LETTER FROM THE CEO

Star Grieser, CDI, ICE-CCP RID CEO

At RID headquarters, we’re constantly discussing what, at the 40,000-foot level, organizational transformation means exactly for our staff, our Board, and our members and how all these moving parts - much like gears in a clock - all impact each other. As we delineate what transformation means and while we’re fleshing out how the organizational transformation will happen and articulating the all-important finer points, our members ask, “what does this mean for me?”

Within headquarters, over the past several years, our staff has been spread pretty thin in several departments, and this global pandemic did nothing to slow anything down. We have been trying to attempt so much with so little and during a very emotionally, physically, mentally trying time. No doubt that our members have noticed and have expressed their concerns, and we have been receptive. While it’s a work in progress, we are moving forward with intention and thoughtfulness about our internal organizational reorganization and have been posting and filling several critical positions and still have more to fill. The goal of ensuring each Program is adequately and appropriately staffed is to strengthen our existing program and enhance our services to our members and consumers.

We have recently hired a full-time Member Services specialist, a dynamite young Deaf woman, Vicky, to field the many phone calls and emails to answer and direct the many questions and requests coming in from our members about RID and certification or member benefits, and to provide additional customer service and support to our members and the public; we are also looking into contracting with a Deafowned company to provide additional support.

We also recently promoted a staff member, Ashley, to full-time Certification Maintenance Program manager and will be posting to recruit a specialist to support our CMP program and will also be doing the same for both the Ethical Practice Systems and Certification programs. To support all of these programs and services, we have brought in a new Communications Director, JJ, to improve our communications and transparency to our members - we want you to know what is going on within RID and with our Board. We’ve brought in an operations project coordinator, Kirsten, to assist us with the management of operational issues. We will soon have two more staff accountants to help ensure the financial health of our organization.

We’re looking forward to adding many new and talented people to our team and strengthening the organization.

RID has endured extensive organizational trauma. In the wake of this trauma, we are now in this period where we need to figure out how to heal from it and move towards becoming a healthier and more stable organization for our members and consumers. As RID’s CEO, I see myself as being charged with guiding our organization back to health. I see the impact of the organizational trauma in how some members may talk about RID on social media - often with criticism, frustration, and despair. Our committees and staff members, which are tasked with the work of the Board and RID’s Strategic plan, have expressed being overwhelmed, burned out, or unsure of how to proceed or worse, feeling demotivated that their work is or will be a waste of time or energy. While this isn’t a unanimous sentiment of all volunteers or staff, it’s often enough to be alarming that something within the organization needs to change, and we need to heal from our deep-seated organizational trauma. It is this healing that must occur throughout every corner. At the foundation level of our organization, that must happen before we can truly transform into the distinguished and leading professional organization that Deaf people need us to be and that our members can rely on to guide them towards professional excellence.

This healing and organizational transformation are not just about staffing, programs, and member services. This transformation involved a shift in the organization’s culture, as well. I mentioned the hiring of new staff in recent months, but I didn’t mention that each of these new hires also happens to be Deaf and users of American Sign Language, some are BIPOC, and some identify as LGBTQAI2S+. At RID Headquarters, our focus is bringing in talent to our organization that reflects as diverse a group as possible but fundamentally has our “why,” our raison d’etre, at the heart of our work. As I lead this organization along with President Ritchie Bryant and our Board of Directors, the question of “why do we do what we do?” must be front and center because at the end of the day, the decisions made, policies set, or ideas brought forth by the Board may no doubt have an impact on the careers of ASL interpreters, but ultimately will definitely have an impact on the lives of Deaf people.

Recently the Board came together for the face-to-face Board meeting in over two years to flesh out their Board values and articulate their shared vision. They made critical decisions that will move RID towards aligning our certification programs with NCCA (National Commission for Certifying Agencies), prioritizing the revamp of the Ethical Practice Systems, approving policies that address certified interpreters violating the CPC (fraudulently earning CEUs), taking measures to minimize risk and ensure the stability of the organization during a transition between leadership, addressing the organizational trauma and resulting harm that our members, our profession, our consumers have experienced.

