NY Chapter of AG Bell Meeting Minutes Thursday, October 16, 2008
In Attendence: Officers/Board Members: Ana Maria Robben, Nicki Turano, Lori Cogen, Leonardo Jafet, Michael Janger, Amanada Eckert, others?
AG Bell Members: List from Nicki
1. Lori asked Kathleen about resources at National for parents who are seeking legal help in dealing with schools in the context of IEPs; Kathleen suggested getting in touch with Bruce (?), CLA (?)
2. We need to update our parent database; Susan Smithberger at National has the raw data
3. We should think about creating a database of professionals; Susan at National can help and so can NJ Chapter
4. National needs help in pushing EHDI Act of 2008 through Congress and Senate; we should get in touch with Katherine Mergelith (?) at National to see how we can help
5. Eileen Solla-Diaz raised concern about hospitals following correct procedures and properly communicating newborn hearing tests results to parents; Kathleen suggested this is best done at local level; one idea was to get in touch with individual hospitals and/or counties' health departments and see what is/can be done
6. One of National's priority initiatives is to certify auditory therapists in the auditory-oral method; how can NY Chapter encourage therapists in its region to pursue this specialty?
7. Many present suggested that NY Chapter should encourage and facilitate more networking among parents; one of the many ways to do this is to create a Listserv; Gary Kirsch from NJ Chapter could help
8. In the spirit of Awareness and Access initiative at National, Kathleen suggested we work with other associations as much as possible (Walk4Hearing, March of Dimes, HLAA, United Way, etc)
9. We must finalize the survey questionnaire by October 31st. Please get all comments/questions to Ana Maria.
10. From the TO-DO LIST, we assigned some tasks to the following volunteers:
get contact info from schools and CI Center - Leonardo
get in touch with other Chapters and see what's working for them - Regina Soares
help with discount copying and printing services - Eileen Solla-Diaz with look at ideas
NY Chapter website - get the website up and running - Lori
