HLAA is proud of and grateful to the hundreds of members who have developed an extensive network of our organizations. HLAA national is initiating Spotlight to foster teamwork. Spotlight is an opportunity to share successes and unite us in our common mission.
Every few weeks several chapters will be spotlighted to share a success story that has helped them grow. These stories are to encourage chapters to try something new.
When selected, leaders will be emailed a brief online form with space to write something that has worked well for that chapter. (Stories should not be longer than 500 words and may be edited for space and other considerations.)
Roughly every two weeks, the webmaster will post new entries here on the Spotlight page and will also be announced in other HLAA media.
Questions may be directed to spotlight@hearingloss.org.
Chapter Branding
In order to get the word out to the community about our Virginia Beach Chapter we have tried to "brand" our logo as we participate in various events. At a recent bowling fundraiser all members had a T-Shirt with HLAA Virginia Beach. I have ordered golf shirts and long sleeve shirts where the members can purchase a shirt at cost for their own use. This sometimes helps while traveling to ensure appropriate accommodation and assistance particularly at airports. As a reward to the chapter, I have given all HLAA registered members a baseball cap with our chapter logo on the front. We want everyone to know who we are.
Submitted by:
HLA Virginia Beach Chapter
Virginia Beach, VA
Don Doherty, dondoherty@mchsi.com
Website: www.hlaavirginiabeach.com
Progressing with Pride
Our Denver Chapter is doing well. We are fortunate to be afforded excellent free meeting space at the Englewood Public Library on the 4th Saturday of most months. We have been able to have highly qualified meeting speakers on various topics of interest. The topics are selected through a member interest survey about programs of greatest interest. The chapter has two social events a year, a picnic in August and a holiday party in December at a member's clubhouse. Both events are well attended.
Bernie Steinberg is not only our Vice President, but more importantly, serves with distinction as Advocacy Chair for the chapter. In that capacity he has been appointed as representative for people with hearing loss to the Community Relations Council for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He is a representative in the community for persons with disabilities. He provides invaluable input to respective theater and concert venues on enhancements needed to the assistive listening systems in place. Bernie also recently attended the national HLAA seminar on ALD’s, following which he gave a very informative presentation to the chapter on information gained from the seminar.
Submitted by:
HLA Denver Chapter
Denver, CO
Dave Conant, Dconant2279@msm
Leadership Training of Members
Many people with hearing loss are shy and lack experience leading a meeting or calling on community organizations for speakers. Each HLA Pittsburgh board member is requested to be responsible for one monthly meeting each year. They have to decide on a topic or program, contact a speaker, follow up and ensure equipment is obtained, do the introduction, and send a thank you note. Other members and officers provide assistance. Each year the members become more confident and it means there are more people able to continue the Chapter.
Submitted by:
HLA Pittsburgh Chapter
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Teresa Nellans, Nellanst@aol.com
Perseverance
This year has been a year of devastating loss for the St. Louis Chapter as several of our members have died, but we have persevered. We successfully completed our fourth walk, kept our Chapter going by having interesting programs, recruited new members through the new cochlear support group in the St. Louis area, actively looked for a public venue to install a loop system, and inspired by our program on looping, we had a Chapter member go to her church and convince them to install the first loop system in a church in the area. It has been a successful year because we have a dedicated group of members who believe in our organization and want to see it continue to grow and thrive. There is no special formula except the dedication of the Hearing Loss Association of Greater St. Louis members.
Submitted by:
HLA Greater St. Louis Chapter
St. Louis, Missouri
Mary Stodden, MaryStodden@att.net
Growing Our Chapter
Growing our chapters is something we all want to do. Reinventing the wheel is something we don‘t have to do. Here are some things that have worked well for us in the New York City Manhattan Chapter. The very first on the list is an idea shared years ago by Sue Miller, founder of the Rochester (NY) Chapter. We would love to hear what has worked for you.
Treat newcomers as you would party guests in your home. Welcome them at the door, introduce them to someone else, and give a little hint of something to start the conversation going before walking off to greet another. Make sure they know where the refreshment table is. Say goodbye when they leave. We have found that we need to systematize this because we are so pleased to see our pals once a month that we too easily forget to be as welcoming as we might.
Give people something to do. Even if it is only something small – setting up chairs, putting chips in a bowl, handing out agendas. We don’t like to feel that we have walked into a closed group and we all love to feel that we are contributing. As people become more committed, they will want to take on more complex jobs.
