February 2018 Newsletter: The Quiver

"The Quiver"

Our Newsletter

This is our inaugural Dynamic Diabetes Management Inc, monthly newsletter. It’s intended to keep Sugar Surfers and Friends of Surfers up to speed with what is going on with Dynamic Diabetes Management Inc, (Sugar Surfing™). And what about that name, “The Quiver”? It’s a real ocean surfing slang term which means ‘a surfer’s surfboard collection’. This newsletter will discuss the collection of projects and programs which are completed or in development or consideration.

Business Matters

On January 17th 2018 we received our formal letter from the IRS designating Dynamic Diabetes Management as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit public educational charity. DDM was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in Texas on January 1, 2016. All donations made to DDM since its inception are now considered tax-deductible. We have received over $2,000 in donations in the last two months alone. Fundraising will be ongoing as with any other non-profit charity. We encourage you to consider donating or encouraging others to do so. Go to sugarsurfing.com and click the “donate” key. We will soon be adding new members to the DDM Board of Directors. Currently there is an open space created by the departure of Kevin McMahon. We will be aiming to fill that vacant position and add several more members.

DDM Courseware module

An educational Sugar Surfing online teaching module is under development. The prototype is based on the teaching points of Chapter 7 of the book Sugar Surfing. In addition to audio and animation elements, there will be quizzes to challenge your knowledge of Dynamic Diabetes Management. It’s an online Sugar Surfing training course. We will need funding to develop this properly as it’s a volunteer effort so far. Ultimately, your support will help bring "Sugar Surfing University" to anyone with access to the web. Very exciting.

Spanish translation

Our translation team led by Laura Self is busy working on the Spanish translation of the book. They are well over 50% complete now. There will be Spanish speaking reviewers with Sugar Surfing experience going over each chapter and ensure accuracy and fidelity. Once completed, we will need to fund the creation of an e-book version. This will require re-formatting many of the visual images in the book. Later, taking this to a print version will also take time to format properly with the publishing company.

Live Workshops

A workshop was held on January 27th in Ridgewood, New Jersey at Valley Hospital. We had a full house with NY Metro area surfers ready to attack the waves after we were done. On February 3rd, we dropped into Houston to workshop with over 100 Space City Surfers. The wave next takes us next to Los Angeles on March 10th at the City of Hope. So far, this event is over 50% full.

We are actively Locating workshop hosts and venues for 2018.

#DOC phenomenon Allison Nimlos (allison@sugarsurfing.com) is coordinating local champions willing to take on the challenge of leading a volunteer workshop site team. Allison has a detailed manual which answers common questions. She will prepare you for what hosting a Sugar Surfing Workshop in your area is all about. Allison hosted a memorable event in Minneapolis in 2016.

A listing of active workshops can be found at sugarsurfing.com/workshops. Workshops are not posted until a host and venue are verified. Many workshops may be under development but not yet finalized for formal promotion or posting on the website.

New Team Member

Chris Hopkins is our new website and registration services manager. Chris has extensive experience with website design and management. Chris will oversee the re-vamping of the website and the mobile access portals to sugarsurfing.com both in front and behind the scenes. We welcome Chris to the Sugar Surfing team.

Kevin McMahon, co-author and developer of Sugar Surfing, has shifted into an advisory role as he pursues an exciting new career in brewing in Northern California. Luckily for us, he will not be any further away than a call or text.

Building the Surf Colony

Regular teaching lessons will appear on sugarsurfing.com. We now aim to build the registered members of the Surf Colony. This allows members to receive lessons directly to their e-mail, plus other special offers down the road. We will be highlighting “Super Surfer Stories” in the months ahead. These are persons who have embraced Sugar Surfing and found inspiration in the process.

Well, that’s where things stand as of early February 2018, Future Newsletters will be posted monthly to update you on the status of the mission to make dynamic diabetes management the standard of diabetes self-care for everyone.

Donations

Any donations made to Dynamic Diabetes Management are tax-deductible in the United States. You can designate support for a particular project or for general support of all aspects of the charity. Go to sugarsurfing.com and click the ‘donate’ button.