Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

November/December, 1999

President's Message

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH – COLORADO! What a wonderful and exciting way to begin a new NADE year! My only regret is that not every NADE member was able to be in Denver for the final conference of this millennium. CADE was able to provide attendees with an extremely professional agenda that included excellent, informative speakers and lots of exceptional entertainment. And, what a demonstration of teamwork – Delegates attending the Awards Luncheon were entertained by staff members of the Colorado DDS, the Denver Regional Office, and the Office of Hearings and Appeals! I’d like to again extend my appreciation to CADE members for their hard work and to the Colorado DDS Director, Mr. Bill Starks, for the support he has demonstrated for our association and his CADE Chapter. Also, thanks to the person or group that arranged the snow for me before I left on Saturday!

I would like to offer my congratulations to long time NADE Member Sue Heflin on her election as NADE President-elect. Also, congratulations to Dean Crawford on his re-election as Chairperson of the Council of Chapter Presidents. I have known Sue and Dean for a long time and look forward to continuing to work with them both.

Under the leadership of Past President Jeff Price, NADE has just completed a very successful year. Jeff strove to have the NADE officers become more visible to the membership as well as representing you in Washington and Baltimore. I will continue these same efforts over the next year.

Over the next several months, various committee chairs will be preparing informational articles for the Advocate designed to answer your questions of who, what, when, where, and how to. We want all members to be knowledgeable about the purposes of our organizational structure and how each part functions. I urge you to contact committee members for answers and to communicate your needs as we strive to provide the necessary tools we will all need to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Please take a few minutes to look over the roster of the 1999-2000 Board Members and Committees. We want to hear from you! Our membership possesses more knowledge about the Disability Programs than any other group could ever dream of possessing. To successfully utilize this knowledge, we must continue to communicate with each other. In order for NADE to remain the respected resource of program knowledge that it is today, we need your involvement in devising solutions to the problems and challenges that we are faced with.

My challenge to you is to:

Be involved – as we work to reach out to the membership, keep it informed, and provide it with the tools needed to be disability experts.

Be involved – as we strive to work with SSA and provide informed opinions.

Be involved – as we monitor legislative activities and provide expert testimony.

Be involved – as we monitor implementation of the new disability process and offer knowledgeable alternatives.

Be vocal and be involved.

- Terri