SayWhatClub 2007 Conference

Regular readers know that I'm a big fan of several hearing loss organizations, and especially of their national conferences, and that I attend them as often as I can. One organization that deserves special mention is the SayWhatClub (SWC), because it offers something approaching 24/7 access to others with hearing loss. The organization has been around since about 1997 and has profoundly affected the lives of lots of folks with hearing loss.

Char and I had not been to a SWC con since the one in San Diego in 2000, and we were thinking about attending the 2007 conference in Las Vegas. When the SWC folks contacted me and asked me to be their keynote speaker, that sealed it! We decided to attend, and I want to report that it was a WONDERFUL conference!

Our coverage continues below, including articles on most of the workshops and the text of my keynote presentation. But be sure to also check out the coverage on the SayWhatClub website.

Being smaller than the HLAA and ALDA conferences, the SWC con has a much more intimate feeling. Many attendees already know many others because of ongoing discussions on the SWC email lists. But even those of us who haven't been on the lists for several years are warmly welcomed, and very quickly know most of the attendees and are included in the festivities!

The 2007 con opened on Wednesday evening with a welcome party that included hor deurves and drinks. Don Dippner entertained everyone with a captivating magic show, and everyone renewed old friendships and made new ones! It was a magical evening.

The conference was structured with workshops only in the morning, so that people had free time to explore the wonders of Las Vegas. There were lots of informally organized activities for those who wanted some additional structure, and others set out on their adventures with no real plans other than to have a good time!

The first workshop on Thursday morning was an ASL class presented by Brenda Dawe, who is a certified interpreter. Brenda's approach to teaching her convention class is unique in my experience, and by far the most effective introduction to ASL I've ever seen. Rather than just teaching commonly used signs and phrases, Brenda spends much of the class time introducing ASL as a language. She talks about the grammar and the structure of the language, about classifiers and how they allow one to convey a lot of information in very time, and about the importance of appropriate facial expression. Many students commented on how they have a much better understanding of what ASL is following Brenda's class.

The second Thursday workshop was a panel discussion with deaf/hearing couples. It was moderated by Brenda Dawe and explored a variety of aspects of relationships involving deaf and hearing people. Here's our report on that workshop.

Linda Binn and Pearl Feder kicked off the Friday workshop with their entertaining and informative presentation on Advocacy. Here's that report.

The second workshop on Friday was a cochlear implant workshop presented by Tina Childress of Advanced Bionics and Curtis Humphries of Cochlear Corporation. Read all about it here.

Saturday morning was the SWC Town Hall meeting, at which we discussed the state of the organization and people has an opportunity to provide feedback to the board on any topic they chose.

On Saturday evening we had a wonderful banquet with exceptionally an exceptionally good dinner. Being a chocoholic I especially enjoyed the rich, gooey chocolate cake we had for dessert. Most people couldn't finish theirs, and I would have normally made a valiant effort to help them out. But I didn't think trying to give the keynote address with a stomachache was a very good idea, so I refrained from eating more than one piece. Here's my keynote address.

So the convention is finished for this year. Post convention chatter on the convention email list continues, with folks rehashing what a great time they had.

Let me again urge anyone who's looking for a social and educational hearing loss connection to check out the SayWhatClub website