From the Board Room

Hello Everyone! With a new year fast approaching, we’re wrapping up a busy 2012 at the Autism Women’s Network. AWN Board of Directors has spent this past year going through extensive Board Training. We are fortunate to have Pat Schafer, a 25 year veteran Board Trainer to assist us. Board training is now an AWN Board requisite

Something we’re super excited to announce is our AWN Committee on Autism and Ethnicity. We’ve already begun meeting and discussing the committee’s short and long term goals. Autism and Ethnicity Committee’s main focus will be to highlight the impact of race and culture on how autism is experienced. We recently welcomed new committee members Nadine Silber, Kerima Cevik and Kristina Chew. Look for an article to be posted soon with more information about this important emphasis for AWN.

We have a couple networking changes to let you know about. Though we will still utilize AWN Facebook for periodic updates, it will not be our primary networking venue. After reevaluating the new changes that Facebook recently implemented, including numerous privacy permission concerns, as well as forcing Fan Pages to pay in order for members to receive posts in their Timeline, we believe our funds can be better utilized elsewhere. Facebook Page Administrators will post links a couple times weekly to our Facebook Page; however, for daily networking, please join us on Twitter.

And speaking of Twitter, AWN is excited to let you know that we will now be bringing you interviews via Tweetchat instead of Blog Talk Radio or webinars. The ability to speak is not always possible for those of us on the autism spectrum, and with this in mind, we will begin hosting AWN interviews by using the Tweetchat feature on Twitter. We’re excited to have Ibby Anderson-Grace join Corina Becker and I to host Tweetchats. Stay tuned for details coming soon!

On a personal note, I’ve been keeping busy with work and college. I traveled to Chicago as a Nebraska Representative for the Allies in Self Advocacy Summit this year. It was an empowering summit where each State Team developed self-advocacy goals based upon their community’s needs and strengths. After returning home, our State Team formed the Nebraska Community Advocate Network (NeCAN). We’ve been holding regular monthly meetings, and we’re currently working on our first grant. Recently, I was appointed to the Nebraska Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) and I’ll be attending the SILC Congress in January for five days in San Diego. It is a training program for writing our State Plans. I’m also continuing with speaking engagements as well as regular participation on autistic adult panels and workshops. All of these activities continue to provide important teaching and learning opportunities for which I’m grateful.

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