9/24/09 4th GM Minutes

AMSA Fall 2009-Week 4 General Meeting Minutes (09/24/2009) 

Highlights of the Meeting:

• AMSA-ARC: Passenger assignments and a brief announcement on other transportation/housing logistics. Contact Tiff Gee for more info on this or not

• Healthcare and homelessness presentation by Shrina:

Some pertinent facts and figures:

Children make up most of the population; tends to carry over to life and to subsequent family

Most common causes: unaffordable housing and very low wage

1/5 of homeless are undernourished and 44% of them do work

Poor mental/physical health and homelessness are correlated with one another in a “two-way street” manner

• Diseases common among homelessness:

TB (very rapid mutation of the strains) 􀃆 reduce new incidence by UV light setting in homeless shelter to prevent spreading

Hypertension and diabetes􀃆 because no regular access to insulin, fridge, and needles. Often reuse needles leading to infection

••• of the population has mental-related problems 􀃆most common are schizophrenia and depression

Substance and alcohol abuse 􀃆 not clear what the relationship is (whether the cause of homelessness is the abuse or it is a coping mechanism for falling into homelessness)

• Skit presented to illustrate the standard response to homeless patient in hospitals and free clinics with AMSA members volunteering to act out the skit

• Many are in denial i.e. endless efforts in bottle gathering for CRV refund not only for the money but to feel like there is a sense of accomplishment or preferring to get discarded food from trash instead of receiving charity directly

• Personal stories and discussions on interacting with homeless people

• Possible collaboration to work with the homeless thru Suitcase Clinic, If the plan goes through, members will be further informed

• Feedback for Sexuality and Homelessness presentations and activities for Shrina. Every GM will have this so members have more say!

• No committee for Environmental/Global/Community Health. If interested in De-Cal related to this topic, which is led by our own Environmental/Global/Community Health Chair, contact her at guo_wenting@berkeley.edu

• Upperclassmen-underclassmen mentorship 􀃆 high interest among members. Tiff Gee will arrange the details and application. If all goes well, it will be announced

9/17/09 3rd GM minutes

 AMSA Fall 2009-Week 3 General Meeting Minutes (09/17/2009) 

Highlights of the Meeting:

• The new Community & Environmental Health/Global Health Action Committee Chair, Wenting Guo, was introduced to the member.

• Reminder on the AMSA-ARC conference. Last early bird registration is September 18^th ($20 ticket). Afterwards, $25 until September 25^th. Then it is $40. The event is for two days and attended by various deans of admissions of medical schools. The fee includes entrance fee, lunch for both days, and a t-shirt. Event on October 3^rd-4^th. Transportation will be arranged by the board and perhaps housing as well. For more info, please contact Stephanie Stramotas (sstramotas@gmail.com).

• Sign-up for hospitality event of the Graduate Student Fair on October 7^th-8^th. Event is co-sponsored by AMSA. Contact Tiff Gee for more info (tiffanygee11@gmail.com).

• Activity: Anonymous Human Sexuality Questionnaire activity and discussion. For more information and the recap of the event, contact Shrina Shah, the Race, Ethnicity & Culture in Health/Gender & Sexuality Chair (shrina89@gmail.com). The exercise’s purpose is to dispel any assumptions on a person’s sexuality through the result of a specific population (i.e. members who were in attendance). Physicians rarely talk about this aspect of human health. However, it does not mean that it is not important.

• Membership applications were accepted. Next general meeting is the final time they will be accepted. The room will be Tan Oak on the 4^th floor of the MLK Student Union building from 7-8:30 pm and the topic is Immigrant Health and Health Disparities.

Welcome to AMSA!

Welcome to the UC Berkeley AMSA blog!  I will be posting the minutes for the general meetings as well as useful resources on this blog.  Happy reading!

~~Tiffany Shih, Webmaster

9/10/09 2nd GM Minutes

AMSA Fall 2009-Week 2 General Meeting Minutes (09/10/2009) 

Introduction of the Membership Ladder 

The way it will work is each event is worth some points, as broken down below:

1. General Meetings/Action Committee Events

2 pts each

2. Community Service events

3 pts each + bonus points for staying at all-day events (e.g. Relay for Life)

3. Kaplan events

3 pts each

4. Conferences

5 pts

5. Joining/active participation on the Board or in Action Committees (Max: 2 ACs/person)*

10 pts/officer position, 5 pts/committee

*Officers/AC Chairs do not get more than 10 points for the “Board/AC” category, even if they participate in one or more ACs

Prizes awarded at the end of Spring 2010! 

The rankings are based on point accumulation. Cut-off for each level is as follows (play the Super Mario Bros. tune in head):

Surgeon General: highest # pts earned

Chief-of-Surgery >55 pts

Physician: 40-54 pts

Resident: 30-39 pts

Med Student: 20-29 pts

Pre-Med <20 pts

Prizes range from UCSF scrubs, shadowing a physician, and to the Surgeon General, a scholarship.

So ALWAYS remember to sign-in for every event! 

Action Committee Newsflash 

There are five committees. To obtain an application, please email the chair of the committee of interest or download it from amsa.berkeley.edu. Members are welcome to join more than one committees!

Community & Environmental Health/Global Health AC Chair is open to members. The application was distributed in hard copy during the general meeting but can still be obtained from our website. The due date is Mon. September 14^th and interviews will be conducted the following day. Email any questions and completed applications to sstramotas@gmail.com.

Guest Speaker: Dr. Isaac Yang. 

Advisor and Mentor for our chapter, who is currently Chief Resident of Neurological Surgery at UCSF.

His background:

Undergradute studies at UC Berkeley; convoluted path to obtaining his double major. Initially, Dr. Yang was pre-business􀃆 MCB􀃆 Social Welfare􀃆 MCB/Social Welfare majors

UCLA for medical school + served in the admissions committee

UCSF for Internship and Chief residency

Highlights of the talk:

Overall, it was a marvelous talk, colored by some honest “self-deprecating” humor. To get the full experience, one had to be there (that’s why one shall not miss general meetings >.<).

Topics:

Why become a doctor?

Are you a people person?

To make a difference, not to earn a salient salary (which in most case, will not happen, well, immediately anyways. Be a lawyer or a venture capitalist or an engineer of some sort if you want this)

Quickest way to succeed (in this context, medical school success), one needs a mentor, a true inspiration to motivate oneself in reaching certain goals. Dr. Yang described this through the breakthrough of the four-minute one mile run. After Bannister’s achievement, twelve other athletes managed to run a mile under four minutes 􀃆 fueled by inspiration. A mentor can do so.

The obvious: need good GPA, MCAT, personal statement, interviews, letters of recommendation/extra-curricular

The AMSA plug: AMSA’s national status is an advantage to an applicant because the organization’s origin and mission are sweetly familiar to the admissions committee􀃆 good to commit self to AMSA (not in the Mayan way…)

Success comes from a series of unfortunate events (not plugging Lemony Snicket’s series. Suggested book by Dr. Yang was actually Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success)

If anyone has any questions for Dr. Yang, please feel free to email him at getINconsulting@gmail.com 

Closing Points 

Introduction of Tiffany Gee, Vice President of Membership to the members’ crowd.

Membership applications were accepted. The last time to do so is our fourth general meeting, which tentative date is September 24^th, place TBA.

We are still awaiting the Office of Registrar’s room assignment for our third general meeting. There is a possibility that this will be postponed due to Office of Registrar’s inability to accommodate our request, and for that matter, many other organization’s requests. We sincerely apologize if this were to happen.