Make your meetings accessible. Proceeds from the walk allowed us to loop our meeting space and hire a captionist for our meetings. This has been a huge boon to our membership. We have many people who joined once we had CART, including some of our most important leaders. If you don’t have a walk in your area to fund CART, do everything possible to raise the money.
Listen for ideas and enthusiasms and pick up on them. We have lots of things going on in the Manhattan Chapter and they all started because someone was passionate about doing them. Did we start them all at once? No we didn’t. They have evolved gradually as our membership and chapter participation have grown.
Be flexible. We don’t have to do things the way they have always been done. If you are having trouble getting one person to do a job, asking two to pair up often works. We carried this idea into the governance of the chapter, forming a Planning Committee (PC). This structure arose ten or more years ago because the chapter was unable to find new people willing to be president and vice president. The committee meets once a month, two weeks before our general meeting. For a while, even the planning committee meeting chair rotated monthly among the members. More recently, we have had one person who has functioned as chair of the PC and as chapter leader. Most significant, members who have joined the chapter within the last five years make up half the PC.
And most important, enjoy. Your enthusiasm is contagious. People will want to stick with you.
Submitted by:
HLA Manhattan Chapter
New York City
Anne Pope, atpop24@aol.com
Website: hearingloss-nyc.org
Perseverance + Loyalty = 30 Years of Self Help
Thirty years ago an audiologist with a vision started a self-help chapter at Albany Medical Center. Over the years a loyal core of members developed and is still active to this day. In May we are holding our 30th Anniversary party! It’s been an awesome ride with many ups and downs along the way.
In addition to the core of members and the members who have come and gone over the years, HLA Albany owes its success to being able to put its finger on the pulse of the people with hearing loss and anticipate their needs.
We've held programs on hearing aids and assistive devices, college and career programs featuring successful persons with hearing loss, and more recently, held a very successful program on the Loop Initiative. A special program on Emergency Services for persons with hearing loss presented by local emergency personnel was very well-attended. We also offered a well-attended program on advocating for students with hearing loss that included presentations by a lawyer, a PEPNet (Postsecondary Education Programs Network, a system of programs that link young people to work and education promoting a successful transition to adulthood) representative and a social worker who showed ways to navigate the educational path including IEPs (Individual Education Programs) and advocating for yourself.
Part of our success is due to coordinating our programs with the local ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) organization and Hands and Voices – the local group for parents of children with hearing loss – to provide programs of interest to professionals and the public and to reach more persons with hearing loss.
We have participated in health fairs and handed out brochures and answered questions. Some of our members go to senior centers and libraries to talk about coping with hearing loss.
We are working on offering scholarships to college-bound and summer camp-bound students.
We have a website, brochure and business cards, and we also publish the Hear News newsletter ten months out of the year to a membership of around 100, plus complimentary copies to senior centers and libraries. We also participate in the Walk4Hearing.
We host a summer picnic and a December holiday party where we provide a signing Santa and gifts for the children.
We couldn't have done or continue to do all this without the loyal, unpaid, closely-knit group of volunteers who have joined our chapter throughout the years. They have weathered the highs and lows, attended the business meetings, made the plans, hosted the meetings and handed out brochures. Loyal volunteers and outreach efforts do everything for a chapter.
Submitted by:
HLA Albany Chapter
Albany, New York
Patricia Mirza, hearhlaa@yahoo.com
Website: www.hearingloss-albany.org
Lions Lighthouse to the Rescue!
The HLA Atlanta Buckhead Chapter meets in the Cathedral Towers, a HUD senior citizen housing on the grounds of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip. The HLAA attendees living here are low income to qualify for HUD housing. That doesn't dampen their thirst for information on coping with their hearing loss!
We invited the Lions Lighthouse Foundation (LLF) to address this group. Many associate the Lions Clubs with providing eyeglasses to needy folks; however, 10% of its budget is designated for hearing aids!
The LLF representative explained the application process (they require a current hearing test and proof of income) and happily answered individual questions/concerns.
This program proved to be very beneficial for our attendees! One member was fitted with two brand new digital hearing aids for $120!
An exciting outgrowth of these presentations was a meeting set up specifically for the Russian residents of the Cathedral Towers, translator included. Hearing loss knows no language barriers.
Invite the Lions Lighthouse Foundation to one of your chapter meetings. Support them and they'll support you as well!
