MWADB Board Meeting Minutes
January 19, 2013
at Ann Black’s home in Rockville, MD
Present
Andrew Cohen, president
Bruce Denhart, vice-president and web master
Kelli Stein, secretary
Karen Rosenthal, SSP co-coordinator
Ann Black, newsletter editor
Eleanor Brown, RSC chair—Skyped in for votes only
Absent
Tim Putt, treasurer
Christine Telford, SSP co-coordinator
(parliamentarian/bylaws—vacant position)
Interpreters
Steve Collins
Kelly Brittingham
SSP
Nancy Leiby
Meeting opened at 11:09.
Minutes
Minutes from the previous board meeting were already accepted via email.
Board reports
See the six reports at the end of these minutes. They are from the president, vicepresident, secretary, web master, newsletter editor, and RSC chair. There were no
questions about the reports.
Old business
Two ongoing issues—revising bylaws and planning upcoming events—will be
discussed under new business.
New business
1. Vacant board position
a. (via email) MOTION from Ann (Kelli) to accept Jeff McCray as
parliamentarian/bylaws chair. (at the meeting) Passed unanimously.
2. Communication
a. Reminder from Andrew about using Pro-Tactile at our board
meetings.
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3. Planned events
a. Feb. 2: Pro-Tactile workshop, then spaghetti dinner. We will be more
careful about tracking members & non-members who attend.
b. March 2: all-you-can-eat green(!) pancake feed, $5 members, $10
non-members. May also have a special member meeting to vote on
bylaws (see below).
c. April 6: TBD—Ann suggested touring a museum; Karen suggested
visiting a cavern.
d. May 4: annual picnic with BADB. MWADB is responsible for
reserving location, and BADB is responsible for cooking.
e. Andrew suggested two joint events with BADB annually: picnic and
holiday party. Proceeds from both events would be donated to the DB
Camp of Maryland, as long as the budget allows.
4. Future events
a. Ann suggested a communication workshop so that DBs and SSPs and
interpreters can all learn from each other.
i. Andrew suggested a series of workshops.
ii. Kelli suggested collaborating with PCRID (Potomac Chapter of
the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf), who recently
contacted us to work together.
b. Will discuss 4 fall events and member meeting (traditionally in Nov.)
at next board meeting.
c. Jamie Recht (DB member) asked to set up a booth at MWADB events
to sell her jewelry and give 15% to MWADB. We will research the
idea before the next meeting.
5. Budget
a. MOTION from Tim (Karen) to have a $500 combined budget for 2013.
Passed unanimously.
6. Listserv
a. SSP coordinators are asking SSPs to join our general listserv.
7. Web site
a. Newsletter: MOTION from Ann (Kelli) to drop our newsletter
“Keeping in Touch” and just use e-news and web site; amended by
Karen (Bruce) to add “for a one-year trial.” Passed unanimously.
b. CLB asked to include our web address as a link on their web site, and
we will include their address on our web site.
c. BADB suggested some kind of combined web site. Andrew will get
more information from BADB about this idea.
8. Bylaws
a. The member vote at the Dec. 1 meeting was invalid because it was a
box vote and not a hand vote. We did have quorum, which is 15 active
members or 10% of active members (according to our constitution).
b. Currently we only have 13 active members (DB people who have paid
for current membership). We will work on cleaning up the
membership list.
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c. Andrew recently got DB Camp of Maryland’s new bylaws. We can use
those as a guide for our new bylaws, such as moving the donations
information into a separate document.
d. MOTION from Kelli (Ann) that Andrew and Jeff (with help from the
board) will further revise the proposed bylaws. Passed unanimously.
e. Andrew and Jeff will send the revised proposed bylaws to the board
for a vote. Then those bylaws, and a simplified outline version of the
new bylaws, will be ready to send to the membership to read. Then
the membership will vote on the proposed bylaws (possibly at March
2 event).
9. Labels
a. MOTION from Ann to use DeafBlind (no hyphen) instead of Deaf-Blind
(with hyphen). Amended by Andrew (Karen) to bring the issue to
membership for a vote. Passed unanimously.
10. Next board meeting
a. It will either be May 18 or June 22. We will decide later.
Meeting adjourned at 2:55.
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President’s Report – Andrew Cohen
1) Welcome to 2013!
2) Harvest Celebration (event in October) with Baltimore Association for
DeafBlind (BADB) was a successful trial & collaboration, thus establishing a
permanent relationship with BADB.
3) Julie Perry resigned and Christine Telford & Karen Rosenthal has taken the
role as co-SSP Coordinators.
4) SSP Coordinators and I are working on new logistics to restore the SSP
Program.
5) Holiday Party with BADB on Dec 1st was a huge success. Approximately $500
was raised, and the proceeds will be donated to DeafBlind Camp of Maryland.
Thanks to everyone who made this a success!
6) Arthur Roehrig resigned and the board is seeking a new replacement for the
new Parliamentarian (Bylaws) chairperson.
7) Now it is time for us to see all the pieces that we have worked hard to set up;
fall into place… I am expecting this year to be the first year (in a long long
time) MWADB will start flourishing and prospering.
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Vice president’s report—Bruce Denhart
President Andrew asked me to research on pay-pal for sell t-shirt.
I make arrangement foods and board meeting at Ann Black's place and reminder
everyone of January 19 board meeting.
I still plan to work on the inventory soon and will ask everyone to send me the lists
of stuff(s) you have that is belong to MWADB.
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Secretary’s report—Kelli Stein
New motions
Andrew Cohen nominated Karen Rosenthal and Christine Telford as new SSP cocoordinators. The board accepted both nominations.
Secretary activities
E-news:
Set up guidelines for standardizing e-news.
Improved format of e-news based on members’ feedback.
Dealt with questions from people about recent problems with the listserv and not
receiving all the e-news. Helped to solve the listserv problems.
Respond to members’ requests for information each time e-news is sent (ongoing).
Archive every e-news on our closed Dropbox web site to record our history
(ongoing).
Newsletter:
Joined Ann and Dona to work on the winter newsletter, editing and etc.
Wrote one newsletter article.
Holiday party:
Served on volunteer committee for Holiday Party, helping with setting up the room,
serving food, and interpreting.
Sent thank-you letters to guest speakers at Holiday Party.
Miscellaneous:
Recruited two SSPs to add to our list.
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Newsletter editor’s report—Ann Black
Winter newsletter went out on Saturday, January 5, 2013. Kelli Stein send it out via
listserv.
It seems many like the newsletter with good information.
As you know e-news and web site are popular means of communication and
information. I wonder if we need to continue having the newsletter or not. I like to
discuss this at the Board meeting after we finish the Bylaws.
Looking forward to a great year to work with you all.
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Web master’s report—Bruce Denhart
I upload e-news on the website.
I add or delete people's name on the listserv.
I upload picture from Dec. 2 on the website.
I upload picture of Christine and Karen.
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RSC chair’s report—Eleanor Brown
Harvest Celebration in October and MWADB and BABD Holiday party in December
events were great!
We have set up dates for February to May and it's on first Saturday of each month.
I would like to set up a committee for 2nd Holiday party by June.
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