OSCAR Fundraising Update

From the every tireless Dr. Colleen Kirkham, an update on the current OSCAR Canada Users Society fundraising effort:

The OSCARCanada first ever fundraising campaign was launched in early March and has raised $17,500 to date. Donations have come from BC, Ontario and Quebec. A huge thank you to all those in the OSCAR community that have made a donation so far!

There is a new page on the OCUS website where donors are acknowledged. (Note-if you have made a donation and don’t see your name there, please let me know. You are likely in the group of 20 anonymous donors as I didn’t want to post anyone’s name without explicit permission to do so!)

For those of you who have been meaning to make you donation, you can find the form here. Keep those cheques coming in!

What we will do with the funds raised? David Daley has created a new roadmap page which outlines the top items we are targeting for the October release. You can also see what has been completed on the April release. Some programming we hope to accomplish includes:

We have a programmer lined up this spring to revamp billing module and the WCB module

Dr. Karen Cunnningham has collated a wish list for changes to the prescription module

At the national usergroup meeting we agreed on changes we want to the encounter page

We also have plans for a new INR module

What to do if you don’t see your most desired programming item at the top of the list?:

Start by making sure your item is on the wishlist

Be vocal, participate, show up at the meetings, teleconferences etc and make sure you are part of the ongoing discussion

Volunteer-the more people we have helping to move this project forward, the more we can get done –there is a job for everyone!

Don’t forget to make your donation –we can’t do anything without funds for programming

Don’t panic, be patient –those of us that have been using OSCAR for a few years can tell you that most things seem to get done eventually and the speed of development is actually very fast

If you really can’t wait –hire a programmer (or your kid) and get started (but don’t forget to talk to Jay Gallagher or David Chan about what you want to build!)

The OSCARCanada board of directors will be discussing the ongoing management of the wish list and the setting of priorities and how to do this in the most efficient and fair way. If you have any ideas about this, please pass them onto the board. Your board of directors are listed online and all of them read the list serv!

Thanks again to Dr. Carole White, our treasurer, who is processing all the donations.

I will keep the group posted regarding how our fund raising campaign is going.

Colleen