Published by admin on 04 Dec 2007
A Message from the NAD President
Hello again, I’m Bobbie Beth Scoggins. I have some exciting news I want to share with you about NAD Across America (NAA); I will be talking about that but I’d like to backtrack a little bit.
In 1880, deaf people created the NAD because they were passionate and over the years, the NAD advocates have made sure this passion has remained as strong as ever.
The purpose of the NAD is to promote the interests of the deaf community, protect the rights of deaf individuals, and preserve American Sign Language. Those three P’s are part of the NAD mission.
We also have two core values we cherish; ASL and diversity. We are a signing community and ASL is the basis upon which our community is founded. Also, we are diverse in terms of our backgrounds, age, color, gender, and so forth. These two core values and our three-part mission is what the NAD is all about today.
Now to the exciting news I want to share with you. Based on these core values and our mission, we created the NAD Across America (NAA) campaign – to build a new recruitment network so that we can expand the membership by an additional five thousand new members by March 2008. And, to retain current and new members, we will share national, state, and local resources by building an online clearinghouse that is accessible to all. We will also create strong network of deaf people through vlogs, blogs, and more. All of that is in order so we can build a stronger and more influential ASL community.
The NAD, with its members and its affiliates are in the process of changing now for the future to reflect the new face of the American deaf community. The key elements of this change process are: 1) diversity – by welcoming attitudes that are respectful of everyone and their contributions, 2) strength –by pooling and sharing online national, state and local resources, and 3) impact – through unified advocacy efforts.
Together, we – this means you, me, the NAD, and the American deaf community – stand strong as advocates. Together, we embrace our community. Together, we commit to equality.
Together, we move forward!
