels, that can quickly be incurred due to the diagnosis of AMC in itself.
Keeping in mind that this IS our FIRST ever convention, we cannot depend upon ALL our costs associated with the convention being covered by the vendors that will be represented there. Our vendors will in fact themselves be donating their time by showcasing and displaying their products as well as their expertise in each sector to assist you in answering any questions &/or concerns that may arise.
We would appreciate everyone's patience with our tax-exempt status (as it could take up to 18 months) as well as your patience with Carrie who has also put in a Lot of time and hard work and is Still Dedicated to helping us become an official non-profit organization. She is a Full-Time working mommy! Her daughter's surgery is also coming up, so as you can see this does not leave her with an abundance of free time. Obtaining the 501(C)3 is a long process and we HAVE taken all the right steps to get it.
We take the time to personally compose and send out these updates as a means of letting you all know what is going on, where we are at in our planning, what to expect and so forth. We by NO means have ANYTHING to hide, nor do we want to. If that is what you are thinking, we deeply apologize & encourage you to contact us, to express your concerns so that we may offer you the peace of mind by providing you with an honest answer. If someone does not get back to you in a timely manner feel free to resubmit your question or even send it to one of the admins here at amcsupport.org but please do not harass &/or point fingers until you know exactly whom is responsible. We ask of you to please be patient in your expectations of receiving an answer. We are all (organizing committee, members and likewise) human and have homes, families, jobs & unexpected events outside of maintaining our friendship and responsibilities here within the group.
Sincerely,
AMCSupport Board of Directors
I would also like to add - I am extremely honored to have these ladies devote their free time to our support group as well as preparing for this event. I know life can get very busy and take
a lot of wild turns but yet you all take time out of your life to do this for our AMC family. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. With the convention right around the corner - I ask all of you who will not be in attendance -to please say a prayer for all of our
traveling families. We have families who will be coming in from all corners of the US as well as out of the country. With 100+ people to be in
attendance - we are sure we will make memories to last a lifetime!!
I also want to express my thanks to everyone in the groups who have donated to our convention - including the
- $$ from AMC yard sales, Tupperware fundraiser, handmade jewelry, the Arthrogryposis : A Text Atlas,
Art Supplies & other goodies for the kids, gift baskets, water, napkins
& other supplies - We cannot THANK YOU enough! With All that said ~ I can't wait to meet you all! Have a safe trip & I'll see you next week.
Ani S. Vinson
http://www.amcsupport.org - Founder
http://www.forabby.com