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NEWS

Click on one of the topics below to see its associated content.

  • bullet 2009 Conference
  • bullet Conf. Scholarships
  • bullet Join HEA
  • bullet Fund Raising
  • bullet Other News

2009 HEA/ABC Conference

Conference buttons photo

Conference buttons—
Come get one!

The next conference will be held August 14-16, 2009, in Pittsburgh, PA. This conference will be a joint effort with ABC (the Association for the Bladder Exstrophy Community).

Because this a joint conference, we may run out of space. HEA folks traditionally register shortly before the conference. Consider registering early; we cannot guarantee that everyone can be accommodated.

Conference registration fees go up after May 31, 2009.

Partial list of topics:

- Dating and sex
- Advocacy and patient rights
- Telling your kids about surgery
- Medical issues about epispadias
- Surgical complications: Infections, strictures, fistulas
- HS/ES in the classroom
- Coping with disorders of sexual development
- The role of fathers

Go here to learn more and find the link to the Registration Form, which is on the ABC website.

Conference Scholarships

We have a few scholarships covering conference registration fees for the Pittsburgh Conference.

They are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

One of them covers an HEA member and his/her spouse. The others cover an HEA member or member-want-to-be.

Contact Chris Arnold if you'd like one of these scholarships.

Membership Drive

thermometer

As of 5/21/09, 94 people have donated to HEA, become members, or renewed their memberships.

Please consider joining. You can join for as little as $3 US a month, using PayPal. Go here to sign up!

You can support HEA in other ways: by volunteering, putting up our flyers around your town, shopping through the GoodShop shopping portal, using Orbitz or Hotwire to book your travel arrangements, shopping at Amazon.com, contributing to the newsletter, helping us put together fact sheets and brochures, or donating something for our eBay auction. Go here to find out about these support opportunities.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Why Are We Asking for Fund Raising Help?

To insure that we keep our nonprofit status, we have had to move our organization's incorporation documentation from Colorado (where HEA started) to New York City (where the office is now located). This move has meant we have a hefty legal and accounting bill to pay off.

We'll be talking about fund raising at the Conference, so start thinking of ideas. For now, consider the following:

Night of a Thousand Meatballs

meatballs

Do you have a few friends you'd like to invite over to your house or to join you at a restaurant? You can have a nice dinner with your friends and also raise some funds for HEA. Ask them to make a donation of whatever amount feels comfortable (or, if you're eating at a restaurant, ask for a donation in addition to the meal price).

We're suggesting a menu of spaghetti and meatballs, but serve what you think best.

Think about it: all over the world people will be joining together for a good meal and good conversation for a good cause.

HEA members have so far had 2 such dinners and raised over $1300! Please consider having a dinner, too.

Go here for more details. And thanks!

Other News

HEA Newsletter

Our May 2009 Newsletter will be delayed. Sorry about that.

HEA members will receive the newsletter by mail. Everyone can read the newsletter on the website.

Jim's 2009 HEA Walk

Jim Lake, HEA's Treasurer, raised nearly $1,000 for HEA by walking 10 miles on the first Saturday in May. Next year, I'll be out walking too. Can you join us?

Jim's Walk

 

The Third World Congress on Hypospadias and Disorders of Sexual Development

Sponsored by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada and ISHID (International Society on Hypospadias and Intersex Disorders)

November 12-15, 2009
Toronto, Canada

This is the first time the Congress will take place in North America
Go here to register.

 

Welcome to Our Internet Community

The Hypospadias and Epispadias Association (HEA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded for the education & support of people born with hypospadias or epispadias and their families and loved ones. Although HEA is based in the USA, we invite participation from all people in all countries who have an interest in these congenital anomalies.

We offer resources and support so that people with HS/ES and their families can make informed decisions about surgery, relationships, and sexuality. Our message board, chat rooms, shared stories, and conferences ensure that no one needs to feel alone.

We provide opportunities to develop pride in ourselves and compassion for others by sharing our stories, reaching out to others in our community, volunteering to serve by becoming members of the board or committees, advocating for better care and better choices, and educating the public.

Want to get in touch with us? Go here.

Our Visitors

Our Visitor's Map is rebuilt by ClustrMaps every year. In other words, it only shows the visitors for a year's period. Then it starts over. The start-over date is on or around June 12 of every year.

The map for June 2008-June 2009 is archived here. A country-by-country tally is also available on that page. The link opens on a new page.

The current map is shown here (click on the map below to zoom). Once you've clicked below to see the full map, you can click on a continent to see a larger version of that continent.

Locations of visitors to this page
 Since 6/12/08
(Keep coming back to watch it fill up with red dots.)

   

Website Update

The website redesign was finished on June 8, 2009. A few pages still need to be finished (Survey and Norfolk Photos, for example). Revisions to these pages and all major updates will be logged below so you can easily find pages that have changed.

If you see any errors (even tiny ones), please send an email to the webmaster. Any suggestions? Is the banner animation too long, too short, or too full of outstandingly beautiful faces? Let us know. Thanks!

The next step is to fix up the forms so that the PayPal functions are included in the regular form.

After that is complete, the plan is to develop a special "members only" section, where members will be able to watch video of former conferences, see pictures of different types of hypospadias and epispadias, see the photos that accompany Chris's surgery blog, and find other members who live nearby or share a specific condition.

Updates since June 8, 2009

Newsletter page fixed 6/10/09.

World visitor map archived for 6/08-6/09 visitors on 6/11/09.

Home page visitor information expanded on 6/11/09.

New animation in banner 6/14/09.

Updated message board software 6/23/09.

Quick Links menu 6/24/09.

New color scheme 6/30/09.

2008 Conference photo slideshow finished.