I spent the first week of September 2013 on the island of Rhodes in Greece.  Here is my report:

Well, first I had to adjust to the communication medium.

I was surprised to find out that the Greeks have a different word for almost every English word and their alphabet letters are not the same.  It was like trying to read a foreign language!  I had expected that “globalization” would have meant that every country would use English!  Who forgot to tell the Greeks?  Is it the same in Poland, Italy, Germany?!

Leaving that discussion behind – bottom line: the Island of Rhodes was beautiful.  The vegetation, scenery and weather was very much like southwestern USA.  It was hot, windy and arid.  The ocean was very clear.  The food was excellent, the beer (alfa, fix, mythos) was tasty and refreshing. Drinking Uzo was like drinking liquefied black licorice with a high percent of alcohol; which was quite tasty with morning coffee.  The locals and tourists were friendly and the food was very good.  If you ever get a chance to go to any of the islands of Greece, take it.

On October 20, 2013, the FOCM Metro Philadelphia Chapter met at Restaurant 29 in Malvern, PA.  This place used to be called the Boathouse and is located in a business office area.  It certainly does more business during the work week.

First to arrive (arriving before I did) was Steve Jacobs.  I have known Steve for around 15 years.  Tonight’s attendees were:

Steve Jacobs

Vicky Martin

Deb Carfagno

Tonight’s attendees each drove a minimum of 35 minutes to attend.  They will all receive the FOCM commitment ribbons at the next ceremony.  (the time and location of such ceremonies is always very, very secretive).  All, but Vicky were able to present their membership cards.  It seems Vicky prefers to keep hers in a special location at home rather than carry it with her.

War stories, honest to goodness war stories were told, military insults hurled, whilst Deb and I tried to remind the Army people that we are involved in clinical trials to bring new drugs to market to improve lives.  Soon, the insults of “you were just an Army helicopter pilot” and “oh yeah, you Sargeant Interrogator, just asking people questions” gave way to “lets all just get along and improve patient’s lives”.

We all left at the same time.  We parted as friends, and in the traditional FOCM disembarkment procedure, everyone hugged everyone and not at once, but one at a time.

On October 16, the Cary/Apex/Morrisville Chapter meeting met at Travinia Italian Kitchen in Morrisville, NC.

The weather was nice so we sat outside, initially at a table, then moved to the firepit.

First to arrive was a welcome surprise attendee: Cary Cornette.  Cary and I had worked together at Quintiles in the mid-late 90’s.  We decided it had been probably 15 years since we’d seen each other.  We both complimented each other on the amount of gray hair we have.  Mary Beth Selee had seen the meeting announcement and told Cary about it.  It was great to get reacquainted.

The attendees were:

Cary Cornette

Gayle Grandinetti

Wendy Revenaugh

Carrie Gallagher

Mike Burrows

Mike Markowitz

Tanyss Mason

Nick Macaulay

 

I’d like to say that I complied with the organization’s SOPs and was among the last to leave, but I did not.   Nick, Mike and Mike were still at the bar when I left.

Three new members received their cards: Cary Cornette, Tanyss Mason and Courtney (our waitress). You have heard about Cary above.  Tanyss was e-introduced to me via FOCM member Christine Sears.  Tanyss is in an active job search and Christine thought I may be of service.  Tanyss has a great background and experience set in clinical research data acquisition, warehousing and implementation of standards.  Courtney received her card at the end of the evening for her efforts in identifying candidates for consideration as new members.  The Membership sub-committee consisting of Mike, Mike and Nick were in the process of following up on Courtney’s recommendations when I departed.

Meeting Minutes from FOCM Networking Meeting of October 15, 2013

Tuesday night, October 15, the RTP, NC Chapter of FOCM met at Serena’s in Durham. The weather was nice so we sat outside.

Not that a member gets points for being first to arrive or last to leave but its kinda fun to note that, so as to have accurate meeting minutes, of course.  While it is unlikely that the events recorded herein will ever appear in the Library of Congress, we can pretend that we are important.

