Miss-Delectable
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Council for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing/DeafBlind in Wisconsin - Living Lake Country
Do you know how many Boards, Commissions and Councils there are in Wisconsin? Per the attached link, are some of the over 200 that are now looking for new members. Link: http://walker.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=21092&locid=177
Being a current member of the Council for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Deaf/Blind Council, I am curious as to how these Boards/Councils/Commissions work, what they do, who benefits from them and how much it costs annually here in Wisconsin for them to exist. I know that our Council meets 4 times a year in Madison. Unfortunately, our meetings have had to be cancelled since December 2010 due to there not being enough Council members to meet the quorum requirements for a meeting. And yes, it does cost money for us to meet. In our situation, we have ASL interpretors, CART provider, food (sandwiches for a working lunch), reimbursement for those Council members seeking it for parking, mileage, ect. I've heard estimates that one of our meetings runs around $4,000. We meet from 9am to approximately 3pm on that day.
The reason that we are not meeting at this time is that we can't seem to find anyone who is Deaf/Blind/Hard of Hearing willing to commit to these 4 meetings a year. We should have 9 members on the Council. Currently, there are only 4 of us. I have mixed feelings on our lack of meetings at this point. While we could once again start projects that pertain to the needs of this population and then get our recommendations to the Governors' Office, I also like the fact that we are not costing the State of Wisconsin money in the current economic situation.
We are not the only group that is lacking in members as you can see via the link. Quite a few of the groups also have websites with information on what they do, minutes of their meetings, their recommendations, ect. Here's the link to ours: http://www.dhhcouncil.state.wi.us/
In order to cut expenses, it would be interesting to see the costs as well as the benefits the taxpayers of Wisconsin are getting from each of these groups. How many things that have been done by these groups in the past have led to laws, legislation, ect.? Or, are we sustaining these groups as yet one more layer of unneeded government expenses? Better yet, where can we find the information on the costs? I know that our website has member pages for all of our current members. This allows the general public to see who we are, what our thoughts on HOH/B/D are as well as our own personal goals for the Council.
In looking at the Governors' website, I don't find a link to what/who/where all of the groups are. It would be nice to see how many are still in existence, if they have the requirement of having a quorum present for their meetings, what they accomplish at these meetings and most importantly, are they really needed in order to facilitate the representation, laws and legislation for specific groups of State residents.
Our Council is 'required' via a State statute. If you'd like more information on that, it's in the website link above. A few months ago, I got a call from the Governors' office asking if I would be willing to serve another term. In order to do that, an application had to be sent in to the person calling me. I do believe that we can make a difference. So, I sent my application in. As of today, I have not heard anything back from this person. When I initially applied 3 years ago, it took almost 18 months for someone in Doyles' office to let me know if I was being appointed or not. If you are going to ask State Residents to apply to these things, you need to streamline the process and keep the communication lines open. Better yet, let the applicants know all of the details, State costs and guidelines for the specific group they are applying for. I believe it's called transparency.
So, here we are. It's the first of June and we've had to cancel the last 2 meetings for our Council. The Office for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing/Deaf/Blind is also down to just a handful of employees now. Some of the regions in Wisconsin are no longer being 'taken care of' due to a lack of employees in the office. That means that if you are looking for information, services or direction, it is likely that will take quite a bit of time to happen. For the 400,000+ individuals in our State that live with Visual and/or Hearing Challenges, it's just another reason that most of us have a lot of patience and try to find the answers on our own. It's also leads to quite a few no longer being a part of the everday world. No services/No answers = no opportunities to improve our lives, support ourselves, education, jobs, medical care (hearing health, therapy, lifestyle accommodations, ect).
Wouldn't it be nice if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did an investigative piece on all of these groups? I'd love to have some of the answers to my questions. To Eric in the Governors' Office, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email as to the status of my application. I'm still out here.
Have a great week!
Do you know how many Boards, Commissions and Councils there are in Wisconsin? Per the attached link, are some of the over 200 that are now looking for new members. Link: http://walker.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=21092&locid=177
Being a current member of the Council for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Deaf/Blind Council, I am curious as to how these Boards/Councils/Commissions work, what they do, who benefits from them and how much it costs annually here in Wisconsin for them to exist. I know that our Council meets 4 times a year in Madison. Unfortunately, our meetings have had to be cancelled since December 2010 due to there not being enough Council members to meet the quorum requirements for a meeting. And yes, it does cost money for us to meet. In our situation, we have ASL interpretors, CART provider, food (sandwiches for a working lunch), reimbursement for those Council members seeking it for parking, mileage, ect. I've heard estimates that one of our meetings runs around $4,000. We meet from 9am to approximately 3pm on that day.
The reason that we are not meeting at this time is that we can't seem to find anyone who is Deaf/Blind/Hard of Hearing willing to commit to these 4 meetings a year. We should have 9 members on the Council. Currently, there are only 4 of us. I have mixed feelings on our lack of meetings at this point. While we could once again start projects that pertain to the needs of this population and then get our recommendations to the Governors' Office, I also like the fact that we are not costing the State of Wisconsin money in the current economic situation.
We are not the only group that is lacking in members as you can see via the link. Quite a few of the groups also have websites with information on what they do, minutes of their meetings, their recommendations, ect. Here's the link to ours: http://www.dhhcouncil.state.wi.us/
In order to cut expenses, it would be interesting to see the costs as well as the benefits the taxpayers of Wisconsin are getting from each of these groups. How many things that have been done by these groups in the past have led to laws, legislation, ect.? Or, are we sustaining these groups as yet one more layer of unneeded government expenses? Better yet, where can we find the information on the costs? I know that our website has member pages for all of our current members. This allows the general public to see who we are, what our thoughts on HOH/B/D are as well as our own personal goals for the Council.
In looking at the Governors' website, I don't find a link to what/who/where all of the groups are. It would be nice to see how many are still in existence, if they have the requirement of having a quorum present for their meetings, what they accomplish at these meetings and most importantly, are they really needed in order to facilitate the representation, laws and legislation for specific groups of State residents.
Our Council is 'required' via a State statute. If you'd like more information on that, it's in the website link above. A few months ago, I got a call from the Governors' office asking if I would be willing to serve another term. In order to do that, an application had to be sent in to the person calling me. I do believe that we can make a difference. So, I sent my application in. As of today, I have not heard anything back from this person. When I initially applied 3 years ago, it took almost 18 months for someone in Doyles' office to let me know if I was being appointed or not. If you are going to ask State Residents to apply to these things, you need to streamline the process and keep the communication lines open. Better yet, let the applicants know all of the details, State costs and guidelines for the specific group they are applying for. I believe it's called transparency.
So, here we are. It's the first of June and we've had to cancel the last 2 meetings for our Council. The Office for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing/Deaf/Blind is also down to just a handful of employees now. Some of the regions in Wisconsin are no longer being 'taken care of' due to a lack of employees in the office. That means that if you are looking for information, services or direction, it is likely that will take quite a bit of time to happen. For the 400,000+ individuals in our State that live with Visual and/or Hearing Challenges, it's just another reason that most of us have a lot of patience and try to find the answers on our own. It's also leads to quite a few no longer being a part of the everday world. No services/No answers = no opportunities to improve our lives, support ourselves, education, jobs, medical care (hearing health, therapy, lifestyle accommodations, ect).
Wouldn't it be nice if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did an investigative piece on all of these groups? I'd love to have some of the answers to my questions. To Eric in the Governors' Office, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email as to the status of my application. I'm still out here.
Have a great week!