Twice a year the TMA publishes a newsletter that is sent to all of our US and international members. Once a year, the membership directory is published and mailed. Errol White, one of our Australian members, has taken responsibility for the printing and mailing of the newsletters and directories to our TMA members in Australia and
New Zealand. Geoff Treglown is a TMA member from England. Geoff has volunteered to perform the printing and mailing responsibilities for all of our European members.

The TMA would like to thank Errol and Geoff for performing these critical tasks for the Association. We are so appreciative of your generosity and support.

Volunteering to handle these tasks has been very important for the Association in the past; and this assistance has become even more significant for the TMA.

As all of you in the United States are aware, the US Postal Service increased its rates in January. There were increases for domestic rates, and there were increases that have impacted our bulk mailing rates as a not-for-profit.

The most serious increases, however, were experienced for our international mailings. The rate class we were using for the mailing of our newsletters and membership directories was eliminated by the postal service. The old rate was a fairly reasonable rate that allowed us to send printed matter via air; and thus, in a relatively short period of time.

With the elimination of this rate, the TMA simply cannot afford to send the international mailings via the air rate; we do not have the funds to cover these costs as our international membership continues to grow. We are going to have to mail to our international members using a surface rate, which means that our materials will take approximately a month or two to be delivered.

The vast majority of the TMA's expenses consist of printing and postage costs. To the extent the Association is able to save on some of these costs, the more we can consider supporting other efforts and activities. Additionally, since the Association does not require membership fees, our operating budget depends on the support of voluntary contributions which are extremely difficult to predict. Our ability to expand our services very much depends on the Association's ability to find ways to save, and to further develop our fundraising efforts. And as should be apparent from this newsletter, we are intensifying both approaches.

As you review the latest membership directory, please consider assisting the TMA by printing and mailing the newsletter and directory to your national TMA members. If you are in the process of establishing a national TM support group, this would be a great activity to share with your members. The TMA has a large membership in Canada; we would be most appreciative of a Canadian member coming forward to take on this responsibility. Likewise, our Indian membership continues to grow.
 

A big thank you to Errol and Geoff for saving the TMA substantial funds! We greatly appreciate your generosity. And we are looking forward to other international TMA members coming forward to assist us in this important effort. Thank you.

Thank you, Claudia!

I would like to thank Claudia Maynard, a good friend, who has been assisting me with the publication of the membership directory. Claudia is proficient in designing and working with databases. When I first began the publication of the directory, I performed most of the work manually, because I am not smart enough to figure out how all of this software works. Claudia has been able to save me a tremendous amount of time and stress in this process. Claudia, thank you so much for helping out your technologically challenged friend!

Thank you, Bubby and Zadie!

I would like to thank my Mom and Dad for proofreading the newsletters; they have been performing this task for me since the first publication in January 1997. This is no small task due to the complexity of the medical jargon, and I never give them very much time to get the job done. They perform this task with such great love and care; just as they do everything in life for their children. They learn and cry as they proof the articles and stories just as we all do. Thank you! Growing up, we never had to look in a dictionary; "hey, Ma, how do you spell suprapubic?"