History of the RRDi
This historic post was made on November 23, 2002.
The Rosacea Research & Development Institute began as an idea by the founder, Brady Barrows, on November 23, 2002 when he founded the following yahoo group:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/international-rosacea-society/
The above yahoo group has changed on July 24, 2004 to:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/irosacea
And then later changed on February 14, 2005 to this yahoo group:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rosacea-research/
The above yahoo group was deleted June 7, 2006 since the private forum for corporate members began in April/May 2006.
A need for a non-profit organization that heard the voice of rosaceans suffering from this disease was seen early on and discussion continues to this day. Upon moving to Hawaii the founder discovered that forming a non-profit organization in this state would be simpler than in other states and applied for approval as a non-profit corporation. A Charter was set up. The non profit recognition was approved on June 7, 2004 by the State of Hawaii and after a lengthy period, tax-exempt approval as a 501 (c) (3) non profit organization was obtained by the IRS in January 2006 and recognition was effective back to June 7, 2004. This process took over a year and a half!
The Board of Directors was chosen by the corporation members and the officers were appointed in January 2005. More board members were added in 2006.
The web site is constantly being improved by volunteers. Volunteers are seeking funding and you can join us to seek corporate donations, seek grants, or find the best minds to join the RRDi MAC, the only medical advisory committee volunteering to find a cure for rosacea, listen to corporate RRDi members' concerns and advise the board of directors on the direction the RRDi should go. Several private member forums were experimented which have not proven popular. Now the RRDi recommends Warren Stuart's www.forum.rosaceagroup.org as the public forum and volunteers have made the private forum for corporate members. To use the private forum you must join the RRDi. This new private corporate member forum is where decisions are discussed. The private forum can be found at this url:
Steve Andreessen spent many volunteer hours on not only the above IPB forum but also our web site. Warren Stuart has also spent many hours volunteering on the web site as well.The focus for years has been to gather together the best minds on rosacea into the RRDi Medical Advisory Committee, gathering volunteers to raise public awareness of the RRDi in the Public Relations Committee and to increase RRDi corporate membership, and finally to increase funding through volunteer efforts in the Funding Committee by volunteers. You can see the results of all this volunteer effort and it is quite amazing that in just a few years the RRDi is gaining the respect of the public.