September 18th meeting minutes

There were four of us in attendance last Sunday-- me, Rebecca, Jen W., and a new mom to the group of a 17-year-old at Marquette High.

I actually put together an agenda this time.  The meeting started with announcements about a lot of the things I've posted here in the last couple of weeks:

• There will be the sensory friendly movie on October 14.  Rebecca suggested we leave to closed-caption on as a lot of kids who are more visual learners follow the words better than the spoken dialog.  
• I mentioned the SPEAKS workshops coming up.  There seemed to be particular interested in the IEP workshop at MARESA on October 16.
• We discussed the YMCA classes.  Some were turned off by the cost.  The swim class, as initially scheduled was seen as too short, but it has been rescheduled to last an hour.  I think as this is an pilot program, we can hope it will just improve as more people voice their preferences.  
• I gave another plug for the Lakestate program.  Jen, who is a major force behind getting them up here, was there to elaborate.
• Jen also mentioned Kim Kee and her cranial sacral work.  She'll be talking at an upcoming Down syndrome meeting-- I'll let people know about that when I have a date for it.  I mentioned to Qigong massage I've been trying with my daughter.  I'll write a more extensive post on that when I better know what I think about it. 
• I also mentioned the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk.

Most people had to leave after an hours so we didn't have a whole lot of time to get into new business, but I have a few ideas churning in my head that I'd like to see if I can make happen.  Lately I've been playing around with the idea of hosting or maybe co-hosting an autism summit.  As I was going through the diagnostic process and trying to identify all the resources in the community it seemed that many of the experts I talked with had only a partial understanding of who and where I could receive help.   What if we got all the people in this community who really "do autism" for a living in one room together?  We could put together an agenda and maybe pin point some key areas where the community as a whole could use more help and do a little problem solving.  So the idea is half formed right now, but if you have thoughts to add or names for the invitation list (self nomination is fine), do let me know.  Maybe the beginning of autism awareness (April) month could be a goal for implementation.