We will have DBC meeting at GMAD instead of hyatt hotel at one pm on 19th.

Thank you.

Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you since March is a hectic month for everyone due to flu, spring break, or March Madness.  First, let’s congratulate Karla for her new baby!
 
DBC will have a conference this summer in Milawukee.  They have reserved Hyatt Hotel which is across the street from Midwest Airline Center.  Attached is the information that you can share with others about DBC Conference this summer.   What is best thing about the conference is that it is FREE registration.  AGB charge like 300 to 500 bucks for their conference even they are a very rich organization.   Please encourage hearing parents of deaf children, friends, etc to go to the conference.   We have a feeling that this conference may be bigger than NAD since people from all over the world will be coming.  Famous vloggers and bloggers are coming too.
 
Three more months until June 27th.  We would like to encourage you to watch “True Deaf Warrior – John Egbert” in Jack’s Eyes website (jackseyes.com) to make sure that everyone are sharing the same message why DBC is there in Milwaukee.
 
We will have our DBC of Wisconsin meeting on April 19th at the lobby of the Hyatt hotel in downtown Milwaukee at one pm.   The purpose of the meeting is to dicuss on how we can provide better logistics for DBC when they come in June and as disuss on  other reports as well too.
 
We will have another DBC of Wiscosnin meeting on May 17th.  It may be at CESA Building in Waukesha. Time will be announced.  After that meeting,  Dan Houlihan is working on setting up a workshop for him and Marcy Dropkins to provide a presentation of how Wisconsin screen their deaf babies and provide balance information to parents of deaf babies. 
 
Lastly, let’s thanks Stephanie Saltern for her efforts to set up a booth at AGB convention where we can provide ASL information to parents.
 
Please let us know if you have any questions.
 

THERE IS NO MEETING ON MARCH 15th.  We encourage people to attend Miss Wisconsin Pagaent instead.

 Hotel – Jason Altmann reported that he have been assisting DBC with the hotel location and will let us know soon if DBC was able to secure one.   UPDATE INFO: DBC has secured a hotel and planning an annoucement soon.

 Media – Jason Altmann reported that he would like to gather any media kit from DBC since he has contacted news in Milwaukee.  He plan to contact other news outside of Milwaukee.   One participant in the audience suggest DBC to do public TV in Milwaukee which Jason may work with him.

Outreach – Jack Barr reported that he plans to travel in Wisconsin and out of states to recruit more people to attend the conference this summer.  Also, he will ask deaf clubs to donate money for the conference.  He mentioned that around 300 people from California, and people from Canada, Sweden, India and other countries are planning to attend the conference.

 Interpreters – Vaughn Hallada reported that he and Pam from UWM will work together to recruit professional interpreters to work at DBC conference as volunteers.

Entertainmen – Dan Houlihan reported that he is working on getting an entertainer to come to DBC for the night.

 THERE IS NO MEETING ON MARCH 15th.

We discovered that few people tried to “threaten” some hearing people not to attend AGB conference this summer.    We do not accept this behavior and we strongly encourage them to attend the convention instead.   It is just because DBC is planning to have a conference at the same time so they can educate hearing people more about deafhood and other important deaf-related information.

Also, please do not inform people that DBC is against people with CIs.   The only thing DBC want to do is to convince AGB to allow babies from six to twenty-four months to learn sign language before they are able to talk.

Use your words wisely and if you are not sure what to say, you can check out www.deafbilingualcoalition.com

Thank you

We would like to encourage you to attend Miss Deaf Wisconsin Pagaent instead.

 February report coming soon.  

Check out at www.jackseyes.com 

DBC of Wisconsin will have a meeting on February 16th starting at four pm at SLAD.

 John Egbert, one of core DBC will be at the meeting. 

He is one who set up DBC.   He is from Minnesota and wrote a book called “Minefield”

Let’s give John, a big Wisconsin welcome when he comes here.  We will have reports to share to you all during the meeting.

15 people in attendance.

 Karla Gunn and Jack Barr explained about DBC’s mission.

DBC’s Mission:

 1.   To emphasize the IMPORTANCE of ASL for ALL Deaf infants and young children.

What that means is that AGB is promoting parents to not allow deaf infants and young children to learn ASL when they are in AVT training. 

2.  Is to MAKE the general public are of the prevalence of misconceptions and misinofrmation that devalue ASL. 

Great example shows that AGB tried to have Pepsi to pull out their advertisement with asl performance in it but DBC became proactive and encouraged deaf people like us to contact and thank Pepsi Co. to do it anyway.  DBC is like a watchdog to any organizations especially AGB not to mess with ASL, Deaf people’s true language.  (This was not discussed in the meeting but give you an idea what DBC is trying to do)

Karla explained about AVT.  (If you want to know what is AVT is,  we encourage you to watch this “The Greatest Irony” video by Amy Cohen Enfron.  http://www.greatestirony.com)

Jack explained about what DBC have done in the past including peaceful protest in different conferences in Virginia, Colorado, and Indiana.  The big conference is in Milwaukee, this summer from June 27th and 29th.

Jack and Karla explained that the core DBC has six people on the board and DBC of Wisconsin is a branch of DBC.  

The core DBC will take care of conference meeting rooms, workshops, planning of the events. etc.

DBC of Wisconsin will consist a committee that would provide support to core DBC which includes:

1. Media Contacts- Jason Altmann will take the lead to contact news, newspapers, etc to provide coverage during the event.

2.  Interpreters – Vaughan Hallada will take the lead to arrange interpreters for the event.

3. Outreach – Jack Barr will be making trips to deaf communities in midwest to encourage deaf people to attend the event.

4. Child care – we would like to encourage deaf and hearing children to attend the event to show that they can sign and communicate effectively.   Also, to plan children activities that day too.  We are looking for volunteers to assist with this.

5. Entertainment – Dan Houlihan will work with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Alliance to provide entertainment like Deaf Comedy night during the evenings.

6. Hospitality – we are looking for volunteers to provide assistance to participants who will be coming to the event.

7. Fundraising/Donations – we are looking into several fundraising events to raise funds to support the event this summer.

We agreed to meet every third Sat of the month at SLAD starting at four pm.

Our goal is to provide support for DBC’s plans for their conference in Milwaukee from June 27th to 29th.  We had our first townhall meeting on January 19th despite of the freezing weather.   A townhall report will be coming out soon.   We will have meetings at Delavan on every third Saturday of the month.   We will keep you posted with more information.