Maryland Rehabilitation Association

The monthly meeting of the MRA Board was held on July 26, 2011. In attendance were Dr. Ellen Fabian, Melissa James, Susan G., Christine Franklin, and Stacy Seymore.

President Ellen Fabian called the meeting to order.

The training on July 26^th at College Park went very well. Dr. George Tilson did a great job and there was a lot of representation from CRPs. Unfortunately, with all of the planning that went into the event, there was an announcement about MRA, but not necessarily a membership drive. Ellen will send out a follow up thank you to the attendees and in that she will invite them to the MRA/DORS Conference as well as let them know about membership discounts at the conference. Ellen is going to write a paragraph/blurb about the training and forward to Melissa to be posted on the website.

Discussed the membership meeting at the conference. It was decided to hold an all members meeting from 5:00 p.m.-5:45 p.m. before the social. It will need to be added to the conference program. The group discussed the possibility of having refreshments and Ellen volunteered to check with the hotel to see if we would be allowed to bring in our own light refreshments. Developed an agenda for the all member meeting which will be as follows:

Introduce Board Members

Discuss this year’s accomplishments

Adele to possibly talk about what she hopes to do next year

Discussion on what MRA members would like to have done next year

Have a Mid-Atlantic MRA representative talk about NRA (Susan to invite)

Susan will send conference information to the MAR representative and invite them to the conference and membership meeting.

Christine will contact NRA to have it posted on their website and it should be put in Contemporary Rehab.

Ellen is going to ask Donna if she plans to take care of the booth schedule and giveaways.

Also discussed getting people to run for office. An e-mail will be sent to the membership to let them know that we are seeking nominations.

Committee Reports:

Treasurer’s Report

Ellen was e-mailed a compliment about how nice MRA’s website is. In planning to move forward, Melissa will look into updating the officers and board members but needs to first clarify everyone’s roles. Susan is going to send Melissa MAR’s board members to add to the website as well. In addition, the survey that Ellen had sent out can be taken off the website, as it is finished.

Susan reported information on the Mid-Atlantic Region’s June 28^th meeting. There is a new treasurer. She reported that the treasury keeps decreasing in amount but they are looking at providing training to assist with this. The PA and VA websites have the MAR by-law changes posted. She is going to push to have them added to Maryland’s website. They are also looking for effective teleconference options. MAR is interested in sharing training opportunities and information between states. MAR also is looking for a President-Elect.

Discussed someone representing MRA at the NRA Conference that starts October 13^th in Salt Lake City. This could be a stretch because of the MRA Conference immediately after that. Ellen will talk with Adele to see if she is interested and if not, Susan will go and represent MRA.

The next meeting will be at the conference in October!

Respectfully submitted,

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Maryland Rehabilitation Association

The monthly meeting of the MRA Board was held on April 26, 2011. In attendance were Dr. Ellen Fabian, Dr. William Tully, Annie Greene, Melissa James, Cynthia Cotton (Coppin State), Adele Connelly, Stasia Edmonston, Denise Spry, Donna Keegan, Jody Boone, Mary Dudderar, Sharon Plump, and Stacy Seymore.

President Ellen Fabian called the meeting to order.

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Melissa, Ellen, and Adele attended. Adele spoke about transition, Ellen about continuing education for staff, and Melissa spoke about keeping funding in the Rehab Act. Congressman Chris VanHollen came in as well. Information will be added to the website for an update.

The annual MRA/DORS conference will be held October 17-19^th this year. It will be held immediately after the MD Transition Conference, which will be October 16-17^th. They will again be held in Ocean City but will be at the Clarion Hotel. The room cost is $89/night. The committee is looking at menus and food. John Stem is going to prepare a “Save the Date” flier for vendors. It was decided to give a discount to people who were planning to attend both conferences. The Call for Papers went out for both conferences and they are working on online registration through TACE. At this point there is no charity event planned. Ellen noted that MRA needs to remember that we need to put our booth somewhere in the front and center of the exhibition hall in order to get more new members. Last year there were 14 new members and 26% of the existing members are lifetime members which don’t pay dues.

