Thank you again for signing the petition and joining the families and advocates of the 4% of those people who have a serious mental illness and our campaign to shatter silence and the status quo in 2017. Please keep sharing our petition as a grass roots organizing tool to gain supporters for the Shattering Silence movement. This update is to alert you to the first of several strategic plans being organized by some of our co-signers. I will be posting additional updates from some of our co-signing organizations in the coming days. All of these efforts are focused on getting real, getting radical and getting results. In our open letter to NAMI we urged them to focus on those people who have the most serious mental illnesses. One strategy to get NAMI to focus on this population is to run for the NAMI Board. There are 5 open slots, and if 5 people could be identified, who are interested in focusing NAMI on the seriously ill then we could ask NAMI members to vote for all or vote for none. In other words, run as a ticket on the “Focus on SMI” ticket. Will you step up and volunteer to run? Qualifications: To run, you have to be a member of NAMI. So if you are not a member, please join. You then have to be nominated by an affiliate that is in good standing or a state NAMI. It does not have to be your local affiliate. It can be another chapter or state NAMI organization. You just have to join that chapter. The nomination must come from the board of the chapter you join and submitted by the nominating board by April 2nd. Most boards meet at most once a month. So if you are interested, please find an affiliate or state to nominate you quickly. 5 of the 16 NAMI directors are elected each year. So if the “Focus on SMI” ticket wins this year and next, there would be enough members on the board to return NAMI to its original mission and focus. To run, you have to answer some questions, and show up at the annual meeting to give a speech. We are trying to be part of the change we want to see by returning the National Organization to its roots. Many local chapters and state organizations still focus on seriously mentally ill, but the DC office needs to do a much better job. We need people to run for the board to see that they do. Any takers? Will you run? Here is the information for candidates and affiliates: http://www.nami.org/voting If interested, please leave a comment below this update and someone will reach out to you privately to discuss details. Thank you!