Youth Advisory Committee Summary Minutes - November 14, 2006

The meeting was called to order by the National Council on Disability’s Designated Federal Official (DFO) for the Youth Advisory Committee, Dr. Gerrie Hawkins. Next in the order of preliminary activities were the Welcome, Roll Call, acknowledgement of the presence of General Counsel / Director of Policy, Jeff Rosen, contractor, Betsy Valnes,  and former NCD officer, Melinda Pelikan.  After a review of the agenda, the DFO transferred leadership to the YAC Chair, Stephanie Orlando.

Procedural Summary:  YAC Members revealed a broad range of interests during an opportunity for brief self-introductions at this first meeting of the fiscal year.  The YAC Executive team composed of the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary; Outreach/ Networking and Policy Workgroup leaders have transitioned the new YAC members into YAC procedural work as follows:  Ari Ne’eman (NJ) and Carly Fahey (FL) for policy, and Amy Doherty (CT) and Daman Wandke for Outreach/Networking procedures. By-laws actions included setting two dates/timelines as follows:  (1) YAC executive team draft submitted to YAC by November 22, 2007 and (2) YAC member edits due by November 29, 2007.  The YAC input will be sent to the YAC by the Executive team per the above schedule.  Other procedural Item updates included helping workgroups obtain clarification about the nature of YAC’s advisory role and application of the four advisory committee generic goals shared by the DFO; under Michael Murray’s leadership reporting the outreach/networking procedural workgroup adoption of the generic model in its plan for the fiscal year; and seeking more general YAC interaction with and feedback from council members to the YAC.  

Policy Summary: Andrew Phillips, the policy workgroup leader reported that the primary focus of work for this group involved plans and processes for moving closer toward completion of the draft paper on benefits planning. He projected that another final draft would be sent to the YAC executive team after the procedural call on January 24, 2007. The paper that will include recommendations from the YAC to NCD has a proposed title: “A Perspective from Youth with Disabilities on Benefits in a World of Employment.” All research and original drafts for this paper were produced by YAC members who are responsible for the content. Once the within group edits are addressed, the document will go to the Executive team and then full committee for feedback. Project update activity for this meeting included making a proposal that after NCD staff has given its approval, the final edited draft will be provided to our NCD Council Liaison who can then present our paper with the recommendations to NCD. The proposal passed.

Announcements/Comments: 

Reagan Lynch reported high interest and dissemination of YAC self-determination and empowerment materials as part of a presentation he conducted in Texas.

Melinda Pelikan was selected through vote as a new YAC Mentor

The DFO pronounced the meeting adjournment.