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July 2014 Summer Celebration

We are happy to share with you what happened at the July meeting. We called it our Summer Celebration and we welcomed many guests, donors, Quotarians, and spouses.

Robin and Emily took a few pictures; you can see those below.

One other thing we would like to share are our meeting minutes. You can now find them on the blog. They used to be posted but somewhere along the way we stopped. There is no good reason, but we are happy to announce that you can read them once again in case you missed them. The June meeting minutes are available by clicking here. You can also search for approved minutes (unapproved minutes will not be available, only the approved minutes which means it will be a month behind) over to the right hand side of your main screen.

–> Over there –>

You’ll see “Categories“; look for Minutes. Click on Minutes and you will be taken to the page where you will find, you guessed it, the minutes. They will be in order with the most recent at the top of the page.

(Also, in case you haven’t discovered this, most words in bold are links you can click on. You are taken to the website page which is being discussed. If a word is in italic, you can try to click on it, but nothing will happen. If you aren’t sure, click on the word. It will either take you to a new page or nothing will happen.)

There’s your blog lesson for the day.

Back to our Summer Celebration. Here are the pictures!

Debbie and guests

Debbie talks to guests from DHHS

Think Hawaiian!

Kath and Bill had the same idea when they picked their outfits for our Summer Celebration!

A Paws Dog

Gwen’s neighbor and her Paws With a Cause dog who is in training for a person with hearing loss

Easton and his mom

Easton and his mom

Kath

Kath presenting Quota history

Gertrude & TheodoreGertrude and Theodore sang a song they wrote (with help from Chris) about Quota

Don’t forget to check the blog in a few days for our August President’s Message from Martha.

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2014 Convention Inspirations

I thought it might be nice for each of the Convention attendees (not all 300, just the three from our club) to share what they brought back. Martha will give an official report (we will post it on here) but here are a few thoughts and insights we each gained:

Convention was awesome with so many Quotarians who are accomplishing tremendous work in the care and support of people around the world. Quota is stepping up to the plate with fabulous new ideas to get us going and growing with modern technology and services. More and more assistance will be given to us to gain and retain our members.

A new initiative is happening in Louisiana regarding emergency notification for the deaf and hard of hearing populations.  It’s called SMART 911.  If someone is in trouble who is deaf, a new service will now accept texting from a phone to call for help.  Police, fire, rescue personnel and medical emergency staff are all involved.  This is a terrific connection.  I’m hoping we can begin to do the same in our state.
 
Another special program called sparked.com assists non-profits in obtaining services, volunteers, and items simply by posting them on this website.  It’s like Volunteers- on-line, only better, where you advertise what you may need in the area for:
Someone to donate ear plugs
Someone to donate space to hold a meeting
Volunteers who will help with starting a garden at the schools
Local businesses who may  donate goods, money, services, etc.
 
Just small things that make our time more effective, more involved in the community, and increased collaboration among those people who want to make a difference.  –Martha J. Herman

There are a wide variety of clubs and activities out there and if we connect with the people we can take away great ideas for our club. -Kim

I love getting to see Quotarians from around the world. I enjoy finding out how they make a difference in their clubs and their communities. It occurred to me that we could be using our Travel Raffle winnings to send to the Hand-to-Hand projects. We don’t designate our funds (many clubs do not), but we might want to consider what programs are going on in the name of Quota.

International President Karen Murphy encourages us to, “Put our Heart into Quota and put Quota in our Heart.”

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News from Convention

This isn’t just hot off the press, it’s happening right now!

Kim, Martha and I (Emily, your friendly blogger) are sitting here in fabulous Cincinnati, Ohio surrounded by over three hundred Quotarians from around the world! The latest numbers on Quotarians are as follows: 5,283 members in 265 clubs in twelve countries. Our incoming President Karen Murphy is hoping to focus on “Gain and Retain”. No, that’s not weight. She means membership.

I encourage you to think about how you can help our Grand Rapids club focus on sharing the name of Quota with more people. When I first started in Quota, I was on our Membership committee. I used to challenge our membership to think about who you know. Who can you tell about Quota? Your hairdresser? Your assistant?

Let me tell you, it pays to talk about Quota. The firemen were meeting here when we first arrived at the hotel. Do you know that in one conversation, our fellow Australian Quotarians talked to several of those firemen. The firemen were so impressed about Quota that they put it on Facebook. They told their friends that if anyone wanted to learn more about Quota to contact Karen. There are twenty people who contacted her to learn more! Why are we keeping it a secret? Start talking about Quota. Ask your neighbor what they like to do. Everyone feels better when they help someone. Ask them if they know someone who is deaf or hard-of-hearing. That is an easy way to start a conversation about Quota. Don’t be shy. Let’s share Quota with everyone!

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New Interpreter Regulations for Michigan

Check out the changes coming to our state regarding hearing policy at health institutes.

Crain’s New Interpreter Regulations

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July 2014 President’s Message

As we begin to connect with the people who help us with our mission on July 24th, I’d like to remind you of some ideas that embrace Quota.

One of the first questions that any new person who joins in with us is ‘Do I belong here?’ One way or another, they must locate themselves in the story of our motto, We Change Lives.  They must experience a genuine emotional connection that says what you do matters to them, personally.  It might be the cause itself, a special project, their relationship with a member, etc. But whatever it is, all of us have a story to tell of a person who was touched by one of our activities.  Carlos, for example, had never roasted a marshmallow over a fire, had never experienced the taste of a s’more and was only one of the handful of young people who found a way to the picnic last year.  He topped his game by wiggling that oreo cookie from his forehead to his mouth in seconds.  I would say those experiences changed his life by giving him confidence, acceptance and applause, something that he rarely ever felt.

What do we at Quota stand for?  From the article about telling stories, we need to express ourselves, our passion, our mission, our special projects to include the people with whom we work.  People invest in organizations that reflect their own personal values and worldview.  They express themselves by donating their time, money and energy.  Now we need to reinforce what we know how to do – further engage, reinforce and brag about what we do with the money we raise.  Only a small group of people really know what impact we have on the community.

Communicating our unique difference is a matter of survival.  It’s time for us to be proud of what we do and act upon the things that matter the most.

Let’s spread the word. Tell a story about how YOU changed someone’s life through the service that we provide, how YOU impacted their future, how you inspired someone.

-Martha

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