Parkinsonian links - About Calendars

Parkinsonian Links

About Calendars

I do not take credit for suggesting a world-wide Parkinsonian calendar, but I certainly think it would be wise to have one. Certain things that I have reported in past years might illustrate the utility of such a calendar, such as:

There was a significant symposium in Fort Worth. The only attendees from Dallas, only 50 km (30 miles) away were one of the speakers and myself.

There was a Parkinson's Walk in Whitesboro, TX, possibly 160 km. (100 miles) from the large population centers of Dallas and Fort Worth on a beautiful day. One person alone made the trip: and that was I.

We have had few meetings of our local support group, DAPS, with Parkinsonians visiting from outside our area. I felt priveleged to be host to both Kees Paap (before he became a Texan) and the van der Poortens at one of the meetings.

At a Walkathon in Denton, TX, 50 km (30 miles) from Dallas, only Kees (now living in Texas) and I showed up from other than the Denton area.

No leaders from Houston attend Dallas events, nor do Dallas leaders visit Houston events. (Kees and I have constituted exceptions)

...and so on.

In short, what I found was that many events took place in the Parkinson community, and news of them was not adequately spread to others - even to those on the internet.

Much of this can be traced to lack of publicity or poor publicity, but I feel that a second cause of this lack of sharing is that there has been no place to turn to find out what is happening and when it is happening. The Parkinson Information Exchange (listserv) has been instrumental in developing some visits of Parkinsonians outside their local communities, but a comprehensive calendar could do more.

There are problems with having a single comprehensive calendar - for one, it is an every day job for the person who maintains it. For that person to maintain it, they must get regular reports on planned events as long as possible before they happen. This means active support from the people who are planning these events.

And because we are human, it also means that we have to reinforce the people all over who work on the calendar so that they will know that their effort is well spent.

Alas, but as of this writing, there's not much of a choice. If you find a good calendar of Parkinsonian events, please let me know.

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It is a sad fact that every web page like this must add "Disclaimers apply."
Revised 10 January, 2004

Web page http://www.ccastle.org/calnders.html