[QUOTE=indigogo;349008]Todd - I wish you'd take another, closer, more careful look at was is going on here. The effort to create a scientific database for research is being pursued on a separate track and there has been very little talk about clinical trials. What we are attempting to do is create a united patient voice for advocacy. How can patients be expected to "pressure" or influence anything or anyone unless we can show a unified front?

Is pressuring the organizations to unify on anything really the most effective use of our time, or is it finally finding our own, unified voice and using it to promote PD awareness on a global scale? Personally, I'd rather see the orgs have a united research front before promoting a united awareness campaign; the orgs have the power of fundraising for research in their hands - I wish their scientific boards and research budgets were unified.

The patients are taking the lead on unification. We can lead by example; flex our voice and our power (getting "fired up"), and do constructive things for PD. If we do it right, the orgs will follow. And we have a better chance of promoting awareness than we do in influencing research at first - the research will come if we get the scientific database right.[quote=indigogo;349008]



With all due respect, I have read each and every response in this thread (a thread that I initially created remember) and I stand by my original statement and intent. In my personal opinion, the direction is headed the wrong way, and while I commend the effort, it wasn't what I originally proposed with the opening statement in this thread.

I am all for a unified patient advocacy front. But I believe we are trying to put the cart before the horse with the plans and ideas I am reading about. With the involvement of many core Pipeline people, whom I greatly respect, I again say that the direction this has taken is more suitable for a PPP project and not a larger scale effort from our community.

I still strongly believe that the first positive step in the right direction is for us to push the orgs to come together and create a unified public marketing campaign to create much needed exposure for our disease. With increased public awareness comes increased public support, both financially and politically, and that benefits everyone involved.

Once we make our voices heard in the arena of public awareness through a joint effort marketing campaign, the rest will follow. Trying to recreate the wheel is pointless. Look to those that have gone before us and had great success and model our approach accordingly. I've provided examples of this and continue to wonder why our orgs can't do the same.

It's a fight I'll continue to pursue. You want to go a different direction, while it's not what I originally proposed, I hope it turns out to be successful. I mean really, the more sides we can hit them from, the better.

But I only have time, strength, and energy for one grand fight and I'm choosing public awareness, because the overall benefits to everyone in our community are phenomenal, as other organizations before us have already proven.

Fight the good fight.