We were awarded a $100 grant from the Job Development Division of NRA and it was suggested that we use these funds to provide some training at the summer meeting. It will be July 26^th at College Park and Ellen is getting the space for free. There will be a board meeting in addition to training for the members. Ideas for speakers were discussed. Lunch will be provided. This may be an opportunity to increase MRA membership if people feel like they are getting their money’s worth. Also discussed taking a group picture of the MRA board at this meeting for the website.

Discussed how to send out the notice for the July meeting. Kate Drake can send it out to the CRP listserve, Missy Diehl could do it through the DORS in-service, and Maureen McGuire through TACE. Also discussed making the training longer (10-3) for those who have a long commute. Also discussed adding an MRA board meeting to the MRA conference yearly.

Adele noted that NRA has a transition specialty division and that transition specialists are receiving $10 off of their membership fees before 9/30/11. The information is on the NRA website and a link will be put on the MRA website. She mentioned that there is also a new program evaluation division.

Committee Reports:

Treasurer’s Report (Jody Boone)

Donna asked if we could use some MRA funds for the July training and Mary suggested that we should use the training money to get a dynamic speaker and someone that we haven’t heard before. Jody said that there is no budget per se but that we have approximately $19,000+ so we could take a vote and use some money to pay a speaker.

There are currently 72 professional members, 7 students, and 2 new professional members. 26% of members are lifetime and there has been an increase of 14 members from last year. Current membership is approximately 111.

The officers need to be updated on the website. A link will also be posted to the new divisions of NRA. The legislation page is being updated every couple of weeks with White House updates. There are also links to the MRA/DORS conference. Jody suggested possibly setting up a Linked In profile.

July 26^th at College Park, MD

Respectfully submitted,

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MRA Board Meeting Minutes
February 8, 2011

Present: Jody Boone, Susan Gugliuzza, Annie Green, Ellen Fabian, Dr. Denise Spry, Donna Keegan, Adele Connelly, Melissa James, Dr. W. Talley, Toni March.

a. The Board is funding Adele, Ellen, & Melissa to attend the NRA Legislative Summit in March. We will be representing NRA/MRA positions on various legislative issues when we meet with congressional representatives and staffers.

Melissa will be working on scheduling appointments with congressional representatives or their staff for the MRA team.

b. MRA/DORS combined conference

Adele discussed the possibility of combining the annual MD Transition Conference with the MRA/DORS conference next fall. She said that her transition planning group is talking about adding a day to our 2-day conference (either before or after) giving participants the choice of attending one, two or the entire conference. The Board discussed this possibility, deciding that if the hotel were large enough to accommodate, and sufficient funds from transition agencies (such as Special Ed) were available, it would be worth pursuing. The MRA/DORS conference planning committee will be meeting in early March to discuss the possibility.

c. Annie G. spoke to NRA about the availability of job development training funds from NRA ($200.00). The Board discussed going ahead and submitting a proposal. Ellen volunteered to do so if we meet eligibility requirements. The money can be used to support job development speakers or other training activities

Treasurer (Jody Boone). Our account balance is over $19,000. Jody reported that we had a net profit of $5,553 from the conference. She also reported that MRA had received its Debit Card.

Membership (No Report). There was some discussion regarding how many new members we enrolled during the DORS/MRA Conference. We don’t have the final numbers yet.

Training/Education (No report).

Other related discussion was to schedule a MRA sponsored job development/business training program in conjunction with Jodi’s scheduled Business Training to be held in Howard County April 12/13th. We discussed the possibility of inviting Larry Abramson to present on the St. Luke’s Business Mentorship Program at this session – and invite MRA members to attend. Ellen and Jody will discuss this.

