Reports

March 1999 Office Report

NEADS Elects a New Executive and Continues Student Leadership Forums

The National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) held a meeting of its Board of Directors in Ottawa on March 13th and 14th. During the weekend, Board members selected our Executive Directors. Members of the Executive are: Joby Fleming, President (Newfoundland Rep.); Jennison Asuncion, Vice President Internal (Open Rep.); Chris Rebus, Vice-President External (Alberta Rep.); and Mary Anne Duchesne, Secretary/Treasurer (Territories Rep). Kent Hehr continues to serve on the Board in an advisory capacity as past president. Susan Vida, Quebec Rep., was selected to become the new representative to the Council of Canadians With Disabilities (CCD). NEADS members and its Board offer special thanks to Corinne Gough who has served the Association in this capacity for the past four years. Ayshe Calisal, British Columbia Rep., was appointed as our designate on the HRDC National Advisory Group on Student Financial Assistance.

Our second student leadership forum was held on March 25th at the University of Calgary. By all accounts it was a great success, with 25 students taking part. There was representation from the University of Calgary and Mount Royal College. The forum was organized by Board members Chris Rebus and Kent Hehr and consultant Steve Estey. Rick Goodfellow, Executive Director of the Calgary Independent Living Centre and Barry Lindemann, Community Affairs Consultant for the Canadian Paraplegic Association gave presentations. The Calgary forum was the second of its kind. In November, 40 students attended a similar session in Montreal. That forum was organized with the support of the Quebec Association of Post-Secondary Disabled Students. Look for a report on the Montreal forum in the current NEADS Newsletter.

Thanks to some hard work and initiative shown by Jennison Asuncion and Zachariah Cameron, Laurie Alphonse and the folks at York University, NEADS now has a listserv. NEADS-L will allow those who have an active e-mail account to network with other students nationwide. To join the listserv, send an e-mail message to listserv@yorku.ca and write "subscribe neads-l" in the message body. Please spread the word to students in your province and join us on-line!

The Association is about to launch the third year of its Mentorship program, which is a partnership with the Employer Advisory Council to NEADS (EAC). Application forms for interested students are now available from the office. A new publication, The Organizations of Students With Disabilities Guidebook: Leadership in Our Community, has just been released. Copies are available from the office -- free of charge -- to those who are interested. Contact NEADS at: Rm 426 Unicentre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, tel. (613) 526-8008 (Voice and TTY).




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