 The second precipitating event was a meeting at the Genetic Alliance conference in Washington D.C. in July 2005.Numerous members of the Genetic Alliance had requested a society or association of disease-specific advocates, offering disease-specific advocates a professional trade association, health insurance benefits and credentialing.The idea was subsequently abandoned by this group after a number of meetings via phone indicated that there was too much diversity in advocate's understanding of what such an organization should entail.