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May Report Cover Letter

We are writing to you to report back about the May Face-to-Face Meeting held in St. Louis. Over thirty people representing organizations from seventeen different states attended the meeting. We would like to extend our sincere thanks once again to Michelle Bishop, Paraquad, and the Missouri Disability Vote Project for their dedication and hard work in making the event a real success.

During the first day of the meeting, participants discussed the nature of the DVA, the kind of organization that we think this is, and the activities that we expect to work on over the next few years. We developed a temporary framework for making decisions. We decided what types of organizations would be eligible to join. And, we decided to choose a Steering Team and held the first-ever elections. All of this would not have been possible without the excellent facilitation of Arthur Cutler from the National Disability Rights Network, which generously agreed to offer his services to the DVA for the day.

The second day included presentations on absentee voting, phone banking, voter registration, and list enhancement. Additionally, the Steering Team met in the morning and developed several proposals which we presented to all the participants of the meeting later that day. An explanation of these proposals, a report of all the votes that the DVA took, and Steering Team Biographies are included in this packet.

We hope that you will review these materials and participate in the upcoming conference call of the entire DVA membership (tentatively scheduled for Monday July 30th, Wednesday, August 8th, or Monday, August 13th, at 2:00pm EDT). We look forward to working with you to finalize some of the decisions and plans from the meeting and to figure out how we can build the DVA together.

Sincerely,

James deBoer, Jim Dickson, Christina Galindo-Walsh, Ramón García, and Nancy Ward
Disability Vote Alliance Steering Team

Ps The logo at the top of this page says “Disability Vote Alliance: a state and national partnership for disability vote mobilization”. However, at the face-to-face meeting, the DVA voted to include local organizations as well. So, please bear with us until we update the logo and do not be alarmed that the word “local” is not yet included. Thank you for your patience and understanding!