Today was AT( assistive technology) Council. An organization I've been part of for probably more than 30 years. The council is made up of agencies and organizations that deal in one form or another of assistive technology and folks with disabilities our programs are agencies that serve folks with disabilities. In the old days I was a representative from the Independent Living Center of course. The council reflected a number of different private nonprofit organizations as well as state and other government agencies. Over the years though the population has dwindled even though the direction has pretty much stayed the same. We meet twice a year for what that's worth. We went from meeting maybe monthly to quarterly now we're at twice a year and we have to struggle to bring in 10 or 20 folks. The best part about the whole function is they provide lunch. Somewhere along the line in this blog I may have outlined by procedures for attending various advisory boards and councils depended on what they serve for lunch. In the old days it was a hot lunch and many times it included meat i e ribs, spaghetti, Stu you know just hot food started going downhill when they got rid of the meat. I never understood why that happened I don't know if it was because so many of them were these health conscious yuppies or it was a cost situation. Probably a little bit of both. Now, as I indicate there's just a few of us that continue to meet. The whole organization is basically hosted by the program down from Utah State University in Logan and they've just hired a new director who is very interesting young person. Anyway we meet and discussed various aspects of what we've been doing the last 6 months are what's new and new in assistive technology. Sometimes we have a presenter but most the times we just eat our lunch go over the high points of the year or half year and get the hell out of Dodge. The new director her name is Bora cuz I said is very interesting and she still totally believes in the system and programs like this. This program is just one of the many things that she has to attend to. The reason I outline this is because I attend these meetings but I'm the only one that's not really affiliated with an organization anymore. Before I was part of either private nonprofit industry are the state of Utah. Now that I'm retired I've just represent myself. I'm an interested consumer with a disability who uses quite a bit of assistive technology. I think Bora likes me but I don't think she knows what to do with me hell, I don't even know what to do with me. I don't know if I'm not supposed to come since I don't represent an organization but I'm still a consumer which I think is vital to this kind of an organization and one that shows up to the meetings- - and eats the sandwiches what more can I do to be involved?
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