Board Member

It is crazy the more things change the more things stay the same. Yesterday I finally boarded the train and went up to Ogden to sit in and see the workings of Roads To Independence or the Ogden independent living center. I visited center to see if I wanted to be on the Board of Directors of that facility. The director of that IL is Andy Currey, a quadriplegic much like myself. He's a big guy, and has weight issues again much like myself. Andy is a nice guy and we had visited many times at various meetings while I was working. I ran into Andy last month or in July at the A D A celebration that UTA. I indicated I needed something to in my retirement and he challenged me and offered me the chance to be a board of director for his independent living center. The only problem I saw at first was the distance involved (could I get to and from this meeting on public transit) and could I even serve since I lived in Salt Lake County and Ogden is in Weber County. But I was intrigued with the idea, and my cards and been called, I had said I wanted to serve and now this was a blatant opportunity to do so. If I did not at least go over and even see if I could make the trip I would lose a lot of credibility.

I must admit, I did not sleep well the day before yesterday because I was excited about taking this trip up to Ogden. So I did suffer through the day pretty groggy but I got by. Bridget was over earlier in the day with Dianne and those two went to Costco for a short period Dianne came back and drop me off at the train station. It took me a few minutes to figure out getting the ticket and I had to have some of the systems to slide my credit card now the machine. But I got a round-trip ticket that I had to wait 38 minutes before the train and finally came and I was off. I was a little disturbed to find that a person in a wheelchair can only ride on one car of the train and that car is the only car on the train that has a public restroom/accessible and the stations where the wheelchair person sits is right in front of the toilet. This really is an issue that will have to be addressed at some point. I mean I don't know what people do if 4 or 5 chairs go to one destination at one time. Actually, the isle between the seats is wide enough to allow a chair to go down, I don't know if the UTA hostess would allow such a maneuver but I think it could be done a load of lot of chairs that way.

I was amazed, I really thought I would have more than enough time to get to the meeting on time. But for one reason or another I was late for the meeting. I waited at the bus stop there in Ogden for at least an hour before the driver finally picked me up. I got to the center about 7 to 10 minutes after 3 o'clock and they almost tried to make it sound like it was my fault. Roads To Independence is a small private nonprofit agency, I forgot about the new independent living centers in Utah, I call these centers rehab centers because of the influence Utah State office of rehabilitation has on these facilities. I see a lightweight version of what I was used to independent living. They are a small board they seem close knit and supportive. They are involved in all the things a board does, they are dutifully doing all the things they think an I L is supposed to do. We went through the agenda and when my name ame up. I gave my reasons for being on the board and they discussed the county issue and voted me on and that was that.

The meeting pretty much adjourned at 5 o'clockand that was because paratransit showed upand three of the board members are enmeshed with paratransit and had to get out there and they knew they would be left. I had to get out of there because I had to catch my train back to Salt Lake-- and then I found the driver who brought me was no longer on the clock I had to get back to the train on my own. This really shocked me. I amaze myself because I found a bus stop across the street and back she made it back to the train up in time to come to Salt Lake. I was late I missed the last bus going south route 201. I ended up calling Dianne who gladly came and picked me up. There's a great deal more to this day I can write and well over time. I kind of wish I had not pressed them to make me a board member. I don't know how much they want me to be involved in really be in a board member. I don't know how much they want me to really be a board member and push the agendas I would have on independent living center.

I am intrigued about the adventure I had yesterday. We have another meeting in a month's time and I feel I should be to that meeting. This could be a very interesting year