Website: Please send Melissa information regarding training activities, webinars, etc. She will put it on the website. Ellen will do a new president’s website greeting. Need to update the picture on it.

Susan G. reported on the Mid-Atlantic Rehabilitation Association, which has been involved in updating their constitution and by-laws (which will go on the website when completed). Mid-Atlantic NRA will be hosting an ethics training the day before the NRA summit conference in March.

Next meeting is 4/26 at 2:30 at WTC (Melissa will find us a room). We hope to schedule a MRA-sponsored training (free to members) in July (at College Park). We will be planning this event at the April Board meeting so please attend!

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Maryland Rehabilitation Association
Board Meeting
October 19, 2010

The monthly meeting of the MRA Board was held on October 19, 2010. In attendance were Janet Spry, Avrohom Klainberg, Mary Dudderar, Sharon Plump, Ellen Fabian, Melissa James, Christine Franklin, Cynthia Cotton, Jody Boone, Toni March, Donna Keegan, Susan Gugliuzza, and Stacy Seymore. President Avrohom Klainberg called the meeting to order.

The minutes from the 7/20/2010 Board Meeting were approved.

NRA Training Conference
Ellen Fabian was welcomed back from the NRA Training Conference in New Orleans. She reported that overall it was a good conference. In terms of NRA updates, she reported that NRA membership is down by about 4,400. She also mentioned the idea to possibly combine some MRA events with DC’s Rehab Association.

MRA/DORS Conference
The annual MRA/DORS conference will be held November 8-November 10. The conference committee did a phenomenal job with planning and ensuring that a large variety of topics will be covered. The keynote speakers were announced and the events and agenda were reviewed.

Monday evening is the welcome reception and a charity event has been added. It will be sumo wrestling and the money raised will go to A Place Called Hope. There will be 5-6 matches during the reception and Avrohom will be acting as referee. A lot of planning also went into the social event which will be a murder mystery and dance.

So far, there are about 380 participants registered, which is a little bit more than this time last year. Thank you to the CADD class at WTC for the 60th anniversary sign. The conference was also posted in Contemporary Rehab.

The schedule has been sent out for coverage for the MRA booth and is in the works. Also, the giveaways will be hand sanitizer and flashlights.

Membership Drive
This year, the same discount will be offered at the conference as last year. The membership costs at the conference will be:
Professional: $82.00
Student: $20.00
New Professional: $50.00 (this is a new category)
It was confirmed that for students, if the application is delivered at the conference by another student or a professor, they will still receive the discount, even if they cannot attend in person. It was also decided that MRA would like to sponsor a student member for the conference and Cynthia was invited to be the student representative since she is on the board. She will let Avrohom know, even if it’s just for one day. MRA will also cover the cost of the social.

It was suggested to send out the membership prices to encourage membership. Sharon suggested that for next year, we put membership discount information in written conference materials to encourage people to join. She also suggested a nice sign to put at the booth with membership prices.

Other Old Business
Discussion continued about the need for nominations for the position of President-Elect. All other officers will continue to serve for another year. Send nominations to Avrohom.

Treasurer’s Report (Jody Boone)
The current account balance is $48,211.58, which is good. There were more conference vendors and sponsors for the conference this year compared to last, which helped. In addition, the conference committee is still looking for silent auction donations.

Membership
Stasia Edmondston was not present to give a report.

Avrohom will contact Annie Green to possibly speak with rehab students at Coppin State on October 28th.

Discussed the fact that Stasia is doing a lot of training on brain injury and could possibly incorporate a little bit of information about MRA to promote the organization and increase membership. All were in favor.

Training/Education
Reviewed some of the DORS Disability Awareness Month activities. From October 25th-October 28th, there will be an open house at Coppin State and there will be a huge set up with tables and lots of vendors. There will also be information on services available for students with disabilities.

Website
The committee is looking into getting a check card so that the website doesn’t have to be paid for personally by a member. Also discussed adding new information to the website and there were several suggestions about things to add. E-mail any additions or ideas to Melissa.

