VTRID E-Letter Archives: Fall 2007

Greetings from Brattleboro! Here goes my first e-letter as VTRID President. Feel free to let me know if there are any additions/subtracti ons you'd like to have in future e-letters. Have a wonderful week and a Happy Thanksgiving! See you in Montpelier on December 1st!

~Elizabeth Bjerke :-)

Here's what's on the docket:
Upcoming Events
Kudos
News from the National Office
Info from other Affiliate Chapters
Minutes from the Fall Meeting

Upcoming Events!
**November 21st: DVAS Silent Auction Donations Ideas to Janice Wightman
If people would like to donate an item or gift
certificate to the auction they should contact Janice by November 21st
with the item and the amount. Thanks! jlwinterp@gmail. com

**December 1st: DVAS Soup Tasting/Silent Auction Fundraiser
11:30-1:30
Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier, VT

**December 1st: VTRID Winter Meeting
2-4pm
Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier, VT

**December 6th: Southern VT Roundtable Discussion
4:15-6pm
Cafe Lotus, 29 High Street, Brattleboro, VT

**February 2nd: Mentorship Workshop - "Affect: The Feelings Behind The Words"
10:00-3:00
Central Vermont Hospital, Berlin, VT

Kudos!
Woo-hoo to Kristal & David for their work on the VTRID board over the past few years! And another woo-hoo to the new board members, Cory & Janice!

Fantastic work by Lisa Bixler and the Mentorship Committee for the great kick-off and on-going efforts with the VTRID Mentorship Program! Thanks for all you do!

Thanks to those who volunteered to join the Scholarship & Fundraising Committee! There has been great commnunication among the committees, work that has come to fruition, and more in the near future!

News From the National Office

**2009 RID Biennial Conference
August 1-6, 2009
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

**ST. JEROME PRESS
The RID Board of Directors would like to provide the RID membership information regarding a boycott of St. Jerome Press of Israeli institutes as well as any individual associated with an Israeli institute. St. Jerome Press publishes a journal titled, Sign Language Translator and Interpreter. The contributing editor of this journal is Mona Baker, who has issued a personal statement regarding her support and endorsement of this boycott. In response, the RID Board of Directors issued a letter to Ms. Baker. Ms. Baker promptly sent a response letter to Cheryl Moose, RID President. As the final correspondence regarding this matter to St. Jerome Press, the RID Board of Directors issued a final response letter. We hope this information is helpful in your decision making process to conduct business with St. Jerome Press.

**RID Diversity Statement
The RID Board of Directors adopted a Diversity Statement at the October Board Meeting in Virginia. I was unable to cut and paste it here, so please click on the "letter" link above. It is in the body of the letter. Everything regarding St. Jerome Press is on RID's website (www.rid.org).

Info From Other Affiliate Chapters
**Call for Presenters for the 2008 RID Region IV and Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf joint conference:

"COUNTDOWN: TO EXCELLENCE"

June 25-29, 2008 Houston, TX

Presentations are requested from everyone on all topics.

Some of the subjects that will be of interest to members are these areas of interpreting: educational, interpreting in culturally diverse situations, legal, religious, medical, mental health, preparation training for CDI, tri-lingual interpreting and performing arts. Non-interpreting related topics could consist of, but not be limited to: finances for interpreters, technology, and personal relationships.

For more information and application procedures check the TSID
website: TSID.org
Deadline to submit proposals: December 1, 2008

**Save the Date!! August 8 & 9, 2008
Rhodes Island RID State Conference!
Tentative Site: Warwick, RI
More details to be posted as they come in.

Minutes from the 2007 Fall Meeting

VTRID Meeting Minutes
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Janice Wightman’s House, Lebanon, NH

In Attendance: Elizabeth Bjerke, Gia Amorese, David Krueger, Cheryle Giberson, Nancy Groff, Nora Kennedy, Kristal Hier, Molly Hier, Mechelle Palmer, Janet Dattilio, Bert Carter, Keri Ogrizovich, Brennan Vinning, Karen Todd, Janet Dickinson, Barbara Pomper, Kathleen Fraini, Janice Wightman.

Via Phone: None

Meeting got underway at 3:45pm

Reports
President (Kristal): Not much to report. Rachel Copelli is now the RID Secretary. Jeremy Brunson is now the Region One Rep. This is Kristal’s last meeting as VTRID President.

Treasurer (David): Changed banks from Vermont Credit Union to Citizens Bank. He also added Paypal to the VTRID website so that members can pay dues online. More people are signing up to be VTRID members!
Savings: $5,443.54
Checking: $3,311.75
Scholarship: $0.00

Mentorship (Gia): Mentorship Kick-Off was today! Great turnout for Jim Lipsky’s Workshop. 3 more workshops remain. The program is offering 1-1 mentorships and roundtable discussions in addition to the workshops. People can choose a la carte, or package everything together. For a list of all mentorship events, please see our website (www.vtrid.org)!

Scholarship (Elizabeth): One new request this summer from a non-member, so was not eligible for funds. Funds were all utilized by the June meeting. The Committee asks for $500 to renew the scholarship funds for the coming year (September 29, 2007-June 30, 2008). Funds approved. The Scholarship & Executive Committee agreed to support Barb Walker in attending a legal interpreting series by covering one of the four weekends ($285). Funds will be divided by scholarship and general funds ($100/185). A new request just came in today. Committee was asked to review the guidelines for scholarships as workshops are increasing in cost, and membership wants to make sure all is approached in an equitable manner. Cheyle Giberson joined the committee!

