July 1, 2009
Published
Open letter to members of the Colorado Association of the Deaf (CAD):
First of all, thanks are in order --
-- to Ody Allen and her action team for pushing for and setting up the CAD special statewide meeting on Saturday, June 20, 2009, and for bringing in their attorney, Sheldon Friedman, Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service (JAMS);
-- to CAD members for a good turn-out at this meeting;
-- to visitors (always welcome) who showed up; and
-- to other CAD members who indicated interest but were unable to attend.
At this meeting, legal counsel advised that CAD membership contact information was NOT "confidential" but could be shared with CAD members at member(s)' request. (This would be true of any membership organization.)
After this same meeting, some CAD members told us that they did NOT want their contact information (e-mail address, postal address, phone/TTY/VP numbers, etc.) made public or shared.
We are in a difficult spot --
1. We may have to change our CAD individual membership application/renewal form to indicate which "contact information", if any, our members may wish to share or make public.
2. Developing a new CAD individual membership application/renewal form will take some time and will need to be reviewed by the CAD bylaws committee, the CAD board of representatives, and the CAD membership. We expect to submit a new form for CAD membership consideration at our statewide conference on Saturday, September 12, 2009.
3. CAD member Ody Allen has requested that we, CAD executive officers, furnish her with a complete list of CAD members AND their contact information. In view of objections and difficulties noted above, we are unable to do this at this time.
At the same time, it is not our intent to deny any CAD member access to needed information.
Solution? By means of this "open letter" e-mail on www.CADeaf.org and www.ColoradoDeaf.com, we are inviting CAD members who wish their "contact information" shared to get in touch directly with Ody Allen. She may be reached at --
odyallen@tmail.com (pager)
dancydiva@hotmail.com (email)
Ody Allen
c/o DCIL
4821 East 38th Avenue
Denver, CO 80207
It is difficult to please everybody at the same time, but we hope the above solution will help all concerned. Thank you for your time, patience, and consideration.
One other comment: Recently, it has been difficult and confusing to keep track of CAD concerns with e-mails being sent to certain individuals and not to others, with recipients of such e-mails changing (being dropped and added, almost at will), and with e-mails being "forwarded" to others....Not everyone receives the same information and not everyone is on the same page. Some CAD members have expressed concern that CAD officers and board members "control" the CAD website; others have expressed fear of "retaliation" for expressing differences of opinion.
We are looking into developing an OPEN website or e-mail service to which CAD members and others may address CAD concerns. This site or service would be open to all and free of editing and/or censorship. We hope that contents will be decent, clean, and sincere, and respectful of everyone.
Finally, thanks again and again to Ody Allen and her team of concerned CAD members for shaking up the CAD and putting us back on track! It is always good when members become more proactive.
CAD Board
www.cadeaf.org (website)
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