Wall Busters September 23, 2013 Meeting Minutes: Attending: George H., Jaye P., Randy B., Anna M., Juanita W., Rick W., Kaleene L., Vicky G ., Cassi B., Ginger P., Cindy T., Webb P., Art D. . Via Teleconference: Georgia R., Debbi W. Guest: Cathy McCarthy Announcements September 26 and 27: SILC quarterly meeting in Anchorage. . Public Testimony is from 4 to 5:00 PM on September 26th. October 1: FNSB and Fairbanks City elections. October 22-24: The 2013 Alaska Community Transit /Department of Transportation Conference in Juneau. November 1: Dart 1st Friday event. Location to be announced. Newsletter Cindy introduced Vicky, a UAF intern at Access Alaska, who will be assisting Cindy with the Newsletter. The Newsletter will continue to be published in regular and accessible modes. This newsletter will feature a hidden disability article and story plus some information about the Food For Thought Lunch. A suggestion was made to include the newsletter in the FFT information packet that we will pass out to Legislators. Legislative Update: The planning are occurring weekly now. The next one will be at Access Alaska on September 30 from 4-5pm. We had a discussion about our focus topics: o Hidden Disabilities We decided to weave into the HD discussion the current situation of lack of mental health services in Fairbanks. o Emergency Housing The focus will be on the difficulties PWD face when suddenly homeless o Transportation. It was decided to give a history of the coordinated transportation plan in Fairbanks, where we are now and what the future holds for coordinated transportation in Fairbanks. Juanita will co facilitate the FFT lunch with Cath. Lunch format: 11:30 sign in and settle in WallBuster achievements could be on the wall above the sign in sheet 11:45 Panel begins Introductions Short WN history Short AA history Hidden Disability discussion 12:45 Lunch and mingle; an opportunity to speak one-to-one with legislators on any disability topic. WallBuster Structure/Access Alaska Relationship We started by asking about WB structure: § Do we need to create more formal structure? § Do we need to become a non-profit group? § Do we need officers? We discussed the pros and cons of more formality and the group decided to continue as we are currently operating; no officers and a democratic method of making decisions. We then had a discussion about the relationship between WallBusters and Access Alaska: WallBusters Access Alaska To educate and advocate for the removal of barriers To encourage and promote the total to independence for people with disabilities. integration of persons who experience a disability and elder Alaskans into the community of their choice Both missions are compatible as they both focus on independent living. Several WBs stated that they feel that they may be somewhat of a burden (financially) on AA, but Cathy assured the group that WB was fully supported by AA management. We determined that WB is an advocacy group of Access Alaska just as the Parent Advocacy group is. We are part of a number of groups housed and facilitated in various ways by Access Alaska. These groups include support groups, advocacy groups and peer advocacy groups. Cathy suggested that we create an MOA between AA and WB. The benefit would be to create a formal agreement as to expectations from each organization as we move forward. The group agreed to discuss the MOA at our next meeting. After we establish the WB needs for the MOA we with meet with AA staff to discuss and formalize a document. When asked if the WBs could have some sort of budget from which to operate, Cathy said that financially that can’t happen but when funds were needed for an event or outreach AA may be able to offer financial support. There was a discussion about fund raising but the general view was that fund raising was labor intensive and takes away our main advocacy focus. Miscellaneous · A suggestion was made that AA fund the cost of sending a WB to the NICL conference each year. · MOA should be signed by all WallBusters · It has been verified that the WallBusters started under that name in June, 2008. · We need to get a Photo of all of the Wallbusters · Jim Beck’s letter of recognition of Wallbusters will be displayed in the large conference room Art Delaune Independent Living Services Supervisor Access Alaska 526 Gaffney Road, Suite 100 Fairbanks, AK 99701 (907) 479-7940 (907) 474-4052 Fax
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 22:56:39 +0000
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