July 27, 2008

ESAD delegates, Steve Lovi, President and Dean DeRusso, Secretary along with Noella Kolash and David Baughman from NTID Student Congress (NSC) recently attended the 49th Biennial NAD conference from July 7-11, 2008 in New Orleans, LA.

Our delegation attended daily Council of Representatives sessions to propose, review, debate and support important motions regarding the future of NAD and its’ affiliates, including state associations such as ESAD. Several motions were put forth by the ESAD delegates including the rights of Deaf truck drivers under the federal Department of Transportation, captioning and related technology accessibility for the 21st century, advocacy for the ADA Restoration Act, expansion of an Action Alert system for state associations, and the establishment of an employment task force. In fact, ESAD was one of the very few state associations that had a majority of our suggested motions approved and carried.

ESAD is a member of Region 1 state associations which are comprised of those among the eastern seaboard. Our region was praised with being innovative and strongly united when it came to voting on proposed motions and supporting other regions within NAD.

ESAD delegates attended regional caucus meetings to further our agenda of supporting

NAD and state association needs. We also elected a new representative to represent our issues and concerns.

Each of the delegates also attended workshops throughout the week in support of specific issues facing ESAD such as emergency preparedness, parliamentary procedures, leadership, advocacy, audism, and youth.

The NAD pageant, Miss Deaf America was a big event during the conference. Our delegates and ESAD members came out in support of Miss Deaf New York, Alexandria Pucciarelli. Alexandria placed in the top six contestants during the finals and represented NY very well. Linda Mosca-Ginis continued to serve as the state director of our ESAD pageant as she has during the past 10 years.

Networking with other state associations and members of NAD was an important function of the delegates during the conference. ESAD was fortunate to receive some mentoring from experienced NAD and other state association members to better maximize our representation of New York State.

Please feel free to contact either Steve Lovi at SLovi19@aol.com or Dean DeRusso at dderusso@ferretrex.com for more information regarding the NAD conference.