Constitution/By-Laws Update
Christine reported that there are updates to MRA Constitution and By-Laws. These will be sent out to members before the conference. Then, at the conference people can sign that they agree or articulate concerns. Once this is complete, the changes can be ratified and submitted to NRA.

Mid-Atlantic Region
The Mid Atlantic Region is looking for someone to run for the Treasurer’s position. It would be great if we could recruit some representation from Maryland.

Legislative Issues
The group agreed that an e-mail could and should be sent to Senator Mikulski’s office to thank her for her work on the recent bill relating to disabilities issues and language.

Good of the Organization
Mary proposed that rather than just making informal decisions on important issues, the board take votes on all major decisions. All were in agreement

The group discussed meetings for the next year. They will tentatively be:
January (date will be the same date of the luncheon at WTC)
April 26th- Location will be announced
July 19th- at College Park
October 11th- at WTC

Respectfully submitted,
Stacy Seymore

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Minutes from the MRA Board Meeting
07/20/2010

Present: Toni March, Jody Boone, Susan Gugliuzza, Annie Green, Ellen Fabian, Dr. Janet Spry, Cynthia Cotton, Anastasia Edmonston, Donna Keegan, Terese Reamer, Melissa James.

Melissa opened the meeting in the absence of President Avrohom Klainberg and Past President Christine Franklin. President-Elect Ellen Fabian, Dr. Janet Spry, and student representative Cynthia Cotton were welcomed to the Board.

Old Business:
Meeting minutes from the 02/26/2010 Board meeting were approved.

Melissa discussed results of the NRA Legislative Conference from March. Christine, Avrohom, and Melissa went to Alexandria, VA., and met with staffers from eight Maryland offices. They presented the NRA position papers on the reauthorization of the Rehab Act and funding for voc rehab. Many people were at Capitol Hill to express their support or opposition to the pending health care bill, so the legislative staffers were happy we were there to discuss other issues. Connie Garner, who worked for Senator Edward Kennedy, received the Lead On Award. The conference was worthwhile and the dates for next year are March 20-22, 2011. President-Elect Ellen Fabian should be able to go next year. Melissa would go as Legislative Liaison. Annie Green would also like to go and suggested that interested members apply for the Tom Stewart Scholarship that the NRA gives for this purpose.

New Business:
The MRA Quarterly report was submitted by Avrohom to NRA mid-atlantic rep, Kenneth Hergenrather. A copy is available for review for Board members.

NRA National Training Conference issues:
The National NRA Training Conference will be held in New Orleans, LA from 10/15 – 10/17. Since Avrohom is unable to attend, the Board discussed who could go to represent NRA. Ellen Fabian will check to see if she can go. Annie Green was also interested in attending.
The Board decided not to be a sponsor for the NRA meeting. The consensus was that we would not be presenting our chapter for recruiting and wanted to use the money for that purpose with the conference discounts.

MRA/DORS Conference Planning and Progress:
Ellen gave an update on the conference, which will be held 11/08 – 11/10/2010 at the Princess Royale in Ocean City, MD. Avrohom and Ellen F. have been serving on the planning committee.
Missy Pemberton is still looking for additional presenters – the call for papers has gone out and due date extended, although no one at the meeting recalled receiving any update on extensions.
• Plans are underway for several fun charity events with a carnival theme as well as the banquet. Christine is seeking volunteers to help run a carnival/casino game before and after the banquet on Tuesday night of the conference.. She needs 3 – 4 volunteers from the Board to take short shifts (20 minutes – half hour). Jody and Annie volunteered.
• Donna agreed to coordinate the schedule again for the MRA booth. Thanks, Donna!
• We need to check how many giveaways are left, if the highlighters are still working, and if so, how many we need to order. Donna also suggested we check MARCO’s web site for promotional ideas at their web site: www.marcopromotionalproducts.com .