Submitted by:
HLA Atlanta Buckhead Chapter
Atlanta, Georgia
Jeff Bonnell, cjbnatl@gmail.com
Website: hearingloss-ga.org
Small in Numbers but Energies Astounding
The Frederick County Chapter membership is small - 20 members in fact - with 10 to12 in attendance at our monthly meetings that consist of coffee time, a special program and a business session. We meet at a Retirement Village and have attracted three residents to join us. This year we participated in four area Health Fairs all of which we know touched some lives. We made brochures for our Chapter, obtained materials from HLAA, purchased pens to giveaway as well as greeted everyone who passed by our table which was attractively decorated with flowers and “take one" brochures. Many left with new info about hearing loss.
We felt that where we planted a seed, time will let is sprout. We are in hopes that this effort will be of some assurance to those with hearing loss that we are in the area to be of assistance. Just waiting for the sprouts to start growing!
Submitted by:
Frederick County Chapter
Frederick, Maryland
Mary Frances Gosnell, hearinglossfred@gmail.com
Hear, There, Everywhere!
The Gainesville Chapter gets involved in many avenues of hearing loss and awareness.
The Chapter participates with the University of Florida once a week to teach the Learning to Live with Hearing Loss class. It is free, accessible and fun! Participants often keep in touch by email to ask for more info or to say hello. The Chapter also helps host the Signing Santa for a local elementary school (along with the Pilot Club).
A cruise in December was geared towards accessibility and understanding via CART. Many other passengers from around the country took notice of the words and it was announced in the last show by the cruise director who tested it as he spoke! Networking with various Loop businesses is an ongoing project. Busy...hear, there...everywhere!
Submitted by:
HLA Gainesville Chapter
Gainesville/Florida
Lynn Rousseau, HLAFlorida@aol.com
New Strategies Lead to Rewards
The Montgomery County, Maryland, Chapter is based in a metropolitan area where people are busy. For years we met on weeknight evenings and despite excellent programs, our membership was static. New people would come but not come back. Much of this was probably attributable to workers having long commutes, getting home late and older people who do not like, or are unable, to drive at night.
The chapter operates with a steering committee of six to eight members. This works very well for us. Everyone takes on some task so no one person has more to do than they can easily handle. About a year ago the committee agreed to try Saturday morning meetings to see if – by chance – it would make a difference in attendance. The result surprised all of us because now so many people attend that we almost run out of chairs.
We are all reenergized because success prevents burnout! We even have people who are volunteering to join the steering committee and others offering to help in other ways. In sum, trying new strategies can have rewards.
Submitted by:
Montgomery County Maryland Chapter
Bethesda, Maryland
Hollace Goodman, Steering Committee Member, hgoodman@aol.com
Website: hla-mc.org
Friendship Chapter: Where Lifelong Friendships are Created by
People with Hearing Loss, their Spouses, Family and Friends
We are in our 27th year of continuous meetings which have created long time friends. We provide CART and ALD's. We have a Tour Guide System with individual headsets for use when trips to various places are not hearing accessible.
We have name tags for all and always have a display table with brochures, literature, and various information for handouts. We end our meetings with social time when members can become better acquainted.
Speakers are invited to keep us up to date on the latest hearing loss technology as well as speakers on other health related issues which many have. Hearing loss does not mean we are not susceptible to diabetes, heart disease, vision, safety issues, etc.
Community involvement and creative awareness is a goal we seek with presentations, health fairs, town hall meetings, working with other disability groups as well as our volunteer efforts at conferences and conventions to provide resources necessary for living life with hearing loss.
For various reasons, many are unable to attend our meetings, but they rely on our monthly newsletter to keep up with the activities of our chapter and National HLAA. Our members enjoy the updates on activities locally and the personal touch in our newsletters of member's news, birthdays/anniversaries, and various family events. The newsletter goes out by postal mail or electronic mail, to all members, state chapters, agencies and medical professionals.
Our Hospital Kits Project has been on-going for the past 10+ years and we've filled orders for about 2000 hospital kits since the beginning. The kits are sent to locations around the world. Many health professionals, hospitals and clinics have used the kits and copied them for their use.
Over the years we have been blessed with wonderful acceptance from the community. We are looking forward to the future to continue to be here for all who face the challenges of living successfully with their hearing loss.
Submitted by:
Hearing Loss Association of San Antonio
San Antonio, TX
Barbara Hunter, bobatex@aol.com
HLA-GR: "A Safe Place"
The Hearing Loss Association of Greater Richmond is a small but very active chapter located in Richmond, Virginia. We have approximately 25 dues paying members. However, our chapter is very fortunate to have the support, financial and otherwise, of many audiologists in the Greater Richmond area, as well as the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VDDHH), and a number of assistive technology vendors. As a result of these associations, we are able to make our meetings as hearing friendly as possible for our members and guests. We meet 10 times a year either at an area church or VDDHH. Our lending library is small, but stocked with excellent books, videos, and DVDs. We have a varied collection of assistive devices that can be borrowed by our members for their personal or professional use.
