My latest TM blog:

Wasted days and wasted nights? (Musings on transfusion professionals use of the Internet)

http://traq.blogspot.com/

Blog mentions BloodBank Talk forum....

Cheers, Pat

UA: http://www.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bogeywheels

TraQ: http://www.traqprogram.ca/

I didn't feel like signing up so I could comment on your blog so I will post here. Being busy has impacted a lot of people's time to get on BB sites. The AABB discussion groups went down the tubes when they quit letting institutional members use it. Not much advantage to being an individual member if you are the supervisor of a BB that is an institutional member. We don't need 2 copies of Transfusion. Of course, if BBtalk hadn't already been available when they made that change maybe maintaining individual membership would have been more valuable. I've appreciated and used the educational materials you have posted in the past. We do still need devoted colleagues like you.

I agree wtih Mabel, time prohibits lots of people from blogging. I usually read PathLab Talk at my desk at work during lunch or at home on the w/e or evenings.

I am still a practicing BB tech, PRN at the place where I used to work FT. I now build and validate the lab module for my organizations EHR and for our BB software. Sometimes, when I've been on the PC all day at work, the last thing I want to do is stare at a screen all evening.

Keep up the great work, I admire your committment and know that it takes a lot of time to maintain a blog site.

Thanks, Mabel. Didn't know that about AABB not letting institutional members use the forums. Seems counter-productive as few would sign up just for the forums.

Agree that being busy makes participation harder. The bench techs I know hardly have time to do the real work and supervisors are swamped by meetings, e-mail (most of which is clutter), paperwork and HR issues. To go online typically means their days are longer and my experience is that ones who do participate are dedicated and typically give above and beyond.

For interest, with the TM blog on Blogger, you can comment without signing up by choosing the 'anonymous' option.

Thanks again. I enjoy your posts here.

Cheers, Pat

UA: http://www.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bogeywheels

TraQ: http://www.traqprogram.ca/

TM Blog: http://traq.blogspot.com/

and on BBTALK ..you do not need to identify your self...so there is no restriction on posting here..

Thanks, Likewine. Sure agree about too much time at the computer screen - not enjoyable nor healthy.

Maintaining a blog takes time but it's fun and I'm fortunate to be semi-retired so have more time to get into mischief. <8-)

Cheers, Pat

UA: http://www.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bogeywheels

TraQ: http://www.traqprogram.ca/

TM Blog: http://traq.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Mabel. Didn't know that about AABB not letting institutional members use the forums. Seems counter-productive as few would sign up just for the forums.

This bothers me a lot, we pay an enormous fee to AABB and our "institution" can't access those parts of their site, plus since I am the site contact, even if I were an individual member, I can't have a separate log-in and therefore, still can't access that part of the site.

Is it still active? I was hoping PathLabTalk would surpass them and people would come here instead.

Cliff,

I have had discussions with more than one vendor of products for my lab. Many seem to be "watching" Pathlabtalk for informal feedback. A comment I have heard more than once about the site is the fact that the people posting here are pleasant and "flaming" of others does not occur (unlike many other sites where unnecessary comments are common). The group here is a good representation of things worldwide (and getting better all of the time) in the immunohematology field. The advice here is usually right on the mark, and suggestions save the time of reinventing the wheel. If AABB chooses to limit the participation on their site it is a sad loss for the field. Every student I have had I suggest PLT to as a learning tool and a wonderful resource tool. Keep up the great work on this site. The other sections will grow with time.

Pat,

I have read a couple of your blog posts and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Hope you continue to have time for the blog. Your topics seem well chosen and presented. Thanks for the time you spend with the blog.

keep up the great work on this site. The other sections will grow with time.

hear! Hear!

hear! Hear!

Agree totally!

Deny, Thanks for the encouragement.

Many presumed experts say the ideal blog length is 250-450 words, so mine are away too long. One of these days I hope to experiment with shorter ones and post more often. Appreciate the feedback.

Last time I complained to the AABB about not having access to the forums they gave me a temporary access and there was almost nothing going on there. So few posts that it wasn't worth going back. Besides, the international presence on this site is much better and I like to think that we are more accessible to those people/places that aren't AABB members but still have to do blood banking--often as generalists that have so much to keep up on.

I have 3 blogs that I do in my 'spare' time. One for GRIT.com (used to be a weekly newspaper now magazine) as Rosedale Garden about life in the country in NW Alabama with 3 hooligan rescued Border collies on 3.5 acres that I take care of. One is a gardening blog. rosedalegardens.wordpress.com. I just started doing a gardening column for quadcitiesdaily.com a new on-line newspaper. It'll be mostly a repeat of my gardening blog. During my work time, I'm over Micro, Blood bank, and Meditech.

Spare time Mary???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with the others. I dropped my individual membership because I am the AABB institutional contact as well.

Well, I found out the hard way that since I'm an AABB assessor, I needed to renew my individual membership after all (not to mention get the Assessor discount for the annual meeting)!

Yes. same here...but they keep increasing the membership fee.