Region III Report

Marva Johnson, Region III Representative

Marva Johnson, NIC Region III Representative

Greetings Region III and RID Membership!

This will serve as my final report. Included in the report are my departing thoughts as Region III Representative and reports from the Affiliate Chapters.

First, I would like to take a moment to share my departing thoughts. I decided run for Region III Representative early in 2020. In my campaign I shared my experience as a child of Deaf parents who believed strongly in community and taking care of each another. Once elected, I had the opportunity to work alongside many great minds from diverse experiences. The individuals on this Board honored difference of each member as well as lifted the voices of everyone. My voice as a Black female- Deaf parented interpreter from the rural parts of American was welcomed and valued in the community of the Board. We worked tirelessly on projects that would transform our field in ways unimaginable. We were dedicated to being inclusive and transparent as we work our way through change.

Unfortunately, a small number of the RID membership community was able to attack an individual of our Board community. The attacks directed at one member of the Board also had an immense impact on the entire Board community. The attacks were laced with vicious lies and manipulations causing harm to the Board community as well as the communities we serve. Due to systematic barriers, we were unable to defend ourselves against the accusation. The constant barrage of attacks was distracting and impeding the progression of the work. Like other members of the Board, I had to consider the impact to the hard work and progress gained if I continued in my role as Region III Representative. I decided to stand in solidarity with my community and step aside rather than continue to be a distraction. I am grateful for the experience of serving as Region III Representative. I am truly humbled by the support, encouragement, and compassion I have received from the Region III community and RID membership. Moving forward I am committed to supporting the mission and vision of RID by fully supporting the incoming Board of Directors. In addition, I will continue to share my experience with the membership in hopes of creating opportunities for healing.

Although I was in agony over the decision to resign, the conference had restored my hope and faith in the future of RID. I had the opportunity to share space with wonderful people from the RID community. The conference allowed us to discuss and learn about racism, audism and other -isms! From the opening plenary to the closing remarks for

FROM THE BOARD

President Webb, I was pleasantly surprised by the eagerness and willingness of the RID community to listen and learn from each another. The common theme in the breakout discussions was we need to do better. I truly believe RID will positively benefit from the memberships’ desire to do better! Please continue to do the work. I am RID! You are RID! We are RID! I will see you around!

Indiana - ICRID

“Own the Past, Become the Change”

ICRID is looking towards the past to accept what we have been so we can change for the better as we look towards our future. The board for ICRID fully recognizes some of the organization’s shortfalls from the past. Month after month since the beginning of the year our board and committees have met with a sole purpose of becoming the change. We have discussed Membership Benefits, Member Correspondence, Purpose and Mission, Bylaws/ Policies Procedures Manual, Committee Development and Training, and Fundraising. A lot of ideas have been proposed and solid plans have been made. One visible outcome has been the debut of our new website, www.ICRID.org in the month of June. In addition to that, the Bylaws committee has finished reviewing the bylaws, and the board has sent them to the membership for a vote. Our planning has not stopped there. We are excited about the new membership benefits we have planned and hope Interpreters of Indiana will take advantage of the free membership offerings by renewing or joining ICRID, or by joining a committee. If we step up, admit where we have fallen short in the past, we can become the change needed.

Our next step is working with a 3rd party consultant to help us better connect and relate with our membership. We first had to accept that we needed help in this area and own the past of not providing our membership what it needed. Once that was done, we could continue working to truly be the organization they need. We hope to have interpreters who are wanting to help us in committees to set the ideas and solid plans in place. Finding these interpreters, and getting them involved, is what will be the true sign for us to “Own the Past, Become the Change.” -Lori Prewitt, ICRID President

Illinois - IRID

IRID will soon be launching a new Illinois Master Mentor Program, in collaboration with Chicago Hearing Society (CHS) and Teaching Interpreting Educators and Mentors (TIEM) Center. This program is designed to become a self-sustaining Mentor Training program. Watch for an announcement soon. The board has also been hard at work negotiating and arranging professional development opportunities for our members, working interpreters and interpreting students in Illinois. Check out our website for a list of upcoming events including part II of our Summer Tax Series by Rosemary Bocian. -Angela Malcomson, IRID President

Kentucky - KyRID

Summer is upon us and we are less than a month away from our first in-person conference since 2019. We are thrilled about this conference and being able to gather to learn, socialize, and be together again as an organization. We have some fabulous volunteers helping with the conference and couldn’t do it without everyone’s help. The presenter lineup is hard to beat! We want to thank South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind Division of Outreach Services for helping support the conference with processing CMPs.

