Text of McCormack and Loring Emails on Stem Cell Board Meeting

Here is the text of the Sept. 9, 2015, email message to Sherrie Gould, executive director of Summit4stemcell, from Kevin McCormack, senior director of communications for the California stem cell agency, along with one from Jeanne Loring, head of the stem cell program at Scripps, to McCormack.  Loring sent her email to McCormack after she received a copy of his email to Gould.

The Gould-McCormack email comes first with the Loring-McCormack email following.

“Dear Sherrie
“I just wanted to let you know that there has been a change in plans for our September board meeting. As you know, it was originally scheduled to be held in San Diego, however, that has changed and it is now simply a telephonic meeting. The reason is that the agenda is going to be lighter than originally anticipated and it didn’t make sense to incur the cost of an in-person meeting for one hour’s worth of business. 

“I know you were planning to have many of the Parkinson’s group attend the meeting so I wanted to let you know so you can alert them to the change.
 “Our next in-person meeting will now be in Los Angeles on December 17th.
“Cheers,
“Kevin McCormack”

Loring’s email to McCormack:

“Hi Kevin:
 “Two in a row??  CIRM has rather pulled the rug out from under the patient advocates -these meetings are supposed to be public, so how is the public going to participate if there is no access?  Does CIRM have a plan to give access?  More importantly, is CIRM doing this to avoid having public access?
 “I'm disappointed and the Parkinson's patients are exceedingly disappointed.  The Parkinson's group is trying to find out the resolution, if any, of the timing of the grant applications.  Has anything been done in that regard yet?
 “In addition to the advocates, my students will be disappointed.  I always bring my interns and my CIRM fellows to the meetings so they can meet their benefactors.
 “Any plans for access to the public would be welcome.
 “Jeanne”

Text of Comments by Sherrie Gould, Executive Director, Summit4stemcells

Here is the text of comments by Sherrie Gould, executive director of Summit4stemcell of San Diego, made in connection with changes in the stem cell agency board meeting Sept. 24. Gould made the remarks in response to a query from the California Stem Cell Report.

“We are both confused and disappointed that this PUBLIC meeting has
been essentially cancelled.  We were prepared to talk with the ICOC (the stem cell agency) board and answer all questions about our patient advocacy
(Summit4stemcells) movement and our research. The Summit4stemcell
project has been faithfully attending public meetings every other
month for the last two years.  We have flown in numbers to make sure
our voice is heard.  We have spoken to board members, and to the media
about our plight.  This San Diego meeting, now cancelled, was an
opportunity attend to discuss the funding possibilities for
Parkinson's disease and whether funding might be appropriate for our
project.  Our science is sound and we have a clinical arm to this
project. We believe CIRM could take ownership of this very exciting
translational research if we were indeed funded.

“Unless we can be present in front of the CIRM board, Summit's strong
voice is diminished.  Being physically present in human form is always
more effective than a teleconference. Delays, which we realize are a
part of any government associated agency, are devastating to people
suffering from the progressive symptoms of Parkinson's disease. And
although hope springs eternal, we are saddened by the repetitive
delays.”