VIRS (Nancy): Janet Parker as replaced Julie Albetski as interpreter referral specialist. She is a quick study and doing a fabulous job. Working some kinks out regarding use of the phone. The number of requests has picked up big time.

Library (Kristal): See Old Business.

Professional Development (Kristal): If you have any ideas for workshops, contact Cory (corybrunner@ gmail.com).

Website (Kristal): David made some updates to the website, including paypal for paying membership dues. If you have any updates or info to add, contact Cory.

CEUs (Kristal): We just had our audit and passed! We will keep our CEU sponsor status for 3 years. FYI: RID is behind in uploading CEUs to transcripts, so fear not if you do not see a workshop that you took posted yet.

Old Business

VTRID Library Status (Kristal): Kristal is the current keeper of the VTRID Library. If you would like to borrow something, please email her (kristalhaynes@ hotmail.com). Janet Dickinson would like to host it on Austine’s campus in Brattleboro . Bert Carter feels that it is a possibility and would like more info before going forth with it. Janet will be the go-to gal on this, and will check into insurance for our resources. There is a need for more CDI resources. If you have any, of find some you feel will be an asset, let Kristal know. Also, if you have any materials you would like to sell or donate to the library, please do so! Keri O. & Lisa have stuff.

Community Forum (Keri O.): Question of what has happened after the community forum that took place in Burlington last year was posed. After the forum, information was given to Carrie Foster, and no action had been taken thus far. Keri O. is willing to talk to Carrie to see what the next steps will be (hoping for a follow-up workshop to the participants) . Brennan & Mechelle are also willing to help out. Kristal will send the typed up info fro the forum to Keri.

New Business

Elections (All): Slate of new officers for the September 2007-July 2009 term was brought forth and voted on as follows:
President - Elizabeth Bjerke
Vice President/Secretary - Cory Brunner
Treasurer - Janice Wightman

Thank you to Kristal and David for their terms in the offices of President and Treasurer!

Supplemental DA Insurance (Lynette): Lynette was not present, so this item was tabled

VRI (Bert): Comprehensive presentation on VRI from Bert Carter. He talked about the history of establishing FSW in Connecticut and his close involvement with it. He would like to get a feel for the need/want of VRI in Vermont . If there is a desire, it would take time to get things up and in full swing (a few years). VCDHH could check into getting a grant for this and work with VTRID. It was emphasized that he is not here to replace community terps. Just wants to give more options for interpreters, consumers, and agencies (ie – hospitals); that VRI is not the be all-end all; and that VRI is not suitable for all situations. If you would like more information on this, please contact Bert at: bcarter@vcdhh. org

VCDHH as an RID Test Site (Bert): Bert is on the RID/NAD Certification Council. Question was raised of VCHH becoming a test site. If you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or need for renewal of certification, feel free to contact Bert. Also, anyone can become an LTA. If you are not certified, you have to waive your right to take the test, though.

Fundraising Committee (Elizabeth):

There has been a desire for VTRID to do some fundraising to beef up our funds. Elizabeth is willing to head up a fundraising committee, and asked for other members to please join. So far, the committee is made up of: Elizabeth Bjerke, Mechelle Palmer, Keri Ogrizovich, Karen Todd, Janet Dickinson, Gia Amorese

Various ideas were brought up for the committee to consider including: craft fair, bake sale, rubber stamp camp, sweatshirts with the VTRID logo down the arm (much like MassRID’s). Elizabeth will email the full membership to see if there are others interested, and then get things going!

CDI Teaming & Training (Mechelle): Interpreters seem to not be advocating the use of Deaf Interpreters (DI) or Certified Deaf Interpreters (CDI). There needs to be a coming together of terps. VIRS will advocate for the use of DI/CDIs is they know the consumer uses one. Agencies are grateful and report that assignments with DI/CDIs go smoothly, so that is positive reinforcement! If VIRS does not know of a consumer’s needs, they cannot advocate. If there is ever a dispute about the need for one, it can be stated that the DI/CDI is for the Hearing Interpreter (HI), not the Deaf consumer.

Recommendations:
-A track of workshops for DIs to become CDIs.
-Workshop on the use/purpose of DI/CDIs
-Workshops/Presentations for all kinds of consumers, agencies, and terps (Nancy Groff willing to help out with outreach).
-Advertising for these could be via VIRS, VTRID, VCDHH Consultants, Deafyahoo.
-Perhaps Keri Darling can include this topic in her presentations to hospitals, law enforcement, etc.
-Host an icebreaker/social event for HI/DIs to get to know each other.
-Silent Weekend (Austine’s campus?)
-Host the summer meeting on a full weekend (MassRID does that)
-Workshops can be held at UVM for free. Overnight accommodations are about $10/nite)

Announcements:
Janice Wightman would like to thank VTRID on behalf of DVAS for supporting the rental of the church for their soup tasting/silent auction fundraiser! Call for donation items for the auction! Contact Janice if you are interested (jlwinterp@gmail. com).

Deaf Awareness Week at UVM!
When: October 8-14, 2007
Time: Most events are 6-8pm
Location: UVM, Burlington , VT
Contact: Keri Ogrizovich (she will be sending out an email with all events). www.uvm.edu/ ~asl

DVAS Soup Tasting/Silent Auction
When: Saturday, December 1, 2007
Time: 11:30-1:30
Location: Bethany Church, Montpelier, VT

Next VTRID Meeting
When: Saturday, December 1, 2007
Time: 2-4pm
Location: Bethany Church, Montpelier, VT
*Come to the DVAS Event, and Stay for the Meeting!*

Meeting Adjourned at 5:30pm