THE PRESIDENT’S TOUCH

By Art Roehrig, President

January - March 2007

Greetings! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season, and that 2007 will be one of your best years. I also hope that the year will be another good one for AADB.

It is hard to believe that 2006 is gone. The time flies by. AADB experienced both good times and bad times. One of the good times is that the AADB national conference was a smashing success. Well, 2007 is different, because there will be no national conference this year. But, the most exciting event of the year is a board election. As you know, our current board members’ terms will expire on June 30 and the new board will start on July 1. I can imagine how exciting it will be to review and analyze each candidate's bio sketch before voting for only eight board positions. I also can imagine how anxious everyone will be to find out who will be elected in June. Please join me in wishing all the candidates the best of luck.

At any rate, the last board meeting took place in Maryland during the weekend of November 10-12, 2006. We reviewed, discussed and voted on many agenda items, including:

One agenda item, the most difficult of all, was the 2008 AADB national conference in Tennessee. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing this issue. It was not easy because we did not want to cancel or postpone the conference. We all, without question, know exactly how much a conference means to you. We tried everything to save the Tennessee conference, but regretfully, we couldn’t. The board's decision to cancel the Tennessee conference was due to financial reasons. We all know that many of you are upset. We, however, wanted you to know that we were upset, too, and had no choice but to cancel the conference. I All of you should have received an open letter and two financial reports from the AADB office. We hope the open letter and these financial reports will help you understand our decision.

As you already know, our conferences have become more and more expensive lately.  For example, the AADB office had to use its cash assets to pay approximately 220,000 dollars to cover what was left to San Diego State University in 2003. And again, the office had to take approximately 171,000 dollars out of its "pocket" to pay Towson University last year. So, we need to create new ways of raising funds to help us afford a conference every two years. That is one of the most important goals we have this year. We need a lot of time to seek fund raising opportunities for this purpose.

In closing, I ask you all to remember John F. Kennedy's famous quotation. He said, "Do not ask what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Now, I want to say, "Do not ask what AADB can do for you; ask what you can do for AADB.”." We need all of you to help us by supporting our efforts to improve the quality of life for all deaf-blind people.