The Great Lakes Vine

The Illinois ADA Project's Conference, Making the ADA WORK for Business, was held on September 12, 2005 and was highly successful. The conference was a collaborative effort between public and private organizations. There were 51 attendees at the Conference: 12 from private corporations, 26 from private non–profit organizations, and 5 from government agencies. The attendees rated the Conference as "Excellent" (96%) or "Good" (4%).

The Steering Committee will next meet in December to discuss plans for the upcoming year and ways to improve our outreach efforts into the future. For more information about the Committee meeting please contact Alan Goldstein at 312–895–7318 or via email to alan@equipforequality.org

The Michigan ADA Steering Committee is the Theme Partner for the 2005 Michigan Rehabilitation Conference. The Conference will be held November 8–10 at the Amway Grand Plaza hotel and at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, MI. The theme of this year's conference is Business and Rehabilitation, the Essential Partnership. The three–day conference will feature more than 90 educational sessions, 70 vendors and a Micro–enterprise Showcase. For more information or to register for the conference, go to http://www.maro.org/mrc.html

ADA MINNESOTA ANNOUNCES NEW WEBSITE

Please visit ADA Minnesota's new website at www.adaminnesota.org. We are excited to share this site with people with disabilities, large and small businesses, government entities, colleges and universities and more. If you would like us to link your website to this site, please contact Cindy Tarshish, at: cindyt@mcil–mn.org.

At its Annual Meeting, ADA–OHIO installed new officers for the Board of Trustees.

• Leslie Paull, Chair, is a policy analyst for the Ohio Developmental Disability Council
• Sheila Adair, Secretary, is Director of EEO for Navistar International
• Bernie Pontones, Treasurer, is a state director for the Ohio Vietnam Veterans Association.

The Board of Trustees establishes policy for ADA–OHIO and oversees the activities of the Executive Director.

Other additions were Keith McNeil and Fazeel Khan who joined the Professional Advisory Board. Mr. McNeil is Regional Attorney and Associate Director for Ohio Civil Rights and Fazeel Khan is an attorney for Blaugrund, Herbert & Martin, Inc. The Professional Advisory Board is composed of individuals representing various organizations which have an interest in disability issues. Its members advise the Executive Director and Board of Trustees on various issues and projects of importance to the agency.

Also at the meeting, ADA–OHIO said goodbye to its liaison from Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission (RSC), David Cameron. Mr. Cameron retired from RSC after 37 years of service. A new liaison will be appointed at a later date.

This November the ADA Wisconsin Partnership will be publishing the first of edition of our new quarterly statewide electronic newsletter, "Partnership LINK." The "Partnership LINK" will promote issues of access and disability and is intended to be a forum for our partners across Wisconsin working in the disability industry. Understanding that there are model service programs, important events, best practices and helpful publications that could be shared by variety of stakeholders, we hope the "LINK" will become utilized to share helpful resources and current news items with partners across the state. Watch for the "LINK", coming next month.

We are also pleased to announce another new Wisconsin publication, Hiring and Supporting Employees with Disabilities, a booklet recently produced by the ADA Wisconsin Partnership in cooperation with the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, please call Tammy Liddicoat at 608–244–5310. Visit the ADA Wisconsin Partnership website for updates on projects and events, http://www.adawipartnership.org/.