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Procedural Steps in the Setting Up of a
National Committee to Prevent Glaucoma

 

1. The matter of incorporation is a simple one. However, we
have to supply two or three officers to our lawyer so he can list them in
the incorporation papers. We should all think about suggestions for this.
Mrs. Lasker could be listed as an Honorary Chairman. The Chairman of the
Board would be our key person. It seems to me that it ought to be a
prominent opthalmologist on the order of Dr. Edward Maumenee.

As Vice Presidents you should have two or three persons in the
public eye. You might have several members from the Congress - Represen-
tative Claude Pepper, Senator Fritz Hollings, Senator Lowell Weicker,
Representative Henry Waxman, etc. Or they might just be listed as members
of a Board of Trustees. We should shoot for a couple of prominent governors —
for example Governor Coumo of New York comes to mind. I could be listed
as secretary and Gerald Wilson as treasurer.

2. The letter of invitation to become a sponsor of the organization
is absolutely crucial. It might be co-signed by Mrs. Lasker, Dr. Maumenee and
Claude Pepper.

I think we can overemphasize the importance of a letterhead. There
are hundreds of impressive letterheads in Washington these days. The important
thing is the content of the letter of invitation. I think it should be
short, dramatic, and incisive and I would be willing to take a crack at it.

3. There are several dangers we have to avoid. For example, in
various memos there is reference to a national organization which would
include a broad representation from the existing organizations in the field
of eyecare. From my point of view, this is threatening to all these organiza-
tions - they all have a keen sense of turf and they are resistant to the
coalition concept. If I were the Executive Director of one of these organiza-
tions, I might feel that our new committee was coming in to take over the
field. For example, in Gerry Wilson's draft letter to Dr. Maumenee, he talks
about an “umbrella organization whereby public, private and voluntary organi-
zations get together to coordinate a longterm program".

What we seek, really, is the prestige and participation of several

 

distinguished individuals from each of the national groups. In other words,

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we should keep our committee as loose and as nonthreatening as possible.
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4. To my way of thinking, our biggest success eventually will
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come in the legislative field. We can do a lot of general educating, news-
letter writing, and so on, but the heart of the matter is federal and/or
state appropriations which provide monies for glaucoma screening and follow-up.
There are many possibilities here, particularly with regard to the Aging
Committees in the Congress. Claude Pepper still has the Subcommittee on
Health and the Aging in the House, and Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania
is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging. You won't get legislation
right away. It took us three years to get the federal grants to the states
for hypertension. Your main weapon here is an excellent set of hearings.
Here again, you will be handicapped if you have to get the consensus of

a whole group of organizations. Citizens didn't have to do this in the
hypertension field, and that is why we were successful.

5. Now you get down to the individual who is going to do a lot of
the contact work with physicians and in the general community. I feel this
individual ought to come out of some organization in the medical field.

For example, it could very well be that the American Academy of Opthalmology
might have someone in the main office or in one of the state offices who
could do the job. The Academy is really the key to the whole ball game.

For example, as I told you on the phone, you have a narrowly targeted purpose
here. You are trying to convince family practioners and internists to do
glaucoma detection. If you brought someone from the staff of the Academy

of Family Practice or the College of Physicians (located in Philadelphia),
this individual would have a tremendous advantage in getting entree in
promoting the program. The ideal approach would be for the Academy of
Opthalmologists to approach both the aforementioned organizations and seek
their cooperation in carrying out the goals of glaucoma detection and

prevention.