Hello, I’m Simon *gives name sign*, the Project Manager at Deaf Australia. I’m excited to tell you about two ILC funded projects we are doing at Deaf Australia The first one is to distribute Auslan based information resources to the Deaf community. The second one is to develop Auslan toolkits plus research the Deaf community. Really exciting projects, now over to Jen.   

 Hello, I’m Jen Blyth, CEO of Deaf Australia. I’m excited to tell you briefly about two projects we have at present. Why would I be excited about these projects? I feel they are really valuable and worthy projects for Deaf Australia. One project focuses on eLearning so people can develop knowledge about how to advocate for themselves and they can also access information that interests them. We provide webinars on topics of interest. Hearing people listen to podcasts on topics that interests them so Deaf people can watch topics that interest them too in their language (Auslan). The resources are also accessible with captions. I’m also really excited about the other project focusing on advocacy and information so you can use it for yourselves. Who are the people doing these projects? You shall see…  

 Hello, I’m Paula, I work as a resource officer developing the Deaf Ecosystem project. It has three strands: webinars presenting about specific topics; vodcasts where two people are invited to talk about chosen topics; and skill-share where Deaf people with short films of themselves showing a skill they have. If you want to be involved or you have an idea do let me know. I work closely with Shirley who I will now hand you over to… 

 Hello, I’m Shirley, I work in a community and development role. I’m focusing on the eLearning project, which is like an online course, over different topics. They’re designed to encourage you to develop knowledge such as making a stand and advocating for yourself thus making the decision-making processes easier. I am hoping to launch these courses very soon. If you are interested and keen to be involved do let me know. Now I’m going to hand you over to Darlene… 

 Hello, I’m Darlene and I work on the ILC 2 project, to develop toolkits to assist with governments and businesses over how to work with deaf people in Australia who use Auslan. I’m also developing toolkits for deaf people in Australia who use Auslan, to show the best way to advocate, the steps involved, to get what they need. It is an exciting project to focus on for the not-too-distant future. Pretty soon though we’ll need people to get involved in the project. Thank you!             

Hello, I’m Jen Blyth, CEO of Deaf Australia. I have a lot of information to provide to you all, squeezed into a brief update.  

 We have a SGM coming soon. The SGM will be held in March. What will we talk about? First, the road tour update, secondly, giving out the awards and thirdly give our members the opportunity to vote for one of two membership and fee structures that they prefer. We will provide more information soon to give you time to read it through and work out which option you want to choose.  

 We also have an update over our ILC project about which we will explain in a separate video.  

 We have the Auslan Day video competition coming up soon; we will celebrate our beautiful Auslan on 13th April.  

 Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been involved in meeting with all sorts of people for advocacy purposes and organisations as well to advocate to the government on different issues. One recent collaboration was with Deaf Connect last week, with Brent Phillips, (*missing name sign*) and myself, with Vanessa who MC’d the event. It focused on the election campaign with the Federal government and there was a lot of people involved with ideas, suggestions and comments. We also received emails with what people envision we should advocate over to the government for the election. I then had a meeting with Per Capita, a group tasked with the responsibility for researching the information we requested, so they can collate it all together to help us prepare for the campaign. I finished handed over what we had and they’ve not yet got back to us. We should receive it soon. Once we do, we’ll provide an update, the same as Deaf Connect will do with their *missed the sign*. We will provide more information as we go.  

 I think that’s it for now. As usual, if you have any questions, want advocacy support, or whatever else you need, do contact me. If you just want to know something, like what’s happening at present, that’s fine too.  

Don’t forget this Thursday we have a CEO Q & A with me, from 5 – 6 pm. That’s a good opportunity to ask me what’s on your mind or to clarify something. Thank you! Have a good week.