Dear Colleagues,
Happy fall semester everyone! I hope you got some time to rest this summer and I loved getting to meet many of you at the annual conference last month in Boston! The conference was full of great sessions and informative speakers including Haben Girma, who had the TODAY show crew with her. Several AHEAD members were shown in the story that aired on August 5th: https://www.today.com/video/meet-haben-girma-the-deafblind-woman-who-made-harvard-history-65327173813
The AHEAD business meeting took place at the end of the conference and the Board had good news to report. The AHEAD budget is very healthy with revenues exceeding projections. AHEAD has had a record setting year with more members (over 3700), more annual conference attendees (over 1400), the largest participation in the AHEADtoYOU! Webinar programs, and every in-person event being sold out. In addition, NCCSD continues to provide excellent technical support and information for disabled students and their families as well as multiple conference presentations. AHEAD staff, Board members, and AHEAD members are currently involved in revamping the entire publications line up for 2020, utilizing Active Policy Solutions for policy guidance and government relations, and developing a new strategic plan moving forward.
The AHEAD Board met for the summer meeting after the conference ended. The meeting was productive and significant progress was made on the Strategic Plan with the goal of adopting it at the fall board meeting. In addition, the Board approved a new civility statement that can be found on the AHEAD website: AHEAD Statement of Civility. This statement is to remind us as we interact with each other that we don’t all have to agree, but we do need to treat each other with respect in our interactions in our AHEAD Communities, in presentations, and in informal interactions with each other. In addition to regular Board business, we also discussed the current Special Interest Groups and agreed to work with SIG Chairs to determine their direction and formulate a new name that fits better with the intention of SIGs. The SIG Chairs have been working hard with their Board liaison since the conference and are making great progress already!
One last thank you to everyone involved in the AHEAD conference. The staff, the volunteers, the presenters, the moderators, the vendors, and everyone who attended sessions and networked with others helped to make it a success!
As always, feel free to contact me or any other Board members with questions or suggestions. Good luck with the beginning of a new academic year!
Kristie Orr
AHEAD President