• MRA Membership Incentives were discussed for this year. Based on new NRA membership categories, the Board agreed to offer at the conference the $96 New Professional membership category for $50.00 and to continue to offer the professional and student memberships at $82 and $20, respectively. These will be advertised on the MRA web site.

• The Board also agreed that college members who cannot be at the conference in person can get the discount if they send application and payment with a professor or another student. We may also extend this offer until the end of the calendar year.

• The Board was asked to begin considering people to nominate for the election of President-elect for 2011. Other new Board members will serve next year as well (two year terms).

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Treasurer: (Jody Boone) Our account has a balance of $26,851.24. We received $10,000 from DORS toward the conference. We have not received $150.00 from the Department of Labor from last year. Jody wants all purchase authorizations to be from Maryland to avoid this problem in the future.

Membership: (Stasia Edmondston)
• The NRA has not sent Stasia a membership roster since April ’09. We did receive a national report from April 2010. MD has 91 members according to that report.
• NRA new membership categories – how will this effect MRA?
• NRA Membership drive is in August/September. Chris contacted NRA to let them know that our annual drive is in conjunction with the MRA/DORS conference. Requested a free membership to give away. No response as yet from NRA.
• Other issues: NRA announced new benefits to members – insurance, etc
• AAACEU offering discounted classes for CRCs. Have give-aways.

Training/Education: (Terese Reamer) No report.

Other related discussion:
MRA banners for Rehab Counselor Appreciation Day were put up at WTC by Christine and Annie. It turns out that the Appreciation Day was only for the one time it was approved by Congress, so we had our own little recognition.

The Board discussed Disability Awareness Month in October and plans for volunteers to speak to students in rehab programs. Universities listed included George Washington, Towson, Coppin State, and Morgan State. There was interest by several Board members in speaking at these institutions.

Web Site (Melissa James, Terese Reamer, Annie Green)
There was discussion regarding how to get more traffic on the site and more additions to the calendar, etc. The Board agreed that content would be approved by the web site committee before being posted. The Resources page needs submissions. Currently the page includes a list of vendors from the conference. There were suggestions for a sub-page for Disabilities Awareness Month; student perspectives; training opportunities; a LinkedIn professional networking group; and information on arts and disabilities. The web site committee reminded members that they need to receive submissions in order to carry out these ideas.

Constitution/Bylaws Update:
Chris had proposed that the next step to approve the new constitution/by-laws would be to send the document by email to our members and have them vote on it at the conference. The Board agreed with this proposal.

Legislative Issues: (Melissa James)
See Old Business.

Mid- Atlantic Region Rehab Assoc. Liaison: (Susan Gugliuzza)
The MAR has a balance of $14, 343.41. (?) The MAR is working on several issues. One is continuing to try to have West Virginia chapter become active. They cannot find anyone who is willing to lead the state chapter. Another issue is bylaw changes; a third issue is the expense of elections. MAR is looking at having electronic elections in the future. For 2010, paper ballots will still be used.
Their next meeting is August 17.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15.

Next Meeting: October 19, 2010 in the Dining Hall Conference Room.

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MRA Board Meeting Minutes - July 28, 2009

In attendance: Christine Franklin, Terese Reamer, Melissa James, Donna Keagan, Annie Green, Bob Moulden, Avrohom Klainberg, and Adele Connolly.

We welcome Janet Spry to the Board! Dr. Kehe will be her alternate. They will be recruiting student representatives. Susan Gugliuzza has volunteered to be MRA’s Mid- Atlantic Rehab Association Representative. The Board approved Susan’s nomination. Melissa James will assist in the transition before stepping down.

Minutes from last meeting reviewed and approved.

Chapter Quarterly report completed and forwarded to K. Hergenrather/ MAR, for presentation at NRA.