We are happy to announce that we have two newly appointed board members Jessica Minges and Corinne Miller whom we know will contribute significantly to our board. Additionally, thank you to the volunteer help from Zac Childers who temporarily stepped in to help KYRID with our CMP committee. We have a newly formed CMP Committee and thank Donna Lashley for taking the lead with this group moving forward. Moving forward KYRID is looking to revise and approve by-laws.

KYRID looks forward to the Region III conference coming up in the summer of 2022 and we will be working with the conference committee to provide a great conference to our members.

Lastly, but most importantly, as President of KYRID, I would like to recognize the dedication and hard work of Dr. Jonathan Webb, LaTanya Jones, Yakata Nichols, Marva Johnson, Jason Farr, Deb Martinez, Eli Sierra, Kelly Decker, and Krystal Sanders for their service at the national office and in our profession. It is my sincere hope that we can support each other and rally together and build our future with recognition and honor of those voices that have been oppressed. We are RID. -Amy A. Schilling, KyRID President

Michigan - MIRID

We would like to sincerely thank Dr. Jonathan Webb, LaTanya Jones, Yakata Nichols, Marva Johnson, Jason Farr, Deb Martinez, Eli Sierra, Kelly Decker, Krystal Sanders for their bravery and service to our community.

We, the MIRID Executive Board, reaffirm our commitment to our mission statement, “to promote the profession of sign language interpreters, ensure effective collaboration with Michigan Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing communities and promote an inclusive environment within MIRID.”

We continue to strive to better the profession of interpreters here in Michigan. We unequivocally denounce racist or audist behavior of any kind, however recognizing the deeply rooted systemic hold that each has within our field. We, at MIRID, will continue to provide opportunities to learn from each other and hope that, together, we can all do a better job of being inclusive, and being open to having some uncomfortable discussion that are necessary at this time.

Some of the opportunities that we are planning are • MIRID Town Hall discussion to unpack and discuss recent RID events happening July/August 2021 • BIPOC panel discussion to happen Fall of 2021

• MIRID is committed to being the change To Jonathan, Marva, Yakata, LaTanya, Jason, Eli, Deb, Krystal, Branton, Paul, and Kelly: Thank you. -Tarra Grammenos, MRID President

-Erin Humann, MIRID President

Minnesota - MRID

Minnesota is known for its “Minnesota Nice” (read: passive aggressive) culture. Having honest, straightforward, uncomfortable conversations is not something we do well. Last summer, we witnessed the murder of George Floyd. It impacted our state, our nation, and our field. We started the conversations about racism and white privilege, and how it has impacted our interpreters of color. This summer, we witnessed the most diverse RID Board in our national organization's history, being bullied, harassed, and racially attacked while pitting oppression against oppression. We lost the work, respect, and momentum that had been building these past two years, while still trying to recover from a world-wide pandemic. Racism, audism, ableism, and many other ‘isms have been deeply rooted in RID, MRID, and many other organizations like us for many years. However while these conversations are uncomfortable, they are necessary to be able to unpack all of our -isms and biases as interpreters, and as humans.

Ohio - OCRID

OCRID hosted our 2021 Virtual Conference the first weekend of June. It was a great weekend of workshops, learning,and networking! A motion made from the Annual Business Meeting resulted in the creation of a Mentorship Committee. This ad-hoc committee will research opportunities for OCRID to partner with mentoring programs in the state, or will work on developing our own mentoring program to provide current ITP students and recent graduates. I am very excited about this committee, as our current ITP students and recent graduates are our future! We are still looking for volunteers to join. I’m excited to see what comes of this committee. The Educational Interpreter Committee is still meeting monthly, working hard on securing some educational interpreter focused workshops in the near future. They also continue to work on gathering data across the state and are looking to partner with other local organizations in an effort to improve K-12 standards.

The Bylaws committee is editing and revising our current Bylaws. We hope that the edits and voting will be done in time to implement them starting the 2022-2023 fiscal year. During the Annual Business Meeting, we welcomed three new Directors to the Board, and we now have a full Board with a variety of experience and expertise! We hope to have an in-person, one-day conference in the Fall. OCRID is also happy to announce that we will be hosting the Region III Conference in 2022. We will begin planning in the very near future!

The current OCRID Board of Directors would like to thank the RID Board's service and dedication to this community. We support the decisions made and stand in solidarity with you. We are motivated now, more than ever, to continue to fight for equity and inclusion for all marginalized communities. Jonathan Webb, Paul Glaser, Kelly Decker, Yakata Nichols, LaTanya Jones, Branton Stewart, Jason Farr, Eliezer Sierra, Marva Johnson, Deborah Martinez, Krystal Sanders - Thank you! -Chelsea Sudar, OCRID President