Approved September Minutes
Call to order Aviva Householder 7:13
Members Present Non-Members Present
Ginger Bennett Holly Warren Norman
Mike Henson Melinda Bogdanovich
Kelly Strople Irma Lopez
Nancy Murray Jason Cook
Aviva Householder
John Aintablian
Debbie Stiles
Toni Abadi
Quorum was established.
Ginger greeted the students that joined the meeting and everyone introduced themselves. Irma Lopez, Jason Cook, and Melinda Bogdanovich are all students of the Interpreter Preparation Program with ACC.
Ginger asked that we read the minutes for approval.
Kelly motioned for approval
Mike Henson seconded
Minutes are approved
Unfinished Business:
We need to vote on a motion to change the Bylaws fiscal year from July 1-May 31 to July 1-June 30. The motion to change the Bylaws had already been seconded at the prior meeting. Ginger called for the vote and the Bylaw amendment was passed. The fiscal year for the Bylaws has been changed.
Membership update we now have 59 members!!!
New Business:
The days, time, and place that we meet have already been set up by the board. The board decided this without asking the membership (which is stated by the bylaws that they can). Ginger asked the membership if meeting on the first Tuesday of each month worked for everyone, last year the meetings had been on Fridays but for a lot of families that is family night. Ginger asked for input without voting, the meeting times and days will be posted on the web site at www.austin-interpreters.org. Ginger emphasized that the students input is important.
Committees:
Deaf mentorship
We need to set up a committee. John spoke of his experience with Deaf mentors during his training. He and a handful of students from his class would meet with 4 or 5 Deaf individuals who would sit and give feedback, or watch video recordings and help to tune their skills. All of the interpreters agreed to pay a set amount for each session if an interpreter was unable to make it they still paid. Ginger discussed her experience with online training sessions and her success with passing the tests. Having an online group is another option. Ginger asked for members who wanted to be involved with the committee. John will be on the committee if anyone is interested contact Ginger or John.
Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
The website has been updated with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure group, you can access via our website, or you can go directly to the Susan G. Komen website look under teams for our name and sign up. You can also volunteer directly through the Susan G. Komen website you can access the website at www.komenaustin.org.
Workshops for Sept/Oct/ and Nov
We need an English proficiency workshop because people seem to be having trouble with passing the test; some are not native speakers of English. Nancy Murray asked how many requests were being made for the workshop. Ginger replied that it wasn’t a huge number but she couldn’t give an exact amount. Holly Warren Norman offered the idea that instead of a workshop have a class or course for English and grammar, and have an English professor lead the class as opposed to an interpreter; maybe it could be continued online. Holly also said we could look at the sections where people had failed and search online for vocabulary builders. Ginger asked the students about sending out resource information to other students. Holly noted that more information is available on the DARS website. Maybe a test taking strategy workshop. Nancy offered the idea of a mini workshop that possibly Holly could present. Nancy Murray says that Nancy Thomas puts on good workshops and presentations; Ginger asked that she contact Nancy Thomas for information on fees and expenses.
Ginger announced TSD is having their homecoming on Sept 22nd is there a possibility of having a booth for AID? John asked what we offer to the Deaf community for them to want to join us. We decided it would build a good rapport and help to educate the community about who AID is. Kelly asked if this was inline with our Home Plate. Yes it is. John asked who had time to man the booth. The majority was unable to stay but could help with preparation. It was decided we were not ready for having a booth this year but could plan for next year when we have a more defined mission statement. TCSDHH in December or January is having a Deaf Event and maybe that could be a good goal. Ginger called for a vote for postponing the booth until next year. 7 for; 0 opposed. We will wait until next year.
Kelly asking about the Home Plate led us into Ginger discussing the Home Plate with the membership. The Board has met with Peter Strople during the past month to help us set up and establish who and what AID represents. The home plate will be available via our website. John had a question about the legacy component and feels it should be more of a mission statement; the legacy line read A high integrity community, it was asked what high integrity means to everyone. Kelly said that it meant knowing we have left the community a better place. The question was raised regarding who is judging what high integrity is. Ginger reminded us that the home plate is not about judgment. Toni Abadi asked what our mission statement was; we do not have one. We decided that it would be best to narrow down the legacy sentence and have a more refined mission statement. John suggested looking at TSID’s mission statement and following their model. Ginger asked everyone to plan out their own home plates. Kelly added that it took a long time to grasp the concept of it but it helps to define your purpose.
Ginger encouraged everyone to work on their home plates.
Aviva called for meeting to close; Ginger seconded; the meeting was closed at 8:44.