Misophonia Convention 2017

Description

The set up was fantastic, very quiet, beautiful rooms that could be divided into four spaces for workshops and sessions. We had two big screens and projectors and a middle large screen which made seeing the slides and presenters very easy.

62 people attended the Friday night Meet n Greet, enjoyed a delicious meal and a free drink, it was very well attended and enjoyed, in a perfect divided restaurant-bar location, the youth were given the backspace for the weekend to use as a hang out zone.

Cindy did a masterful job again with the food and snacks, the choices were perfect and softer items but with good variety and compliments were bountiful.

The new Misophonia Association rubber rainbow bracelets were handed out and everyone loved them, many purchased more to hand out at home, a great idea for this year’s goodie.

A silent auction was created and a High School student donated a gorgeous stained glass window image of misophonia, Jeff Gould donated his movie and items, other things were given and a two-night stay at Circus Circus was donated by the hotel.

The speakers were amazing, we had international visits with Mercede Erfanian on her work in Amsterdam, with Dr. Ali Danesh with a thorough review of the literature and his current research, and wonderful presentations by Michael Mannino, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Jaelline Jaffe on various topics.

We all watched the movie Quiet Please and were able to speak to the director Jeffrey Gould afterward via Skype. At that moment, hearing of his need for funds to translate the film into Spanish and French, we instantly raised the $3000 needed to do so. That was exciting.

We announced the new Research Grant project to award small grants to individuals in the graduate school or in research, for misophonia, and the committee of Dr. Jaffe, Dr. Danesh, and a new Ph.D. neuroscientist will vet the grants to be awarded in June 2017. Over $5000 was donated on that spot to increase the $1000 initial fund. Other small grants were given over the weekend and the fund is growing.

A young boy, Jaxon, did a surprise fundraiser for the Association, to allow more people to attend on scholarship, and presented us with a check for $2000 that he raised! We quickly created the Jaxon Award, to be given in recognition for significant contribution to the Misophonia Association or the field of misophonia, and handed him a t-shirt on Sunday with the news right on the front! HIs parents decided to continue to gofundme account for a while to raise more funds.

The event was filmed and we can expect the new video to be ready in a few weeks for purchase. The filming of these conventions is expensive but important so we can continue to share and expand over time, out memories and information as we proceed.

Paul Tbachneck attended, well-known musician and figure in the world of misophonia, sang us songs and fixed technology and spoke, it was very nice to have him attend and he agreed to try out the board of directors.

The best thing was meeting and sharing. We listened to your evaluations last year and put in four break-out or sessions. Led by various professionals and volunteers, these sharing circles were deemed very useful and meaningful. Personally, we felt it was a good mix of scientific research and interactive sharing.

The best news for the convention was the publishing of Dr. Kumar’s long-awaited research showing, once again, the fundamental issue is in the central nervous system, in the physical structures of the brain rather than something purely in the thought processes or ideas or psychological function. This research is affirming for those with misophonia in helping us really see that it is indeed a physical condition and not emotional or mental. This was very gratifying for many of us who believed this to be true. We hope more significant research will emerge on how to address this issue and how to cure the condition.