Another interesting thing that the Alliance for CME did this year had to do with its service project. Instead of rehabbing a playground or sprucing up a park, the Alliance worked with the Blood Centers of the Pacific to hold a blood drive at the meeting's host hotel, the San Francisco Marriott Marquis (those who didn't want to donate could volunteer to help out in other ways during the drive).
I like that it was closer to the organization's purpose than last year's fix-up project in New Orleans, but I'm not sure it had the same camaraderie-building effect as you get when people don the logo'd t-shirt and pitch in together on something that requires physical exertion. But it still was a great way to give back to the beautiful host city of San Francisco.