We have a variety of speakers and activities throughout the year. We participate in assistive technology evaluation programs, hearing screenings, and health fairs. Group social events include apple picking in the fall, hard of hearing and deaf bowling tournaments, and pot-luck luncheons. We frequently "adjourn" our meetings to a little family owned pizzeria close to our meeting location. When our finances permit, we participate in the HLAA Walk4Hearing and attend HLAA conventions, as well as conferences and seminars across the state.
Our members and guests frequently say that our chapter is a safe place to come and share experiences and ask questions. That is part of the attraction of our chapter. We make every effort to put everyone at ease and let them know they are always welcome. We are a casual group, as well as very chatty...qualities that lend themselves to an easy, friendly atmosphere.
We are a close-knit group that loves to open its arms to new people and their experiences, advice, and questions. HLA-GR is truly a safe place for the hard of hearing, deaf, and deaf-blind communities in the Greater Richmond area...a place where they quickly learn that they "are not alone."
Submitted by:
Hearing Loss Association of Greater Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Linda T. Wallace, GRHearingLoss@comcast.net
The Chicken or the Egg: How to Grow a Chapter when Volunteer Resources Are Limited
The topic of our recent board meeting was how to streamline our current behind-the-scenes work while gaining more members. We have six board members and an average of 25 people attending our meetings. Our board members have all the work they can handle; so we need more volunteers to do more outreach and increase our membership and gain more volunteers. We know that PR work is our most important focus, but no one can do more.
The first thing we decided was to streamline some of our current work. Our resource table needed to be pared down so it's manageable but still informational. It takes too much time to set up and take down, time that could be spent talking with new attendees and making them feel like they're part of the group.
Our flyer announcing our next meeting topic needed to be reformatted to reach more people and take less time to create. We feel it's important to not only describe the next meeting topic but to provide topic information for the following month, so we were writing full descriptions using Arial 12 pt font. When we posted the flyers on bulletin boards, the 12 pt font wasn't always readable; the page was crowded and had way too much verbiage. People weren't attracted to it. Now we use a 14 pt font which leaves less space for lengthy descriptions so it's easier to write. The announcement is much easier to read, especially on a bulletin board and consequently much more inviting. We create just a tickler for the following month's meeting. Overall, more people will read our announcements; we'll spend less time creating them and hopefully our attendance will increase.
We're looking for a bulk email server so it will be easier for us to send large group emails. We want to be able to send out informative articles throughout the month as well as our monthly flyer. Putting our chapter information in front of people on a regular basis will hopefully increase attendance at our meetings and lead to more involved volunteers.
We're creating a website to increase our online presence. It will be simple but informational. We're creating business cards for our board members so they can recruit people individually. We're beefing up our existing Facebook page to get more people involved on a social level.
Overall, we're hoping that these changes will help re-energize the board members by making their involvement less time consuming. Even more so, we're hoping that our membership will increase and, consequently our number of volunteers and our ability to perform outreach. We're hoping to create a self-feeding circle. Wish us luck!
Submitted by:
HLA-Madison Chapter
Madison WI
Lisa Zovar, lzovar@charter.net
Reach Like the Fountain
I would like to share some of the things that we do in the Fountain Hills Chapter that have led to over six years of outreach to the hearing loss community. It's important to recognize the two ladies who served as co-leaders for the first few years of this group, Rosemary Tuite and Barbara Daly. They began some traditions that remain to this day.
Presently we have an excellent board comprised of a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, hospitality chair, and records chair. Our board meets twice yearly with new business conducted via e-mail when necessary.
Our members and friends/guests are alerted to our monthly meetings (September-May) through a flyer sent by e-mail or snail mail (printing is generously provided by a member), followed by another friendly reminder a few days before the meeting. Meeting information is also published in the local newspaper.
Local members have permanent nametags to wear during the meetings. People take turns providing refreshments during the social time. It's important for all to feel a sense of ownership for the group, as well as a personal connection.
The Fountain Hills Community Center has generously provided us with a looped meeting room and AV equipment. Jennifer Schuck is our devoted CART provider who has shared her time and talents since the chapter's beginnings. We also have headsets available, so accessibility is truly guaranteed.
Our programs vary. We have a full member discussion agenda at least one month each year and always leave time for questions and concerns at the end of meetings. Our group loves to share stories and offer help and support to others. We sometimes pose a question related to individual experiences with hearing loss and members respond in writing. Comments are shared at a later date.
