Minutes for January meeting

There were four of us who met this afternoon.

Rebecca filled us in on a friend of hers who recently moved to the area and is looking for work doing child care.  She has lots of experience, including working with special needs kids.  I asked her to have her friend e-mail me a description of her experience and the work she's looking for and I add her to the resources list.

We also talked about recent encounters we've had with adults on the spectrum and agreed they would be welcome to attend to our meetings.  We're all learning and appreciate the insight.

I talked a bit about the upcoming Summit.  We've had nine people say they were coming and only two who said they couldn't make it.  Most of the people who haven't replied are either politicians or physicians.  I'll be making phone calls if I don't hear from them by the end of this week.  I've heard from parents who'd like to be there, but in the interest of a freer exchange of ideas, we are limiting attendance to the professionals who have been invited and will not be videotaping the discussion.  We do hope to have a really fine document to distribute to all interested parents and professionals that lists the findings and the goals set at the summit. 

We had one new attendee who's little boy is going through the diagnostic process at this time.  We shared a bit of our respective journeys.  He's already placed in ECDD and receiving services at Bell Teal lake so it sounds like they are well on their way to getting some good supports in place. 

I asked Heidi about the speaker, Sue Bertram, at the next SEPAC meeting.  Apparently she is a consultant with years of experience working in the special needs community.  She will speak on the process on coordinating services and give tips on how parents can learn to work most effectively with their service providers.  SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Committee) will be meeting next on Thursday Jan 19 at 7:00 at MARESA on Ohio St. in Marquette. 

I had hoped to discuss the sensory friendly film but we ran out of time.  We had close to 30 people turn out.  I have another date set aside for the next one:  April 3, the Tuesday of Spring Break.  I had hoped to show E.T., but as I was cleaning up yesterday, I learned one of my co-workers at the library has already scheduled that movie for another film series on Friday, January 27.  If anyone has a suggestion for a really good family film for April, please let me know.