As our current majority-Deaf Board of Directors is proving now and our previous Board led by Dr. Jonathan Webb also prompted, the critical need for this cultural shift within RID’s leadership: that an organization can and should be led by as diverse a group of people as possible. When spaces at the table are made for people of various life experiences, backgrounds, skills, philosophies, approaches to come together and are charged with the stewardship of an entire professional organization, there will, of course, be debates, disagreements, and discussions - some uncomfortable at times - but there is also an opportunity for reimaging, rethinking, innovating, and rebuilding and ultimately blazing the path for our profession: for our members, volunteer leaders, staff and our consumers. Yes, it will be uncomfortable because it requires us to do some soul-searching and to commit to sitting down and listening to different perspectives on what RID should strive to become, especially as we work towards elevating our organization for the benefit of the people we serve and the people who helped to found this organization: Deaf people.

Current Issue: Volume 29, Issue 1 (2021)

The Journal of Interpretation (JOI) is a scholarly publication of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf that includes articles, research reports and commentaries relevant to the interpreting field. The JOI reflects a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the interpretation and translation of languages.

President’s Report

Ritchie Bryant, MS, CDI, CLIP-R RID Board President

• Rural interpreters • BIPOC interpreters • Neurodivergent interpreters • Trilingual interpreters • New American interpreters • Medical interpreters • Non traditional Deaf Interpreters • Educational interpreters

Now the question is whether those interpreters got to where they are today the same way? Often we operate on the assumption that we all come from the same background. Nothing can be further from the truth. In listing the people and specialties above, we want to show that how we get to the path of becoming an interpreter is as varied as our backgrounds and motivations.

Are interpreters a homogenous monolithic group? Definitely not. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not.

Diversity and inclusion is not limited to just race and ethnicity. We as a society are much more complex. This is why we at RID want to continue the dialogue about elevating diverse perspectives.

Before we explore this concept further, it is worthwhile to note that organizations, just like us all individually, have their own habits and patterns (or its culture) if you will. Shifting the culture can be uncomfortable. RID is no exception to this shifting discomfort.

Since RID was founded in 1964, we have strived to fulfill our mission of promoting our profession. However, we now have before us a unique opportunity to take the path not previously traveled with our organization and mission. This work can only be done by embedding representatives from a wide range of stakeholders - especially those from diverse communities who we haven’t historically included - within the fabric of our organization.

For decades, the primary stakeholders providing input within our organization have been a set of relatively homogeneous members. Making decisions from a homogenous subset of membership created policies that were disconnected from the diverse communities that we serve. We now recognize this has been an issue and have this opportunity to further elevate our organization. We can effectively do so by incorporating the lived experiences and perspectives of other stakeholders, especially our consumers.

An embrace of diverse perspectives and the steady infusion of new ideas offers us many opportunities to shift our organizational paradigms. As we continue this process, we are identifying where we can introduce flexibility in how we structure our governance, while remaining true to our mission. If we look at how RID is currently structured, many of us would agree that there is room for additional flexibility in ways that does not compromise our mission.

Elevating our profession’s mission calls on us to lean forward and prepare ourselves to have those conversations… even when we - both individually and as an organization - experience discomfort in the process.

Have we created the appropriate space and mechanisms for diverse perspectives to be fully heard and seen?

Have we ensured that those spaces and mechanisms are sufficiently nimble for us to readily adapt as needed?

Perhaps those questions should guide our conversations amongst ourselves and with other underrepresented stakeholders who historically may not have been involved in our work. If conversations with underrepresented people become uncomfortable (not because the topics are sensitive) still, we can include multiple stakeholders in meaningful discourse related to the profession of interpreting. Uncomfortable conversations are the foundation of welcoming diverse perspectives to RID. If those conversations become hard or uncomfortable, that helps you know that our internal schema is shifting in bringing diverse perspectives into the fold at RID.

Those conversations will lead us on the path; to unearth our forgotten roots, and expand those roots further to reach as-yet untapped fertile soil. As we expand our network, we will equip our profession to readily adapt to a dynamic and thriving future..

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