Our speakers have been generous with their time and truly inspiring. We welcome presenters from the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, communication in medical settings, theater/movie accessibility, our rights under the ADA, Deaf culture, ASL, professors from the speech and hearing department at Arizona State University, choosing a hearing healthcare provider and a hearing aid, balance issues, audiological mission trip to Africa, opportunities to participate in hearing research, audiologists, ENT/Oto-Neurology doctors, hearing dog trainers, psychologists for people with hearing loss, representatives from captioned telephone companies, and the local fire department chief. Several years ago we were fortunate to have Brenda Battat address our group.
We try to keep our members up to date on various hearing loss issues and activities. We talk about national HLAA and encourage participation in the annual conventions. We announce local opportunities relating to living with hearing loss, and welcome occasional presentations by our local members with expertise on a certain topic. There is always a table full of brochures, Hearing Magazines, etc. Most are ordered from national HLAA. We love to have visitors and guests and ask them to introduce themselves. Although we encourage local and national membership, all are always welcome.
Currently we are collecting old hearing aids which will be donated to the speech and hearing department of Arizona State University. These will be refurbished and taken to Malawi, South Africa for distribution next summer.
There are six HLA chapters in the state of Arizona, coordinated by Ginny Clarke-Wright. Our goal is always outreach. The fountain in the center of town could be a metaphor for our goal as it reaches to the sky. We are continually looking for ways to reach people with hearing loss. Our message is meet, greet, eat, connect, learn, and share. With over 700,000 in the hearing loss community in our state, we will be busy for a long time!
Submitted by:
HLA-Arizona/Fountain Hills Chapter
Fountain Hills, Arizona
Liz Booth, halib72@gmail.com
Focus on Community Events
Our chapter had a change of officers a few months ago, so we are just beginning our terms. But one thing we've done a lot of in the past few months is take part in and/or visit community events, especially those focused on aiding the handicapped in some way - like providing information about assistive listening devices for people with hearing loss.
Our Chapter Vice President Vickie Pacheco and I met with people who work in this field and we have given them information and literature about our chapter. We are finding that they are telling people who come to them for help about our chapter. At last month's meeting, we had three new people attend after hearing about us from three different people or agencies. They contacted us and we were happy to provide more information and pleased to see them at our meeting. We plan to continue this outreach, spreading the word to more people who may benefit just as our current members have. We have also visited local audiologists, leaving packets of information about our chapter.
Submitted by:
HLA-Colorado Springs Chapter
Colorado Springs, CO
Pauline Weiss, hlaacosprings@gmail.com
Wayne/Holmes County Chapter to Offer Hearing Health Support
We are in the process of creating an application form to help someone with the costs of either a hearing test or hearing aid. We are hoping to distribute these applications to various hearing health centers in the Wayne/Holmes county areas. Our hope is to make the public somewhat aware that our organization exists for support.
Submitted by:
HLA of Wayne/Holmes County Chapter
Wooster, OH
Margaret Latta, malatta@sssnet.com
Lives Touching Lives
The Brevard Chapter is the result of a dream that Rosemary Tuite and I had of bringing Hearing Loss Association to our area of North Carolina. We announced a planning meeting in March of this year and were a bit dismayed when only two people came. The good news was that one of those two people was an HLAA member who agreed to be the 4th individual we needed to start a chapter. The other of those two people was a CART reporter who offered her services to us at no cost. We were delighted that we were able to proceed with the paperwork to become a chapter.
Our first official meeting was in April. Attendance has been good thanks to the coverage we've gotten in two local newspapers (we're working on a third) and flyers we've posted. Programs we've had so far include presentations from an audiologist from Western Carolina University, CaptionCall and Sprint CapTel of NC. We also devoted a program to Communication Strategies, and another meeting focused on hearing loss from the perspective of our hearing family members.
We strive to have a portion of every meeting be interactive so everyone has an opportunity to be involved. It's been so rewarding to witness enthusiasm and tears as people express their gratitude at finding others who relate to their struggles. One member was so impressed that he applied to his former employer, IBM, for a $500 Community Service grant to support the efforts of the Brevard Chapter. The grant was approved!
In January of 2013 we plan to start a monthly "5 Minute Focus" where we'll invite one member to share his or her story during the meeting. Future speakers include a presenter on loops, HLA-NC President Julie Bishop, a speaker from Cochlear Americas and another from MedEl.
Yes, this chapter has been a lot of work and time consuming, but we are having SO much fun!
Submitted by:
HLA - Brevard Chapter
Brevard, NC
Kathy Borzell, kborzell@gmail.com