CFSupport

The Northern Virginia
CFS/ME, FMS, OI
Support Group
 
Our Monthly Meetings

  Home       Email Us         Subscribe       Search      Sitemap 

CFSupport Meetings: Location, Guidelines, etc.
News and Notes


Group moved meeting location in 2009 to 
Sully District Government Center & Police Station
Sully Community Room #1 - The James McDonnell Room

Though we ask often, sometimes people show up wearing scented products. If you are the wearee - please be ok with it if we ask you to sit a little farther away or try to wash off hand lotion. If you are the sensitive type, if this is too great a risk for you, consider taking care, staying home, and participating instead in one of our [new starting 9/08] orthostatic intolerance group or ongoing gratitude group conference calls. See Events.


We're having two international CFS experts as speakers this year. Peter Rowe, MD, of Johns Hopkins on March 21, and at a special location and time, Paul Cheney, MD/PhD (Sat, April 25 at 6 pm). See Events.

 
 
Overview of Meetings

NOVA Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia Syndrome Support Group meets

3rd Saturday of every month (usually)
from
2:00 pm until 4:00 pm (usually)


Sully Governmental Center
 Room 1 - The James McDonnell Room
4900 Stonecroft Drive
Chantilly, VA 20151
Go to Directions Page for Sully Center

(since 2009 - previously at Fairfax Hospital and Mason Gov'tal Center)

2009 Exceptions to the regular time and day

FEBRUARY 28  (4th Saturday) 2 to 4

JULY 18 - (3rd Saturday) Morning, 10 am to noon

SEPTEMBER  19 - (3rd Saturday) Morning, 10 am to noon




Members often linger longer or go out to eat together. We ask your assistance to make meetings uplifting, civil, informative, and fragrance free! See meeting guidelines.

Parking is plentiful, very close and free. There are no stairs or hills. It is the same building as the Sully District Police Station. Help with chairs and tables is appreciated before and after meetings. For individual meeting details, see our Events and Speakers and Prior Speakers pages.

The Sully Governmental Center is very, very close to the intersection of Westfields Blvd and Stonecroft Blvd, just west of Route 28, between Routes 50 and the Toll Road in the north, and Routes 66 and 29 to the south. See also Directions-to-Sully Government Center Page.

Yes, this place is still in Northern VA, still in Fairfax County!

Carpools

We have a rideshare list at our Yahoo Group and we sometimes post emails from individuals about certain meetings. If you can offer a ride, need a ride, or just want to share the ride with another member, please Email Us or go to the rideshare database on our Yahoo! Groups. You will need to sign up or sign in as a member of our CFSupport Yahoo! Group to do this. 

Metro Rail to Metro Bus


We have a volunteers to pick up riders from the bus stops or the Vienna Metro Orange Line Stop. Please let us know in advance if you will need that, to see if that volunteer is attending that meeting, and if you will have a cell phone to alert us to your arrival.  enough to save you some walking.

Note: With a Medicare card, you can qualify for half price metro fare cards, and discounts on some bus routes. Senior/discable fare cards are only available at special stations. See  http://www.wmata.com/accessibility/fares.cfm 

There is a Metro bus stop curb cut at the building, but there is no weekend service as of Jan. 2009. See WMATA or the Metro Area Transit Customer Information 7 days a week at 202/637-7000 (TTY 638-3780) to check if this has changed.

Metro Access - Reduced Cab Fare

Also, some of our Members arrive via Metro Access - a reduced cab fare program for
people with disabilities who can't use public transportation. It has +'s and -'s.
Info for that is available at http://www.wmata.com/metroaccess/access_form.cfm )

Meeting Guidelines

Please keep in mind these meeting guidelines for our monthly support group meetings:

  • Participation is voluntary. We encourage you to share your questions, information, experiences, and compassion.
  • Please treat our other members - and our guests and speakers - with courtesy.
  • Many of our members experience symptoms of noise intolerance and cognitive impairment. Please avoid side conversations. 
  • When there is a specific topic being discussed, our group moderator will try to keep us on track. Jot notes of what you'd like to bring up so you don't forget.
  • Many of our members have orthostatic intolerance. We encourage you to get up, stretch, put up your feet, or recline at any time. It is acceptable to lie on the floor.
  • Many of our members experience symptoms of light sensitivity. Feel free to wear a hat, visor, or sunglasses if the overhead lighting in our meeting room is bothersome to you.
  • Keep hydrated! There is a water fountain down the hall from our meeting room, but many members bring water bottles with them.
  • Avoid comparing your level of illness with others in a competative way (such as "you seem much better than I").
  • In consideration of members with allergies and chemical sensitivities, please help to keep our meetings free of fragrance, perfume, and smoke. Before attending a meeting, please avoid all colognes, perfumes, essential oils, hair sprays, and aftershaves; use only fragrance-free shampoos, soaps, deodorants, and cosmetic products; and wear clothing laundered using fragrance-free products. Attendees are welcome to wear respirators or use oxygen at the meetings.
  • No soliciting.
Meetings Ups ands Downs

Support group meetings can be quite wonderful. We connect with people in similar situations, glean advice from others, share tips and tricks, and offer written materials. However, meetings involve mental and physical activity: listening, interacting, getting there and back, being around stimulation of all sorts. Attendees often end up being very tired for the next day or two. Some have reported relapses afterward. Sometimes it is worth it and sometimes it is not; sometimes you won't know until after you've been there.

Each meeting has its own personality, influenced by who happens to be there on a given day and how they are feeling. Make the best decision about attendence for you, whether it be to come to all meetings, come to one, attend none, or visit us in person only one meeting a year.

The majority of meetings are uplifting, or at least informative and supportive in varying ways. Occasionally, they or small portions of them can be awkward, even unpleasant.

We hope you'll visit us more than once. You don't have to let us know when you'll be stopping by or if you'll be late or need to leave early. All are welcome anytime, for whatever time that is manageable. Review the Meeting Guidelines.

Related Support Groups

Some of our leaders and members also lead other related support groups in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, which meet at various times and places throughout the month. For information about these groups, please see our Other Groups page. The two most closely affiliated with us with their home pages with this website are Elly's Gratitude Group and the NoVA MVPS/D & OI Support Group.

Can you help out at Meetings? In other ways?

If the group helps you and you are up to it, please help the group. At meetings, we need people who arrive a little early (1:45 pm) to set up chairs and tables. After meetings, we need help stacking the chairs and wheeling the tables away. It would be wonderful to have someone greet attendees and help them with name tags, to be a guide to where the bathrooms and vending areas are. It is nice to have a volunteer who wants to coordinate dinner after the meeting for those interested, in need of refreshment for the trip home.

Unrelated to regular meetings, there are many opportunities to help the group. Choose only something you are motivated to do and offer as much or as little as feels possible to you. Examples include arranging a time and restaurant to meet others between meetings, submitting helpful and relevant newsletter/email items, making copies of handouts, sending in speaker and practitioners list ideas, returning phone calls from people inquiring about the group or CFS/FM/OI, and sending in meeting notices to newspapers.

Contributions to our petty cash fund are appreciated and allow us to do some copying, send materials to those in absolutely desperate need, and to keep up our service. Donations to our informal group are NOT tax deductible since we are NOT incorporated in any way, nevermind as a non-profit with 501(c)(3) status. See About Us for address to mail us or stop by the basket at meetings. Postage stamps are welcome as is inkjet and copier paper. 

If you see a need not being met and can volunteer to make it happen, your rewards could be greater than you imagine. Helping others heals! 

Some Nearby Restaurants & Attractions

Very nearby restaurants include Blue Water Grille, Ledo Pizza, Popeyes, Subway, Hunan Chef, Texas Roadhouse, Eggspectations, Foster's Grille, Scott's Rigatoni, and Moe's.

See also Sully Station Directions Page

Area attractions include G-Street Fabrics, shopping and dining at Fair Lakes, the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, historic Sully Plantation, Ellanor C. Lawrence Park,  Bull Run Regional Park and the Dulles Expo Center.


Disclaimer

The Northern VA CFS/FMS Support Group and CFSupport are an informal support group and website led by volunteers. Its representatives are people with the experience of chronic illness, not medical, counseling, or legal professionals. Please seek qualified physicians and other Practitioners for diagnosis, treatment, and legal advice.
   Home       Email Us         Subscribe        Search       Sitemap
Updated February 8, 2009
1