Hi Everyone! (Stephanie Clark) Hello! I’m white woman with brown ponytail hair and black long sleeved jacket. I’m Stephanie Clark (SC) President of MSAD (Kellynette Gomez) Hello! I am a light-skinned latina woman with glasses, teal dangling earrings, curly hair pulled back in a ponytail. Wearing a short sleeved black top. I’m Kellynette Gomez, MSAD Vice President of Operations. (Ivy Velez)Hello! I am a light- skinned Latina with brown and gray short hair with black turtleneck shirt and a silver bracelet and watch. My background is grey. I am Ivy Velez, Vice President of Community Relations. (SC) MSAD Board would like to update the community on what MSAD has been up to in the past two months. MSAD is looking forward to working with the newly elected Governor Maura Healy who has shown an interest in working with our Deaf community starting in January 2023. MSAD has been busy with advocacy for legislation changes i.e. the language acquisition bill that we hope to file in the upcoming weeks. MSAD collaborated with DEAF, Inc.’s Executive Director and their staff to lobby at the State’s Elections office to provide ASL translations for their voting website which they did by partnering with The Learning Center’s Interpretering Department. An amazing team of Deaf Interpreter team who translated the materials into ASL. The State’s Elections office is committed to making future voting information available in ASL starting with next year’s budget. (KG) There’s been a ton happening with the MSAD Board. We have been actively meeting and assigning roles as it pertains to MSAD priorities. Some of the few updates we have with the Board committee is that we have Marlene Blackstone joining us as Western Massachusetts representative as Board Member at Large. We have also been working on transitions since the start of our roles. This includes the transition of treasurer duties and information from BJ Wood to our new Treasurer, Marlene Hostovsky. The Board has also made progress with identified priorities like senior citizen’s needs and youth well-being. There are plenty more priorities we want to tackle, but this is just the start! (IV) MSAD is working on a new website now as the current website has some challenges that require a new website to be implemented i.e. certain functions. The board decided on using the “Wix” as the new website and we are hoping to have it ready by January, 2023. We would like to have someone oversee the website and if you are interested or know someone who may be interested, please let us know. We are working on eDCNews (Electronic Deaf community News) that will be part of the new website feature. We want the website to be a “one stop center’ for all information to be in one place. (SC) MSAD was contacted by MCDHH to submit potential names for individuals to serve on their Statewide Advisory Council (SAC) and the MSAD board recommended Michelle Cline and Stephanie Clark to represent MSAD. Both Lori Siedman and Stephanie Hakulin (SJ) will continue to serve on SAC as community members. We need more strong Deaf community representatives on SAC. What’s up with the Community Chats? (IV) Yes, MSAD will host the next Community Chat December 11th, from 10:00 – 11:30 AM. Bring your breakfast and coffee and join us! (KG) Keep an eye out for the flyer with the Zoom link to join the MSAD Community Chat! (SC) MSAD is committed to having monthly updates via vlog to our community. As you know November month is a special month where our community members gather together with friends and family for Thanksgiving on November 24th, however, we also want to acknowledge that this day is also a Day of Mourning for some. Especially Indigenous community members who want to honor ancestors that witnessed the murder of Indigenous people, theft of land, erasure of Indigenous people’s cultures. We need to be mindful to balance celebrating our time together and honoring the Day of Mourning in Plymouth. Have a safe and restful day! (ALL) Until the next time!