At this meeting, the first to arrive was Gayle Grandinetti. The last to leave were myself (as required by the organization’s SOP’s), Nick Macaulay and Vince Hoefling.  The attendees were:

Gayle Grandinetti

Mike Burrows

Lisa Campbell

Mike Markowitz

Sherran Brewer

Katherine Cloninger

Joseph Barna

Tom McPhatter

Wendy Revenaugh

Carrie Gallagher

Vince Hoefling

Mark Mickunas

Nick Macaulay

The companies these people work for include: GSK, Aptiv, Lenovo, Catalent, PPD, Aerotek, TKL Research, Frontage Labs, UCB and Patheon.

It was great to have Lisa Campbell attend.  Tomorrow, 10/21, she will have her labor induced and sometime that day we will welcome  a new FOCM member.  Best wishes to Lisa and her soon-to-be-born daughter.

The following people were first time attendees and received their FOCM membership cards in the traditional and formal presentation of the membership card:  Sherran Brewer, Tom McPhatter, Carrie Gallagher and Joseph Barna.

For those who have not witnessed the formal presentation of the membership card, it goes something like this:  the card presenter holds the card in his left hand, the card recipient receives the card in his/her left hand and the two grip each other’s right hands in a handshake while the card presenter says, “Welcome to the organization.”  As you can well imagine, there is rarely a dry eye among the participants and witnesses.

 

FOCM Chairman, Chris Matheus submitted an abstract for a Networking Workshop at DIA 2014.  The 2014 DIA is being held in San Diego June 15 – 19.  (http://www.diahome.org/en/Flagship-Meetings/DIA2014.aspx)

Notification of abstract acceptance or rejection is expected in December.

The Global Clinical Supply Group has selected Chris Matheus to join their Board as the Membership Officer. The primary responsibility of the role is to grow the membership through a variety of methods. One of the reasons he was selected was because of what has been accomplished at FOCM Networking.

The GCSG annual conference will take place April 27-30, 2014 in Savannah, GA at the Hyatt Regency Savannah.
You can see more about it and register at: http://mygcsg.com/conference/

submitted by FOCM member Chris Diehl

Hello fellow FOCM members,

I hope that this note finds you doing well. I am pleased to announce that I have recently aligned myself with Babb McGrew, a full service Life Sciences executive search firm, servicing four practice areas:
Pharma/Biotech, Healthcare, Data Analytics and Marketing. Richard Babb, the firm’s President, and a personal friend, has been in the executive search/recruiting field for over 15 years. He has built quite a successful business, and I feel very fortunate that he has asked me to become a member of his team. Feel free to visit our website at www.babbmcgrew.com.

As we all know, by virtue of our membership in FOCM, relationships are at the core of many of our business dealings, and in my case, many of these relationships have become personal friends. You are receiving this notification because you and I have either worked together at one time, or our paths have crossed over the past few years, or just know each other from FOCM! Either way, I consider you a friend, and I sincerely
hope that we can work together again in the very near future. Feel free to contact me at any time, let me know what’s new with you, and let’s discuss how we may be able to help each other again in our work. Have a great week.

Best regards,
Chris
Christopher Diehl
Practice Leader
Babb McGrew
(910) 262-4047
chris@babbmcgrew.com
www.babbmcgrew.com

If anyone is or knows of an IT guy looking for a new position drop me
a line (nickhargaden@ardroeconsulting.com)

Small company growing quickly
Most day to day IT is subcontracted, so it’s more managing
enterprise/clinical trial solutions in house, partnering with the
business.
Location: Arizona
Skills/experience: medical imaging, DICOM standard, PACS etc.

Nick Hargaden
Ardroe Consulting
nickhargaden@ardroeconsulting.com

FOCM Networking is headed to Greece for an in-depth observational study of that country’s approach to networking. I have been training for this all summer and feel very prepared.
I will spend the week on the island of Rhodes, which looks to be the easternmost island (not counting Cyprus) in the Greek islands.
On the agenda is lounging poolside learning to communicate with our Scottish hosts, dining out amongst the local peoples, listening, talking, eating, drinking and observing behavior and attire on the beaches.
FOCM will be back in the USA September 7.