Discussion of beginning a Multi-cultural committee: Chris spoke with William Talley, chapter chair, about this possibility. He did not feel it was viable to start a committee at this time although he is available to consult with MRA re: training topics or any issues of concern in this arena. DORS also has a multi-cultural committee that we can coordinate with to co-sponsor trainings and open these up to MRA members.

Student recruitment: Talley, Spry, Fabian all agreed MRA presentations to their classes would be great. Looking at Sept-Oct timeframe. Need volunteers to speak. A special reception, discounted rates, roles/ involvement in running conference- ambassadors, co-facilitating, greeters would all be of interest to students. When DORS takes on interns is a good time to recruit as well. Having literature to give to students is recommended.

Presentations at QRT are recommended to recruit new DORS staff for MRA membership. MRA gifts could be included in gift bags. Staff development page on InDORS website could include information on MRA (should other professional organizations should be mentioned?). Christine, Annie, Terese and Avrohom volunteer to speak at the colleges. We need dates.

MRA currently has 90 members. This number is down and it may be students who are not renewing.

MRA/DORS Conference- MRA open meeting at the conference. A breakout room may be available- need to check into this. Chris will deliver annual report and take suggestions, questions and concerns: legislative, training, issues, etc. Refreshments- determine if facility requires we use their catering.

NRA Conference- Adele will be there under the Transition grant. Chris volunteered to go- under consideration by the board. We could sponsor the Seamless Transitioning Grant training session for $250 (Demystifying the Process for Transitioning Youth). Our banner will be prominently displayed. Voted on and approved.

The conference will be held November 4-6 at WISP. Finalization of theme is underway. Jim Evans is coordinating the charity event. MRA hopes to get a lot of people to the Social. Ad in Contemporary Rehab (free)- Christine will handle, order give-aways- Donna. MRA will offer conference discount for new and renewing memberships. Submit recipients of MRA awards to MAR. Social should be around $40 a person. Some ideas for speakers have been sent to Chris. Kathi Santora and Betsy Simms are on the sponsor committee.

Tax exempt status- we are likely not eligible because we are a professional organization (501 C-6) and not a C-3. Information gained from comptroller website. Bob will inquire further. Contributions (from silent auction) do not qualify for a tax deduction as a charitable contribution. Some kind of written notification should be displayed. Through June: the only spending on the conference so far has been $1319 which was paid for an accessibility survey- long process which found the facility “accessible enough.” Marian Vessels with DBTAC was also consulted and agreed with that finding. WISP was also given a $1000 deposit. Current account balance $19, 575. Bob will be handling the sponsor monies separately.

Membership

See above

Meeting with Marcie, Melissa, Chris, committee members who’d like to join to develop a strategy for the year. Dr. Spry would love for us to do a training for their students. They also have a Student Rehab Association. We are open to other training opportunities. Donna will ask VCA if there is something coming up we could sponsor

Board voted to renew domain registration. Monthly fee $19.99 is currently on Chris’ credit card which she submits for reimbursement. Bob and Chris will look into having the fees taken out of the account via debit. This needs to be addressed, especially when the presidency changes.

Constitution and By-Laws

Not as bad as we thought. Progress being made- 2/3 has been reviewed and suggestions are being developed. Memberships-associated members no longer exist, some of the language will be adjusted, student membership- mirror NRA classifications (as other states), elections-no regional reps/ will be selected not elected, left 4 officers, took out terms of office for regional and students, deleting honorary president, duties of officers- “cause” changed to “arrange”, redefine committees, put in treasurer will submit an annual budget. Board of Directors and voting being discussed. One more meeting will be held and changes should be completed on Wed Sept 2nd at 2:00pm.

Consult with Georgia- great legislative committee.

Mid-Atlantic Region
Susan G approved as new rep. June 16 conference call. Seeking current membership lists from NRA. They hope to get names of members who did not renew. Dues for 2009 are due. Elections- done. Regional training event in WVA- conflict with time selected. Next meeting at Annual Conference, teleconference likely. Nov 17 2009 at 2:00.

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